Camilo Torres - Revolutionary in a Soutane

The Colombian priest Camilo Torres Restrepo (1929-66) was deeply concerned about his country's poverty, social neglect, and human suffering in the shadow of murderous violence that had overtaken the politics of Colombia. He was a member of an established liberal family from Bogota, one of the founders of the Faculty of Sociology at the National University of Colombia, and a forerunner of liberation theology. In 1965 he founded a united political movement comprising opposition parties, non-aligned Colombians, as well as with two traditional Creole ruling parties. His aim was to promote a new humanist-Christian Colombia in the spirit of what he called effective love (amor eficaz). The failure of the project, and his perception that a churchman must become a revolutionary in order to bring about a more just society, led him to enrol in the National Liberation Army (ELN). He was killed in combat in February 1966. The book is not only an account of priestly martydom, but tells the story of the Western Church as a social church (as confirmed by the Second Vatican Council) as it relates to the church structure in Colombia and its engagement with social issues. Torres' personal, political and intellectual journey reveals his role as a prophet in the tradition of Hebrew prophecy in its Christian-Apostolic form. There are strong parallels with Che Guevara; both fought an uncompromising struggle for the right of their people to a decent human life, and both made the ultimate sacrifice. Liberation theology was the political praxis of Marxism and Catholicism; its historical roots in Latin America were nowhere more prevalent than in Columbia, and Camilo Torres was exemplar in the political and religious liberation for oppressed people.