Ronaldo Muñoz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ronaldo Muñoz

Ronaldo Muñoz Gibbs SSCC (born March 7, 1933 in Santiago de Chile , † December 15, 2009 ibid) was a Roman Catholic priest and a representative of liberation theology in Chile .

Life

Academic and ecclesiastical career

Ronaldo Muñoz studied architecture for a few years before joining the order of the Arnstein Fathers in 1954 . After attending the seminary in Valparaíso , he was ordained a priest in 1961. He then completed postgraduate studies at the Gregoriana in Rome (until licentiate in 1962) and at the Institut Catholique de Paris , where he received his doctorate in 1963.

In 1964, Muñoz began teaching in Chile, which he would keep for many years. 1966–1979 he taught at the theological faculty of the Catholic University of Chile . In 1972, after a two-year interdisciplinary research project, he did his doctorate again at the University of Regensburg , with a thesis summa cum laude (supervised by Norbert Schiffers ) on the subject of Nueva conciencia de la iglesia en América latina (German: The new consciousness of the Church in Latin America). In the following years he held visiting professorships in Spain and Belgium. 1986–1997 he taught systematic theology at the Instituto Alfonsiano in Santiago. From 1998 on he lived in Río Bueno in southern Chile, where he worked at the Catholic University of Temuco until 2004 .

In addition, Muñoz was theological advisor at the meetings of the Latin American Episcopal Conference CELAM in Puebla 1979, Santo Domingo 1992 and Aparecida 2007. He was part of the editorial team of the monograph series Teología y Liberación and was responsible for the magazine Pastoral Popular from 1982-1994 . Muñoz was a member of the theological societies Amerindia and Sociedad Chilena de Teología (SChT) and the Association of Religious Confederación Latinoamericana de Religiosos (CLAR). For the latter he also worked as a theological advisor. Muñoz 'books have been translated into five languages.

Social and political engagement

From the 1970s onwards, Muñoz worked as a pastor in the slums of Santiago, which made him oppose the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet . When he organized a neighborhood meeting in April 1974 to discuss the precarious food supplies for the residents, he and several residents of the neighborhood were arrested by the police. The group was handed over to the military and taken to the infamous Villa Grimaldi prison camp, where they were interrogated and tortured. Through the intervention of the Archbishop of Santiago, Raúl Silva Henríquez , Muñoz and his companions were released.

Based on this specific option for the poor , Muñoz developed approaches to a liberation theological ecclesiology . This led to conflicts with the official Church: the Archbishop of Medellín , Alfonso López Trujillo , said shortly after his appointment as cardinal (1984) that he would "put an end to" Muñoz and other liberation theologians.

Last years of life

In 2005, Muñoz returned to Santiago from the south of Chile, where he devoted himself to working with grassroots communities and providing lay training. In May 2008, he was diagnosed with cancer of the bladder, the spread of which could not be stopped. Shortly before his death, he was visited in the hospital by his friend and companion José Comblin . Ronaldo Muñoz died on December 15, 2009 at 4:50 pm. He was buried in the Recoleta cemetery in Santiago de Chile.

Works in German translation

  • The God of Christians - God who frees his people. Patmos-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1987, ISBN 3-491-77717-8 .
  • The role of grassroots churches in Latin America. In: Thomas Schreijäck (Ed.): Stations of an Exodus. 35 years of liberation theology in Latin America. Learning processes - challenges - impulses for the universal church. Matthias Grünewald, Mainz 2007, ISBN 978-3-7867-2631-9 , pp. 155-172.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Amerindia, eficaz caballo de Troya en la última CELAM . Website of the Franciscan Mission Center . Retrieved May 16, 2010.
  2. ^ Sociedad Chilena de Teología - Socios ( Memento of February 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (Spanish). SChT website. Retrieved April 12, 2010.
  3. ↑ a b Fallció Ronaldo Muñoz, religioso y teólogo (Spanish). Reflexión y Liberación website , December 16, 2009. Accessed April 12, 2010.
  4. ^ A b Norbert Arntz: The Chilean liberation theologian Ronaldo Muñoz died on Tuesday, December 15th in Santiago de Chile . Website of the Institute for Theology and Politics, December 16, 2009. Retrieved April 12, 2010.
  5. ^ Liberation Theology (1972–1985) - Biographical Sketches . Erik Dilloo-Heidger's website . Retrieved April 12, 2010.
  6. ↑ Letter from Jon Sobrino SJ to the Superior General of the Jesuit Order - December 2006 ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ikvu.de archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Website of the Church from Below Initiative . Retrieved May 16, 2010.
  7. ^ Carlos Ernesto Sánchez: Ronaldo Muñoz . In: La Nación , December 4, 2009. Retrieved May 16, 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Muñoz, Ronaldo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Muñoz Gibbs, Ronaldo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chilean religious and liberation theologian
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Santiago de Chile
DATE OF DEATH December 15, 2009
Place of death Santiago de Chile