Jon Sobrino, S.J. | |
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Born | December 27, 1938 Barcelona, Spain |
Residence | El Salvador |
Fields | philosophy, theology |
Institutions | University of Central America (UCA) |
Alma mater | Hochschule Sankt Georgen, Frankfurt, Doctorate in Theology (1975); St. Louis University, Masters in Engineering Mechanics (1965) |
Known for | Writings on Liberation Theology |
Influences | Ignacio Ellacuria, Karl Rahner |
Jon Sobrino, S.J. (born 27 December 1938, Barcelona, Spain) is a Jesuit Catholic priest and theologian, known mostly for his contributions to liberation theology.
He received worldwide attention in 2007 when the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a Notification for what they see as doctrines which are "erroneous or dangerous and may cause harm to the faithful."
Born into a Basque family in Barcelona, Sobrino entered the Jesuit Order when he was 18. The following year, in 1958, he was sent to El Salvador. He later studied engineering at St. Louis University, a Jesuit University, in the United States and then theology at Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology in Frankfurt in West Germany for his Doctor of Theology (Dr.theol.) degree. Returning to El Salvador, he taught at the Jesuit-run University of Central America (UCA) in San Salvador, which he helped to found.
On November 16, 1989 he narrowly escaped the murder of the UCA scholars by the Atlacatl Battalion, an elite unit of the Salvadoran Army. By a coincidence, he was away from El Salvador when members of the military broke into the rectory at the UCA and brutally murdered his six fellow Jesuits, Ignacio Ellacuria, Segundo Montes, Juan Ramón Moreno, Ignacio Martin Baro, Amando López, and Joaquín López y López, and their housekeeper Elba Ramos and her 15-year-old daughter Celina Ramos. The Jesuits were targeted for their outspoken work to bring about resolution to the brutal El Salvador Civil War that left about 75,000 men, women, and children dead, in the great majority civilians.