Hlinkova Garda
10-19-2008, 04:38 AM
Father Camilo Torres Restrepo (born in Bogotá, Colombia 3 February 1929 – Santander, 15 February 1966) was a Colombian Roman Catholic priest, a predecessor of the Liberation Theology and a member of the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group. During his life, he tried to reconcile revolutionary Marxism with Catholicism, or vice-versa.
Torres was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1954, but continued to study for some years at the Pontifical Catholic University of Leuven (Louvain) in Belgium. When he returned to Colombia, he increasingly felt obliged to actively support the cause of poor people and the labouring class. Camilo Torres believed that in order to secure justice for the people, Christians had a duty to use violent action.Asa Bogota university chaplain, Father Torres' progressive ideas clashed with politicaly conservative superiors, and in 1962 church officials ordered him to cease both his academic and chaplain work at the university. Father Torres complied, but continued to write papers on the nation's social problems, speak at conferences and oppose the government's anti-guerrilla military campaigns.In 1965, he founded a political newspaper called the United Front, as well as a political movement by the same name; its platform included land reform, the nationalization of many industries, free universal education and equal rights for women. then in late 1965 he went to the mountains to join the National Liberation Army, or ELN, a guerrilla group founded the previous year. Four months later, Father Torres was shot and killed by a wounded soldier. It is not clear whether Father Torres carried weapons or ever fired a shot at the enemy. News of his death triggered violent protests, and thousands attended a memorial service in Bogota.
http://www.joseacontreras.net/econom/images/economia/marxismo/suplementarios/torres.jpg
Father Torres saw his armed struggle as a continuation of the priesthood, He wrote
"It is the duty of every Catholic to be a revolutionary; it is the duty of every revolutionary to carry out the revolution. The Catholic who is not a revolutionary is living in mortal sin.
If Jesus were alive today, He would be a guerrilla"
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/colombia/torres1.jpg
"I have left the privileges and duties of the clergy, but haven't given up being a priest,I have committed to the revolution out of a love for my neighbor ... in worldly, economic and social territory".
Torres was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1954, but continued to study for some years at the Pontifical Catholic University of Leuven (Louvain) in Belgium. When he returned to Colombia, he increasingly felt obliged to actively support the cause of poor people and the labouring class. Camilo Torres believed that in order to secure justice for the people, Christians had a duty to use violent action.Asa Bogota university chaplain, Father Torres' progressive ideas clashed with politicaly conservative superiors, and in 1962 church officials ordered him to cease both his academic and chaplain work at the university. Father Torres complied, but continued to write papers on the nation's social problems, speak at conferences and oppose the government's anti-guerrilla military campaigns.In 1965, he founded a political newspaper called the United Front, as well as a political movement by the same name; its platform included land reform, the nationalization of many industries, free universal education and equal rights for women. then in late 1965 he went to the mountains to join the National Liberation Army, or ELN, a guerrilla group founded the previous year. Four months later, Father Torres was shot and killed by a wounded soldier. It is not clear whether Father Torres carried weapons or ever fired a shot at the enemy. News of his death triggered violent protests, and thousands attended a memorial service in Bogota.
http://www.joseacontreras.net/econom/images/economia/marxismo/suplementarios/torres.jpg
Father Torres saw his armed struggle as a continuation of the priesthood, He wrote
"It is the duty of every Catholic to be a revolutionary; it is the duty of every revolutionary to carry out the revolution. The Catholic who is not a revolutionary is living in mortal sin.
If Jesus were alive today, He would be a guerrilla"
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/colombia/torres1.jpg
"I have left the privileges and duties of the clergy, but haven't given up being a priest,I have committed to the revolution out of a love for my neighbor ... in worldly, economic and social territory".