Sunday, May 6, 2012

the crucified people

Fr. Jon Sobrino S.J.
Jon Sobrino is a the sole Jesuit priest at the University of Central America to survive the 1989 massacre that killed 6 of his Jesuit brothers, their housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador. He is a liberation theologian and was notified by the Vatican in 2007 that his writing may be “erroneous or dangerous or may cause harm to the faithful”.

In his book, No Salvation Outside the Poor: Prophetic-Utopian Essays (Orbis Books), he writes poignantly about his Jesuit brother Ignacio Ellacuria, the theologian and university president killed with the others in 1989:
"When Ellacuria 'took hold of the reality' of the Third World, he grasped it in an important way as a 'crucified people' … Ellacuria said that the crucified people are one of the main features of our time, not merely something factual that we may consider, but something central that must be considered, without which we do not have a full grasp of reality,"

2 comments:

  1. My introduction to Fr. Sobrino was a video about liberation theology. I can't remember the title, it was made in the seventies I think. He struck me as a very strong man internally - and a man at peace with his mission indifferent to Vatican censure.

    A wealthy landowner running for office played up the priests being marxists and encouraging the poor to armed rebellion.

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  2. Seems Fr. Sobrino is used to being "investigated".

    This is what I've always figured that Catholicism was all about. Even when I was a child I sensed that there was another side to this “Catholic” story, one that was mysterious and risky, even dangerous. Sacraments are about reality, not magic.

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