NASW Virginia and Metro DC Chapters Mourn the Death of Social Justice Pioneer Rev. Gustavo Gutierrez

At age 96, social justice icon Rev. Gustavo Gutierrez had behind him nearly a century-long legacy of international servant leadership to the poor. Yet his death on October 22 has inspired what myriad observers—including the many social workers who admired him—call an ever-growing continuation of his humble but heroic efforts to address and help impoverished populations.

Rev. Gutierrez’s advocacy on behalf of the poor sparked a social justice- and faith-based movement known as “liberation theology” both in and through the Roman Catholic Church, as well as in wider secular circles such as in the social work and psychology professions. A longtime University of Notre Dame theologian, Rev. Gutierrez sought to educate students, peers, and the public about the “urgency of solidarity with those society considers the least important,” according to one colleague.

“His work had a huge influence on social work and on psychoanalysis (see [Daniel Josế Gaztambide's wonderful A People’s History of Psychoanalysis: From Freud to Liberation Psychology),” wrote Jonathan Lebolt, PhD, LCSW, CGP, in a tribute. “… His death constitutes a great loss, and I'm grateful that there are others to carry on his legacy.”     

Deeply pained by social inequality and human suffering, Rev. Gutierrez noted that “the history of humanity has been written ‘with a white hand’ (from a New York Times obituary), and his 1971 landmark book, A Theology of Liberation, remains core to social justice movements well beyond his roots in Peru and elsewhere in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

Rev. Gutierrez was buried October 24 in Lima.