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This week’s missionary hero is Pedro Casaldáliga, known in Brazil as the “bishop of the poor.”
Pedro was born on February 16, 1928 in Balsareny, Catalonia, Spain and grew up on his family’s cattle ranch. At the age of nine, he entered a Claretian seminary and was ordained a priest in Barcelona, Spain in 1952.
Fr. Pedro went to Brazil as a missionary priest in 1968 and was consecrated a bishop in 1971.
As the bishop of Sao Féliz de Araguaia, he made a name for himself by devoting himself to the poor, especially the indigenous population who were continually victimized by land barons, miners and loggers.
Bishop Pedro often said, “If in doubt, side with the poor.” Bishop Pedro lived a very simple lifestyle alongside the poor, and he was a champion of liberation theology. This theology holds that it is not “God’s will” for people to be poor, marginalized, and victims of discrimination. Rather, Catholic Christians are called to make this a better world, fighting to build the Kingdom of God here on earth, even though inferior to the perfected Kingdom in heaven. In short, liberation theology seeks to destroy all forms of hate, discrimination, and exclusion and replace them with love, acceptance, and inclusion. Further, this theology holds that Catholic Christians should do what we can to treat every person with the dignity they deserve as children of God.
Because he was always fighting for human rights of the poor and disenfranchised, the government and other members of the Brazilian power elite often issued death threats and targeted him for extermination. Amazingly, however, he was never martyred.
Bishop Pedro was also a mystic and poet. In fact, he once said, “What saved me was my faith and my poetry.”
Bishop Pedro Casaldáliga died on August 8, 2020 in Batatais in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
