Gutierrez was born in Lima in 1928 and was ordained as a priest when he was 31, after which he published numerous books and articles on theology and social activism.
Peruvian priest and theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez, considered one of the parents of Liberation Theology, died Tuesday in Lima at the age of 96, reported the Province of the Dominicans in Peru, a congregation to which he had since 2001.
“The Dominican Province of San Juan Bautista of Peru regrets to report that today, October 22, 2024, our dear brother P. Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino,” said a statement signed by Rómulo Vásquez, provincial prior of the order.
The message, posted on Facebook, communicated this news “with deep regret” and added that the Peruvian theologian’s wake will be held in the Capitular Hall of the Convent of Santo Domingo, in the historic center of Lima.
Gutierrez was born in Lima in 1928 and was ordained as a priest when he was 31, after which he published numerous books and articles on theology and social activism, which have been translated into several languages.
Throughout his career, he received more than 30 honorary doctorates from universities and institutions around the world.
In 2015, in one of his last interviews in the Vatican, he said that “there was never a condemnation” by the Catholic Church against Liberation Theology, which arose in Latin America after Vatican Council II (1962-1965).
“There has never been a condemnation of Liberation theology. Never. If you’ve said this is not true. There was a dialogue with the congregation (of the Doctrine of the Faith). Very critical dialogue, that is true,” he explained.
During the 1980s there were several documents of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, when Joseph Ratzinger was prefect, who would later be Pope Benedict XVI, in which she was harshly criticized.
The Peruvian theologian then admitted an improvement in “personal relationships and understanding of what liberation theology is and in his criticism” from Francis’ papacy.
On whether he would change some of the theology he proposed, Gutierrez explained that it is like “a letter of love for God, to faith and to the people, that you can write during life in different ways, but always with the same fidelity and love itself.”
With the beginning of Francis’ pontificate, some specialists in Vatican affairs spoke of the “return of Liberation Theology to the Catholic Church” after years of misunderstandings, something that was interpreted from a meeting that the Argentine pope held with Gutiérrez on September 14, 2013.
This article has been translated after first appearing in El Salvador