Raúl Silva Henríquez
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Santiago de Chile, Chile | |
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Nationality | Chilean |
Denomination | Catholic (Roman Rite) |
Previous post(s) | Bishop of Valparaíso (1959–61) |
Alma mater | |
Motto | Caritas Christi urget nos |
Coat of arms |
Raúl Silva Henríquez SDB (27 September 1907 – 9 April 1999) was a Chilean prelate of the Catholic Church, a cardinal from 1962. He served as Archbishop of Santiago de Chile from 1961 to 1983 and as Bishop of Valparaíso from 1959 to 1961. Both as Archbishop and in retirement, he was an advocate for social justice and democracy and a forthright vocal critic of the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet—"a constant thorn in the Government's side".[1]
Biography
Born in
He taught in Chile from 1939 to 1945 and then became director of the Salesian College La Cisterna.[2] From 1951 to 1959 he headed Caritas Chile while also serving as director as Salesian theological studies.[2]
On 24 October 1959,
Pope John made him Cardinal-Priest of S. Bernardo alle Terme at the consistory of 19 March 1962.[2] He was on good terms with industry leaders and government officials, including both future dictator Augusto Pinochet and the incoming President Salvador Allende, whose Marxist views he opposed but did not find alarming because Allende, he said, "was always prepared to talk".[3] He once said: "There are more of the Gospel's values in socialism than there are in capitalism."[4]
In Santiago he quickly established his reputation as an advocate of far-reaching and immediate social reform.[5] He distributed land on large estates owned by the Church to the peasants who worked on them peasants, saying that "These lands have served God for a long time, but I believe that the needs of the workers on these lands are greater."[6]
After the first meeting between Church and Freemasonry which had been held on 11 April 1969 at the convent of the Divine Master in Ariccia, he was the protagonist of a series of public handshakes between high prelates of the Roman Catholic Church and the heads of Freemasonry.[7]
When Fidel Castro visited Chile in 1972, Silva gave him 10,000 Bibles to distribute in Cuba.[3]
Silva attended the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. In October 1964, he joined the prelates who signed a petition asking Pope Paul VI to support the council's drafts of declarations on the Church's attitude toward the Jews and on religious liberty and to resist conservative attempts to weaken them.[8]
He was one of the cardinal electors in the
He was an outspoken opponent of General
Silva is believed to have played a key role in persuading the governments of Chile and Argentina to allow Pope John Paul II to mediate their border dispute and avoid war in 1978.[5]
In December 1978, the Vicariate for Solidaity was awarded the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights.[14] The Bruno Kreisky Prize for Services to Human Rights in 1984.[15]
He founded the Academy of Christian Humanism in 1988, an outgrowth of his effort beginning in 1975 to bring intellectuals together to discuss politics, society, economy and culture in Chile.[16]
Silva suffered from Alzheimer's disease near the end of his life and died of a heart attack at a Salesian retirement house in
Selected writings
- El Cardenal Raúl Silva Henríquez nos dijo, 2 volumes (Editorial Tiberíades, 2002) (in Spanish)
References
- ^ Kinzer, Stephen (20 November 1983). "Church in Chile Doesn't Just Pray for Reform". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
- ^ a b c "Sketches of Men Named Cardinals" (PDF). The New York Times. 18 February 1962. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
- ^ a b c d e "Raul Silva Henriquez". The Economist. 15 April 1999. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
- ^ a b c "Raul Silva Henriquez Dies". Washington Post. 11 April 1999. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
- ^ a b c Page, Eric (12 April 1999). "Raul Silva Henriquez, 91, Chile Cardinal, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
By 1963 the Cardinal had become one of the foremost figures of Latin America in campaigning for immediate sweeping reforms to improve the lives of the masses.
- ^ a b c Dixon, Clare (13 April 1999). "Cardinal Archbishop Raul Silva Henriquez obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
- ^ Sandro Magister (19 August 1999). "Tra il papa e il massone non c'è comunione" [There is no communion between the pope and the Mason] (in Italian). L'Espresso.
- ^ Doty, Robert C. (13 October 1964). "Group at Council Urges Pope Back Schema on Jews". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
- ^ Kandell, Jonathan (25 April 1974). "Chilean Bishops Accuse Junta of 'Climate of Fear'". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
- Drinan, Robert F. (11 September 1985). "12 Years of Night in Chile". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
- ^ Délano, Manuel (10 April 1999). "Muere el cardenal chileno Silva Henríquez, fundador de la Vicaría de la Solidaridad". El País. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
- ^ Schumacher, Edward (25 June 1983). "Church in Chile Defends Dissent and Urges Talks with Opposition". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
- ^ Chavez, Lydia (16 January 1986). "Protest Hinders Kennedy in Chile". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
- ^ "List of previous recipients". United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
- ^ "Awards 1984". Bruno Kreisky Foundation for Human Rights. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
- ^ "Nuestra Historia". Universidad Academia de Humanismo Cristiano (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 June 2018.
- ^ "Chili: Décès du cardinal Silva Henriquez, 'voix des sans voix' sous la dictature de Pinochet". Portal Catholique Suisse (in French). 11 April 1999. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
- Additional sources
- Aguilar, Mario I. (October 2003). "Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez, the Catholic Church, and the Pinochet Regime, 1973-1980: Public Responses to a National Security State". The Catholic Historical Review. 89 (4): 712–731. S2CID 143826273.
- Molineaux, David (23 April 1999). "Chile honors memory of cardinal who opposed Pinochet". National Catholic Reporter. Retrieved 7 June 2018.