‘The greatest violence is poverty,’ wrote a Peruvian priest who dedicated his life to denouncing structural injustices.

On Tuesday, Romulo Vasquez, the prior of the Dominican Province in Peru, confirmed that Father Gustavo Gutierrez, considered one of the main theorists of Liberation Theology, died in Lima at the age of 96.

Born in 1928, Gutierrez was ordained as a priest when he was 31 years old. 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 around the world.

In in one of his last interviews at the Vatican in 2015, Gutierrez recalled that the Catholic Church never condemned Liberation Theology, a new way of living the Christian experience that emerged in Latin America after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).

“There has never been a condemnation of Liberation Theology. Never… What did happen was a dialogue with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. A very critical dialogue, certainly,” he explained.

During the 1980s, however, Liberation Theology was harshly criticized in several documents by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, when Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, was prefect.

“‘The greatest violence is poverty,’ wrote Gustavo Gutierrez. His denunciation of the capitalist structural injustices earned him the hostility of John Paul II and the most conservative sectors of the Catholic Church, such as Opus Dei and the Legionaries of Christ. The criticisms did not deter him from his view of Christianity as a liberating message,” the Spanish writer Rafael Narbona explained.

“Gutierrez never tired of repeating that ‘poverty is not a fate, it is a condition; it is not misfortune, it is injustice. It is the result of social structures and mental and cultural categories, linked to how society has been built in its various forms’,” he added.

“Poverty is a scandalous condition that attacks human dignity and, therefore, it is contrary to the will of God,” said the Latin American theologian committed to the poor.

“His way of understanding the Gospel cost him misunderstanding and rejection by the hierarchy. Pope Francis put an end to the criticisms and praised his work, encouraging him to continue writing,” Narbona said.

“Gutierrez understood theology as ‘a protest against trampled human dignity, a struggle against the dispossession of the vast majority of people, an act of love that liberates in the construction of a new, just, and fraternal society’,” The Spanish writer recalled regarding a Peruvian Franciscan father who became a universal philosopher.

Started in 1995 by Catholic liberation theology bishops & social movements like the MST, “Grito dos Excluidos” brings tens of thousands to the streets of dozens of cities every year on Brazil’s Independence Day. This year’s theme was eradicating hunger.