Who is virgilio elizondo

His own roots gave him a grounded understanding as a theologian of what the poor and oppressed throughout Latin America were experiencing under the rule and repression of military dictatorships in the s, 70s and 80s. For Elizondo, liberation theology that swept the continent in those decades was one and the same with his mestizo-rooted theology. I first met Elizondo in El Salvador while living there during the civil war years.

We later became friends when my family moved to San Antonio in Kenneth Woodward , the longtime religion editor at Newsweek and author of numerous books on Catholicism and faith, told me at the time that Elizondo was one of the most remarkable priests he knew and that I should do whatever it took to get to know him once I arrived in San Antonio.

Tonight, the whole Catholic world weeps. Woodward, a Notre dame graduate, was a friend of Elizondo and Fr. Theodore Hesburgh, who served as president of Notre Dame from He said it was a world that welcomed Elizondo. Despite his own humble beginnings, Elizondo learned to speak multiple languages and lectured widely on three continents.

His books remain in print, often assigned by theology professors at other major universities. In , he received the Laetare Medal , the highest honor conveyed by Notre Dame. Elizondo downplayed his own many accomplishment s, and few outside the archdiocese or his circle of friends knew that after receiving his undergraduate degree in chemistry from St. D in theological studies from the Institut Catholique in Paris in A memorial Mass will be celebrated at 4 p. April 7 Thursday in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.

Notre Dame president Rev. John I. Jenkins, C. Daniel G. Groody, C. A longtime friend and administrative assistant, Janie Dillard, told the San Antonio Express-News that the priest, who was 80, "died of a broken heart. Elizondo was widely recognized as "the father of U. Latino religious thought. This is an occasion for great sorrow, as his death was sudden and unexpected," San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller said in a statement released by the archdiocese.

I pray for all those who mourn Father Virgil and for the repose of his soul. The suit alleged that as a boy, John Doe was sexually abused from to while he was living in an orphanage and was being mentored by Dominguez, then a student at Assumption Seminary in San Antonio. John Doe claimed that when he went to report the abuse to Elizondo, the priest kissed and fondled him.

Elizondo vigorously denied the charges in a public statement and in conversations with friends, and said he was prepared to fight the allegation legally. As a young priest, he worked in parishes, but in , Archbishop Robert Lucey , then head of the archdiocese, appointed him archdiocesan director of religious education.

He was an advocate for underpaid and exploited Mexican-American laborers in the Archdiocese of San Antonio during the early s. Elizondo was active in television work and video productions and is considered the foremost interpreter of U. Latino religion by the national and international media.

It was renamed a few years ago as the Mexican American Catholic College. He joined the Notre Dame faculty in