Friendship and Theology : Gustavo Gutierrez and the Cardijn Movements

In October 2022 Albert Nolan OP, who had been a chaplain to Catholic students in South Africa died and in June 2023 ATF Press published a book entitled Righting Something That’s Wrong.[1] The title was taken from an interview, published in that volume, where he spoke about his involvement as student chaplain and the Cardijn inspired student movement he was involved with in South Africa. He referred to the YCS (Young Christian Student movement) as ‘righting something that’s wrong’.[2] In the volume Reluctant Prophet: Tributes to Albert Nolan OP, edited by Mike Deeb OP et al, who was also a key figure in the YCS in South Africa, and later internationally, wrote of Nolan’s involvement with the movement, and how in 1975 Nolan went to and (International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS) conference in Lima and met Gustavo Gutiérrez.

Like Nolan, Gutiérrez worked with students, though for him it was University students, and this work influenced his earliest writings.

Unlike Nolan, it is very hard to find anywhere where Gutiérrez refers explicitly to his time as a chaplain to the Catholic student movement, its method and the links to his work in a Theology of Liberation and Liberation theology. Various attempts were made over the years when he was at the University of Notre Dame, Indianna, to interview him on these topics but for a variety of reasons this never came to pass.