Church mourns liberation theologian

There was grief across the Brazilian Catholic Church last week when it was announced that the Jesuit theologian João Batista Libanio had died suddenly on 30 January at the age of 81 following a heart attack, writes Francis McDonagh.

Fr Libanio was a liberation theologian, and the author of more than 100 books. Tributes paid to Fr Libanio stressed his capacity as an educator, whether of theologians at university level or of young people in the poor community outside Belo Horizonte where he was parish priest for 30 years. He began a book on education with the question: “How do you form a well-structured critical mind instead of a cupboard full of bits of knowledge?”

For many years he also coordinated the theological support for the base communities. “This experience of base communities is, in the face of much adversity, winning right of citizenship in our church life. It leaves us with the hope of the rise of a true Church,” he once said.