"To be poor is to be familiar with death. It is very easy to see these things when we are working with poor persons. They speak with familiarity about death, the deaths of children or other persons because it is so frequent. Certainly, death is one aspect of human life, but I am speaking of early and unjust death. Poverty means physical death due to hunger, diseases and other factors. The poor are familiar with these other aspects of death". Gustavo Gutierrez
Fr Gustavo Gutierrez, the renowned Peruvian theologian, often uses the phrase "early and unjust death." It was a way of explaining simply the dire effects of poverty on people's lives. Occasionally he uses it to describe the catastrophic consequences of the Spanish conquest of Peru on the indigenous people- disease, malnutrition etc. - but more often he is referencing poverty today and its unavoidable, stark outcome: death.
Gutierrez did not view poverty as inevitable. He considers it the result of structural injustices that leave people in sub-human conditions, hardship, sickness and deprivation, while others enjoy massive riches.
His proposal is the adoption of what has become known as the 'Preferential Option for the Poor.' In essence, this means that in any given circumstance, we need to think first of the effect on the most vulnerable. It acknowledges that there are people who are without the necessities of life and that their condition is urgent; therefore, a conscious attempt must be made to try to improve their situation: we must 'take a Preferential Option' on their behalf; they are in special need, and therefore have a particular claim on Christians.
The point is not that the poor are better people or more loved by God, but simply that they are in circumstances which require urgent attention. Gutierrez puts it this way: 'The very term preference obviously precludes any exclusivity; it simply points to who ought to be first – not the only –objects of our solidarity.' Pope St. John Paul II expressed this as 'primacy.' He wrote, 'This is a Preferential Option, a special form of primacy in the exercise of Christian charity…' (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, parag. 42).
Gutierrez challenges the Church to take up this Preferential Option. "Poverty is the threat and the reality of an unjust and early death….The issue is not whether the Church has other goals, other ends; the issue is whether the Church will announce life, announce the Resurrection, be a witness of this definite love in history. And poverty is a big challenge today to this announcement."
Fr Gutierrez will celebrate his 93rd birthday on 8th June. We wish him health and happiness and continued strength to preach the Preferential Option.
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Quotations from: “Theology from the experience of the poor : a talk delivered by Father Gutierrez at the 1992 Convention of the Catholic Theological Society of America in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.