Saint Alberto Hurtado
Cruchaga (born Luis Alberto Hurtado
Cruchaga on January 22, 1901 Viña del Mar
, Chile
- August 18,
1952, Santiago
, Chile),
popularly known in Chile as
Padre Hurtado ( ), was a Chilean Jesuit priest, lawyer, social
worker and writer of Basque origin,
founder of the Hogar de
Cristo movement. He was canonized on October 23,
2005, by
Pope Benedict XVI,
becoming his country's second saint.
Academic and religious education
With his father's death in 1905 (when Hurtado was only 4), the
family found itself to have significant financial difficulties,
forcing his mother to start selling off the land owned by the
family.
Thanks to a scholarship, he managed to study
at the prestigious all-boys Jesuit school of St. Ignacio, Santiago (1909-17). From 1918 to 1923, he attended
the
Pontificia
Universidad Católica de Chile, studying in its
Law School and doing his thesis on
labour law.
Rather
than starting a career in law, Hurtado entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1923,
was trained in Philosophy and Theology in
Barcelona
, Spain, (from where, in 1932, he was expelled with
his Spanish colleagues) and completed his theology in Leuven
, Belgium
, (1932-34)
where he was ordained priest on August 24, 1933. While
pursuing his theological studies, he worked on a doctorate in
psychology and
pedagogy at the
Catholic University of
Leuven.
Life and work
Right from the early days of his studies in
labour law,
and before becoming a Jesuit, Hurtado had his mind and heart set on
tackling
social issues and problems.
Before
returning to Chile, he visited
social and educational centers in Germany
, France
, Belgium and the
Netherlands
.
Back home, in 1936, Hurtado's ministry expanded to the pastoring of
the Chilean poor, especially disadvantaged children, teenagers and
young adults. He was a
religion teacher and
later educated future teachers in the
Pontificia
Universidad Católica de Chile.
Spiritual formation was also important:
he gave regular retreats according to the
Spiritual Exercises (of
St Ignatius of Loyola) and helped them
in the process to discover their vocations in the service of
Christ.
Social Apostolate
In 1940, he was appointed diocesan director of the
Catholic Action youth movement and the very
next year, its national director (1941-1944). That same year, in
1941, Hurtado's
sociology-oriented mind
led to his authoring of the book
Is Chile a Catholic
country? Revealing a few shocking realities as it was, the
book raised a storm among conservative
Catholics in Chile, who even accused him of being
a
Communist.
Keeping in mind his own origins, and ever grateful for the help he
(and his family) had received when they were in great difficulties,
Hurtado was led to active social involvement.
His strong faith was
transformed into action with his founding of an organization
similar to the present-day Boys and
Girls Club in the United States
. His shelters, called Hogar de Cristo
(Christ's Home), took in all children in need of food and shelter,
abandoned or not. He also purchased a 1946 green pickup truck and
monitored the streets at night to help those in need that he could
reach. His own charisma brought him many collaborators and
benefactors; the movement was a huge success. The shelters
multiplied all over the country; it is estimated that between 1945
and 1951 more than 850,000 children received some help from the
movement.
Labour movement and Social Doctrine of the Church
In 1947, Hurtado entered the
labor
movement, shepherding Chilean workers. Inspired by the
social teaching of the Church he
founded the Chilean
Trade Union
Association, meant to train
leaders and
instill
Christian values in the
labor unions of his country. For them he
wrote the three books
Social Humanism (1947),
The
Christian Social Order (1947) and
Trade Unions
(1950).
To disseminate the social teaching of the Church and help
Christians reflect and act on the serious social problems faced by
the country he founded in 1951 the periodical called
Mensaje. He himself published numerous articles and books
on labor issues in relation to the
Roman Catholic faith.
Early Death
Deeply spiritual, Hurtado was untiring in his work for the
workers and the youth, combining intellectual
reflection and practical actions. Ever optimistic and joyful he had
also an attractive personality that brought many people to Christ
and the
Church, young and old,
intellectuals and manual workers.
One day in 1952, Father Hurtado was stricken with intense pain and
rushed to hospital. He was diagnosed with
pancreatic cancer. Day after day the media
kept the country informed of Hurtado's state of
health. Before his
death he had
become a national hero. True to the faith he had been professing
all through his life, he accepted gracefully what was ineluctable.
After a
brief battle with the illness, he died in Santiago.
Beatification and Canonization
Hurtado was
beatified on October 16, 1994,
by
Pope John Paul II and
canonized by
Pope
Benedict XVI on October 23, 2005. St. Alberto was one of the
first people to be elevated to sainthood during the papacy of Pope
Benedict XVI; he was also the second Chilean saint, after
Saint Teresa of the Andes.
Alberto
Hurtado Cruchaga is one of the most popular and cherished saints in
his country, Chile.
An
indication of his lasting popularity was the presence on the
Piazza San
Pietro
, on the day of Hurtado's canonization, of a very
large contingent of Chilean people, led by the highest authorities
of the country - starting with President Ricardo Lagos and some high-ranking Chilean
politicians who actually had been Father Hurtado's
students.
Tributes
The
Hogar de Cristo he founded still exists, and
through its fight for social justice, it has become one of the
biggest charity groups in Chile. There are also an avenue and a
subway station
in
Santiago (the closest to his main
shrine, which also houses the Hogar's headquarters) named after
him. Also, there is a school called Colegio Padre Hurtado and
Juanita de los Andes, obviously because of him and another Chilean
Saint,
Teresa of the
Andes.
Xavier High School in New York, New York,
renamed a hall and Seattle University
has a Residential Learning Community named after
him.Jesuit High School in Portland, Oregon, opens its empty
classrooms in the evenings to an ESL program called The Hurtado
Center.
St. Alberto Hurtado is the class saint of Class B2012 (currently in
their Second Year as 2B) in the
Ateneo de Manila High
School.
Media
During the 1990s there was a short TV series dedicated to him,
named "Crónica de un Hombre Santo" (English: "Chronicles of a Holy
Man"). Four actors portrayed Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga, from his
childhood to his last years; popular
telenovela actor Cristián Campos played the adult
Father Hurtado during his ministry.
Main Works
- ¿Es Chile un pais católico? (English: Is Chile a
Catholic country?), Santiago (Chile), 1941.
- Humanismo social (English: Social humanism),
Santiago (Chile), 1947.
- El orden social cristiano en los documentos de la jerarquía
católica (English: Christian social order in the documents
of the Catholic hierarchy), 2 vol., Santiago (Chile),
1947.
- Sindicalismo: historia-teoría-práctica (English:
Syndicalism: History-Theory-Practice), Santiago (Chile),
1950.
Bibliography
- CID, F.D.: El humanismo de Alberto Hurtado S.J.,
Santiago (Chile), 1975.
- LAVIN, A.: El P.Hurtado, amigo y apostol de los
jovanes, Santiago (Chile), 1978.
- GILFEATHER, Katherine A.: Alberto Hurtado, a man after
God's Heart, Santiago (Chile), 2004.
External links
See also
Notes & references
-
http://sid.usal.es/mostrarficha.aspx?id=17668&fichero=1.1
A Chilean Jesuit University named after
him.
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