Prominent Belgian liberation theologian dies

Jun 15, 2017

ECUADOR: Belgian liberation theologian and sociologist Francois Houtart died Tuesday, June 6 at the age of 92, leaving a powerful legacy through his decades of work theorising globalisation, alternatives to capitalism and religion from a Marxist perspective.

Houtart died in Quito, Ecuador, where he lived and worked at the Pueblo Indio Foundation and with several universities. Houtart was born in Brussels in 1925, became a Catholic priest in 1949 and com-pleted a doctorate in sociology at the University of Louvain.

A prolific academic, Houtart became a pioneering writer on anti-capitalist thought and identified himself with the Marxist theoretical tradition. He was one of the main promoters of the World Social Forum of Porto Alegre in 2001, aimed at forging alternatives to pressing world problems, including inequality and the globalization of neoliberal economics and politics.

Houtart was part of the liberation theology movement that interprets Christianity through the lens of radical liberation from social, political and economic oppression. Over his decades-long career, he lived in several countries in Latin America in which he studied the processes of social change.

He was at the aggiornamento at College General, Penang in 1976.

As one of his most famous phrases says, Houtart believed that humanity “must find a new paradigm of life against the paradigm of death. The paradigm of the common good of humanity.”

Along with Egyptian-French Marxist economist Samir Amin, Houtart founded the Centre Tricontinental and the World Forum for Alternatives to study development from the perspective of social actors of the Global South and their defence of social, political, cultural and environmental rights.

Houtart published about 70 books, mainly on the relationship between the Catholic Church and social change, as well as alternatives to capitalism in Latin America. He was part of the international commission accompanying the peace negotiations between the FARC guerrilla army and the Colombian government, which concluded with a historic peace agreement last year after four years of talks.

In 2009, the sociologist was awarded the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence, recognising his “lifelong commitment to world peace, intercultural dialogue, human rights and the promotion of tolerance, and in recognition of his outstanding efforts to advance the cause of social justice in the world.” -- mattersindia.com