Luis Chávez Y González
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Luis Chávez y González (1901–1987) was the seventh
Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...
and third
Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...
of
San Salvador San Salvador () is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of El Salvador and its San Salvador Department, eponymous department. It is the country's largest agglomeration, serving as the country's political, cultural, educational and fin ...
,
El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...
, and immediate predecessor of Archbishop
Óscar Romero Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (15 August 1917 – 24 March 1980) was a prelate of the Catholic Church in El Salvador. He served as Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Salvador, Archdiocese of San Salvador, the Titular ...
. Unlike Romero, who served for three years before being assassinated in 1980, Chávez had an archbishopric that was long and low key. Chávez was Archbishop of San Salvador for 38 years (1938–1977), longer than any other Salvadoran bishop. Like his more famous successor, Chávez is also a candidate for sainthood. His
beatification Beatification (from Latin , "blessed" and , "to make") is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. ''Beati'' is the p ...
process was started in June 2001.


Biography

Chávez was born on April 24, 1901, in El Rosario,
El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...
in the
Cuscatlán Department Cuscatlán () is a department of El Salvador, located in the center of the country. With a surface area of , it is El Salvador's smallest department. Cuscatlán or Cuzcatlán was the name the original inhabitants of the Western part of the c ...
. Chávez and Pío Romero Bosque, a future president of El Salvador, were both students of a distinguished Salvadoran master, Néstor Salamanca, in Suchitoto, where Chávez would spend his latter years. He was ordained a priest at the age of 23, on November 16, 1924. He was parish priest in Ilobasco, San Juan Cojutepeque and the historic La Merced church in San Salvador. Fourteen years later, he was appointed Archbishop of San Salvador at the youthful age of 37. He was named on September 1, and consecrated on December 12, 1938, and would reign until his resignation on February 3, 1977. Chávez was an influential bishop in the region, making pastoral travels to neighboring sees, such as Matagalpa,
Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...
, which he visited in 1942. That same year, Chávez organized a eucharistic congress to celebrate the first centennial of the San Salvador archdiocese. He also established a Central American Bishops' Conference. In 1945, Chávez authorized veneration of the Child Jesus of Bethlehem image that reportedly appeared at the beach in Acajutla, in
Sonsonate Sonsonate () is a city and district of El Salvador, of which it is also its municipal seat. It has an estimated population of 71,980 inhabitants for the year 2020. Sonsonate is the second most important city in western El Salvador. The town was ...
, El Salvador. Chávez had a conservative bent, inviting
Opus Dei is an institution of the Catholic Church that was founded in Spain in 1928 by Josemaría Escrivá. Its stated mission is to help its lay and clerical members seek holiness in their everyday occupations and societies. Opus Dei is officially r ...
to establish bases in El Salvador. He approved the creation of a cinematic censorship office in 1963. Chávez also signed a bishops' letter warning against the dangers of
Communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...
. But, Chávez was a prolific writer, and his 52 pastoral letters also included some that established a tradition of social justice in the archdiocese. In August 1966, he published an influential pastoral letter, "The responsibility of the layperson in the temporal order," which highlighted the Church's obligation to denounce injustice, the specific grievances of the Salvadoran people, and the attribution to those grievances to the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few. As archbishop, Chávez encouraged vocations, building the principal seminary in San Salvador, San José de la Montaña. He recruited Rutilio Grande into the priesthood and supported
Jose Inocencio Alas Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. Given name Mishnaic and Talmudic periods * Jose ben Abin * Jose ben Akabya *Jose the Galilean * Jose ben Halafta ...
who helped to introduce Liberation Theology to the country. He was said to have been deeply influenced by the
Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...
, implementing its progressive reforms in pastoral work throughout his archdiocese. Chávez is said to have attended every session of the Council, and was a member of its Central Planning Commission. He established an institute to teach the Social Doctrine of the Church, and sent priests to study abroad. Some of these priests came from rural families, not the urban middle class, and could have been more sympathetic to the peasant poor. Chávez encouraged peasant cooperatives as alternatives to agricultural sector expansion in the 1950s. He also sent priests to Canada to study the organization and function of peasants cooperatives. Similar communitarian activities were later advocated by the Salvadoran
Christian Democratic Party __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...
(Partido Democrata Cristiano or PDC). In 1970, Oscar Romero, Chávez' eventual successor, was named auxiliary bishop of San Salvador—Chávez' second in command—but Romero was said to be cool to Chávez' reformist agenda, and was transferred out of the archdiocese in 1974. Chávez' new auxiliary would be Arturo Rivera y Damas, who would later also be archbishop. Chávez maintained largely cordial relations with the government, as typified by his blessing the legislative palace in March 1973. Because of his long tenure, he had a hand in many institutions of Salvadoran Catholicism: he inaugurated the famous Savior of the World Monument at Plaza de Las Americas in western San Salvador; he presided over the reconstruction of the San Salvador Cathedral after the Old Cathedral burned in a fire in August 1951, and he established a cult to the Virgin of Fatima in El Salvador. Chávez resigned as archbishop in 1977, the year he entered the mandatory retirement age for bishops, 75. Later that same year, his sister, Carmen Chávez de Hernández, died. After leaving the archdiocese, Chávez volunteered to work as parish priest of Suchitoto. Archbishop Romero told the story of the elderly Chávez volunteering for the job: :''Our beloved predecessor, Monsignor Luis Chavez y Gonzalez, at his 75, almost 76, years of age, tells me that he is available and proposes to go work in Suchitoto. "Whatever you please, Monsignor, your gesture touches me," I tell him. "Then, I will make my Profession of Faith," he says. "But, Monsignor, no one is going to doubt your faith!" - "No," he says, "this is mandatory." And rising to his feet before the Crucifix on my desk he prays with the humility of the most humble Christian, "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, I believe in the Church..." And after saying the Creed, he says to me, "I swear allegiance to my superior." Brothers and sisters, who was superior there? I felt so small before that marvelous example! '' In May 1978, Chávez' work was acknowledged by an act of the Salvadoran legislature, which awarded him a special citation. Chávez died on March 27, 1987, as Archbishop Emeritus of San Salvador. In June 2001, the San Salvador archdiocese instituted a beatification process for Chávez. It was spearheaded by the same cleric who headed the diocesan investigation of the
canonization Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christianity, Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon ca ...
cause for Archbishop Romero. In February 1996,
Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...
may have bolstered the prospects of Chávez' sainthood when he called the prelate a "model of virtues" when he visited the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Holy Savior (''Catedral Metropolitana de San Salvador'') where Chávez is buried. He added, referring to Chávez' and his two successors, "I am sure that they intercede for the Church that they loved and served until the end of their days, and whom they leave a particularly eloquent message."


Quotations

"The people of El Salvador are highly dedicated to work, and I would thank those who are responsible for maintaining peace and order if they would give these people the opportunity to emerge from the poverty in which they find themselves to a state more worthy of a human being." "Do you want to be a priest?" (to Rutilio Grande, later an assassinated cleric).M. Romero: 4º Domingo de Cuaresma (05/03/78) (ciclo A)
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Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chavez y Gonzalez, Luis 1901 births 1987 deaths People from Cuscatlán Department Roman Catholic archbishops of San Salvador Participants in the Second Vatican Council 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in El Salvador Salvadoran Servants of God 20th-century venerated Christians