Remembering Father Gustavo Gutierrez: The Liberator of Liberation Theology
Well, well, well, if it isn’t a headline that invites a good ol’ chat over coffee—preferably one that cuts through the fluff like a hot knife through butter! Father Gustavo Gutierrez, the mastermind behind Teología de la Liberación, has shuffled off this mortal coil at the ripe age of 96. Dim the lights, folks, it’s time to pay our respects to a man whose intellectual prowess could probably outshine a thousand degrees. I mean, the man studied medicine, philosophy, AND psychology? It’s like he couldn’t decide on just one flavor and went for the whole ice cream parlor! Talk about a Renaissance man!
Now, cast your minds back to Nicaragua in the early days of the Sandinista Revolution—ah, yes! The ’80s: mullets, neon leg warmers, and a young priest knee-deep in political controversy. Gutierrez was the kind of guy who would walk into a party and immediately start debating the relevance of Marxism versus anti-imperialism, while the rest of us were just trying to figure out the dance moves to Thriller.
SOBER, DISCREET, HOW STRONG—I mean, those aren’t just adjectives; that’s practically a résumé! He was in the thick of it, rubbing shoulders with bishops and revolutionary leaders, forming a movement that favored the oppressed. It was a real multilateral meeting of the mind, except without the finger sandwiches and awkward small talk we often endure at such gatherings.
Then along comes Pope Wojtyla in 1983, and let’s just say it was a bit Rocky versus Apollo in that Managua showdown. Father Ernesto Cardenal—not exactly your average priest—kneeled before the Pope and almost took the entire world by surprise! It was as if John Paul II walked off the plane and said, “What’s this? A holiness-off?” But, oh dear, the consequences! Wojtyla didn’t just say “No thanks!” to the priests in the revolutionary government; he whipped out the Vatican’s big red stamp of disapproval with a suspension a divinis. You know it’s serious when you start tossing Latin around!
Meanwhile, Ratzinger—the inquisitor himself—decided he’d have a go at Gutierrez’s “risky” theories. I mean, what are you going to do? Show up and hand him a citation? Thankfully, the South American ecclesiastical world had Gutierrez’s back, and he dodged the Vatican like a pro. It was like watching a particularly intense game of dodgeball, but instead of rubber balls, we’re throwing around liberation theology. Ouch!
AFTER ALL, HIS FIRST ESSAY on Liberation Theology dates back to 1971, a brilliant confluence of events that followed the 1968 Episcopal Conference in Medellín. Talk about timing! Woody Allen would have called it existential, but Gutierrez just called it research.
Flash forward to when Wojtyla decided to exorcise the specter of communism from Latin America like it was a pesky housefly. Ironically, his actions opened the hatch for fundamentalist sects to fly right in—like they were on some holy pilgrimage to snatch up all the unsuspecting faithful members! I mean, if you’re going to place bets, why not on the loser’s table with a side of anti-politics?
Even when the Berlin Wall came down, Wojtyla had an epiphany about the money-chasing capitalism gobbling everything up. But alas, it was nothing but table scraps compared to the fancy filet mignon of liberation that Gutierrez was serving up. It’s a bit like finally acknowledging that your “unlimited” data plan is mostly just a myth!
IT WAS NOT ENOUGH that Francis came along, gave a wink, a nod, and a blessed hands-on approach to Romero’s canonization while high-fiving Gutierrez. It was as if they’d form a new band called “The Holy Revivers” and go on tour! But let’s be honest, canonization without a revolution feels a bit like celebrating a cycling win without the Tour de France! The church can only skirt around so much before we need to acknowledge that the real work requires more than just a papal photo op!
So, here’s to Father Gustavo Gutierrez—a man whose discourse on liberation wasn’t simply a footnote in history, but rather the thesis of a relentless struggle. May we all take a page from his book (or at least skim the highlights) and strive for a world that remembers the poorest among us.
And if you’re planning to tackle the deep and complex waters of liberation theology next, just remember: it’s just one part of a much larger, raucous theological party. Bring snacks, invite Gutierrez’s spirit, and may your discussions be as fiery as the issues at stake!
Father Gustavo Gutierrez, Dominican, literal coiner of the Teología de la Liberación, passed away in Lima at the age of 96. A well-rounded intellectual who had studied medicine and philosophy in Peru, and psychology and philosophy in Leuven, Belgium.
SOBER, DISCREET, HOW STRONG and determined, we had met him in Nicaragua at the Antonio Valdivieso Ecumenical Center (named after a bishop killed there in the 16th century by the conquistadors themselves because he defended the natives) in the very first years of the Sandinista Popular Revolution. The latest in modern history: open, plural, inspired by anti-imperialism rather than Marxism; as well as in that theology of liberation centered on the preferential option for the poor. To the point that there were four priests/ministers in the revolutionary government. Somehow tolerated by the then ostpolitik of the Vatican secretary of state Agostino Casaroli; interpreted on site by the very open nuncio Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo.
Until Pope Wojtyla arrived in Managua on that fateful March 4, 1983, roughing up the Minister of Culture, Father Ernesto Cardenal, who had knelt before him as soon as he got off the plane (we were there). Only to then be sensationally contested by the faithful in the Plaza 19 de Julio while he was celebrating mass. Upon his return to Rome, John Paul II ordered the immediate suspension a divinis of the four priests of the Sandinista executive. And shortly afterwards he elevated the number one internal opponent to cardinal: the metropolitan archbishop Obando y Bravo.
While the following year his inquisitor, Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation of the Faith, summoned Gustavo Gutierrez himself to the Holy See to put his “risky” theories on trial. But Gustavo, without firing a shot, did not show up, thanks to the solidarity immediately shown to him by the South American ecclesiastical world.
AFTER ALL, HIS FIRST ESSAY on Liberation Theology dates back to 1971. It is no coincidence that it followed the second Conference of the Episcopate of Latin America in Medellín (Colombia) in 1968, which was attended by Wojtila himself, who gave the OK to that avant-garde trend in application of the Second Vatican Council.
In any case, the Polish Pope thought about eliminating that theology throughout the subcontinent in just a few years after his trip to Central America; gradually promoting prelates and cardinals linked to the historic colonial oligarchy. Like those who in March 1980 effectively legitimized the assassination on the altar of the archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero. And the same killing of the six Jesuits of the Central American University in ’89 at the hands of the military during the civil war.
THAT WAY (and in spite of himself) obsessed as he was by the “communist ghost”, Wojtyla paradoxically opened the way for the spread of fundamentalist sects in the most Catholic subcontinent on the planet, a path planned by Washington since the 1970s and structured in the Santa Fe Document of 1980 (during the Reagan presidency). So much so that today those preachers dispute with Catholics the historic “hegemony of faith” they had in the entire region. But under the banner (at best) of anti-politics. Even if they are now structuring themselves alongside right-wing parties like Bolsonaro.
It certainly could have been understandable that the Polish pontiff, who grew up in a country under the Soviet yoke, fell into the instrumental trap of those who flaunted the obsession with the arrival of communism in Latin America. When in reality the Mexican revolution of 1910 and that of ’44 of the young soldiers in Guatemala were not based on an ideology but on the urgent need for an agrarian reform that overturned the historic terratenientes versus peones scheme. In the same way as the most recent new Cuban course of ’59; where, however, Fidel Castro, not a communist at all but a member of the Partido Ortodoxo (anti-imperialist), was forced to choose Moscow to survive just 90 miles from the USA.
It took the fall of the Berlin Wall to make John Paul II narrow his eyes a little on the barbarity of the free market system centered on the “god of money”. But not even the advent of Bergoglio, the first pope to come from that “other part of the world”, managed to relaunch the Second Vatican Council; almost buried by the third longest papacy ever in history (27 years) and followed by the other 7 of Benedict XVI.
IT WAS NOT ENOUGH that Pope Francis rushed to make Romero blessed and sainted; and together with him Paul VI who brought that council to fruition. While Wojtyla’s canonization was accompanied by that of John XIII, which that council inspired, under the banner of “men of good will” and the “de/pyramidation” of the Church. Lastly, it wasn’t even enough that in 2013, shortly after taking office on the throne of Peter, he received Father Gustavo Gutierrez himself in audience. Who he knew well for coming from the same subcontinent.
