By Dean Dettloff, Research and Advocacy Officer
Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada joins multitudes of others around the world in celebrating the life of Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez, OP, a founder of liberation theology and a longtime friend of our movement, who died on October 22, 2024. Last year, we had congratulated Gutiérrez on his 95th birthday. We reiterate our appreciation for Gutiérrez as one of the most important theologians of the last century, and one who will be remembered for his courageous exploration of the meaning of our faith in Jesus Christ in a global system marked by inequality.
We reflect on two contributions Gutiérrez has made to our understanding of what it means to be a Catholic solidarity movement: a critical understanding of development and liberation and acknowledging the poor as the agents of their own destiny.
Gustavo Gutiérrez, development and liberation
Following the Second World War and a wave of decolonial movements around the world, the word “development” became a ubiquitous term, so common that it informed the name of “Development and Peace,” taken from Pope Paul VI’s 1967 encyclical Populorum Progressio. At its best, “development” meant empowering countries and people in the Global South to pursue their own paths out of poverty.
At its worst, as Gutiérrez contended in his landmark 1971 book A Theology of Liberation, “development” had become fraught with negative connotations in Latin America. Rather than naming the possibility of economic justice, Gutiérrez explains that development “came to be synonymous with reformism and modernization, that is to say, synonymous with timid measures, really ineffective in the long run and counterproductive to achieving a real transformation.” Even further, Gutiérrez notes, the development of wealthy countries is dependent on the underdevelopment of poor countries, meaning the comforts and desires of people in the North are made possible by the exploitation of the South.
Gutiérrez therefore suggested the term “liberation” as a better way of naming what countries need to get out from under a system that holds them back. Thankfully, the “Development” in our name was not a barrier to Gutiérrez’s friendship with our movement. In fact, Gutiérrez wrote the foreword to Journey of Solidarity, a book celebrating the 25th anniversary of Development and Peace, in which he affirmed the contributions and authentic solidarity of our movement and the Canadian Catholic church.
As we continue to work for justice and peace in the next century, we remain challenged by Gutiérrez’s incisive analysis and caution against settling for reforming, rather than transforming, an unjust global system.
The power of the poor
When we think of “the poor,” whether in our own country or abroad, it can be easy to assume we are thinking of people who are simply in need, as passive recipients of help. Even well-intentioned people who care about social justice often view the poor as people who require a paternalistic solution, getting assistance from people who know better. This view is also all too common in international development and aid work, where NGOs and governments see the poor as merely charitable cases. Gutiérrez, by contrast, insists that the poor have the power and right to think and act themselves, as architects of their own destinies. Authentic solidarity consists of coming alongside the poor and joining their struggles for liberation.
At Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada, we are committed to this vision of solidarity, which is why we have adopted the approach of working with local organizations to determine how we can come together for a more just world. As Gutiérrez put it in his foreword, “As the people who have generously committed themselves to Development and Peace’s work know very well, development is above all a task which must be carried out by the poor nations themselves.… Poor people not only have needs, they also have possibilities and capabilities that can be used to change their plight.”
The “poor,” Gutiérrez goes on to say, are not only the economically disadvantaged, but also “the looked-down upon races and cultures, and the dispossessed social classes,” adding, “women belonging to these sectors are doubly marginalized and oppressed.”
Gutiérrez’s commitment to seeing the poor as people with aspirations and abilities remains an essential feature of our work of joining our lives and resources with those who are struggling for their own liberation.
Carrying the torch
In our time of ecological crisis, growing inequality and wars and rumors of wars, Gutiérrez’s legacy is perhaps more important than ever. Far from being stuck in the academy, his theology continues to resonate in the daily efforts of Christian communities around the world, including our partners, like the Instituto Bartolomé de Las Casas (see website in Spanish) in Peru, which Gutiérrez founded 50 years ago.
Legend says that before St. Dominic was born, his mother had a dream of a black and white dog carrying a blazing torch that illuminated the world. Gutiérrez, a Dominican friar, likewise lit a torch of liberation that has shed light on the global conditions of poverty and liberation. May we continue to keep this torch alight until all people are free from the structures of oppression.
¡Padre Gustavo Gutiérrez, presente!