Alberto Hurtado

Life events

1. Born — 1901

   Luis Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga was born on January 22, 1901, in Viña del Mar, Chile, to an aristocratic family. His father died when Alberto was four years old; the family lost their estate to a fraudulent buyer and was reduced to poverty, living with a succession of relatives.

2. Educated

   A scholarship enabled Hurtado to attend the Jesuit school of St. Ignacio in Santiago from 1909 to 1917, where he volunteered in a poor-neighbourhood parish. He then studied law at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (1918–1923), completing a thesis on labour law and earning his degree in August 1923 after mandatory military service.

3. Ordained — 1933

   Hurtado entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1923, studied humanities in Córdoba (1925) and philosophy and theology in Barcelona (1927). When the Jesuits were suppressed in Spain in 1931, he transferred to Louvain, Belgium, where he was ordained a priest on August 24, 1933.

4. Educated — 1935

   In 1935 Hurtado obtained a doctorate in pedagogy and psychology from Louvain, then toured social and educational centers in Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands before returning to Chile in January 1936 to teach religion at Colegio San Ignacio and pedagogy at the Catholic University of Santiago.

5. Wrote — 1941

   Hurtado published ¿Es Chile un país católico? (Is Chile a Catholic Country?) in 1941, presenting survey data showing only 9% of Chilean women and 3.5% of Chilean men regularly attended Mass, and documenting a severe shortage of clergy serving rural and working-class populations. Conservative Catholics attacked the book and accused him of being a Communist.

6. Other — 1944

   In 1944 Hurtado founded Hogar de Cristo (Home of Christ), a network of shelters providing food and lodging to homeless and abandoned children throughout Chile. He also drove Santiago's streets at night in a 1946 green pickup truck to reach people sleeping rough. Between 1945 and 1951 the organization assisted an estimated 850,000 children.

7. Other — 1947

   In 1947 Hurtado founded the Chilean Trade Union Association to train labor leaders and apply Catholic social teaching within Chile's unions. That same year he published Social Humanism and The Christian Social Order; his book Trade Unions followed in 1950. He founded the periodical Mensaje in 1951 to disseminate Catholic social teaching.

8. Died — 1952

   Hurtado died on August 18, 1952, in Santiago, after a brief illness following a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Chilean media reported on his condition daily, and he was widely regarded as a national hero before his death.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Hurtado was beatified by Pope John Paul II on October 16, 1994, and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 23, 2005, becoming Chile's second canonized saint after Teresa of Los Andes. (likely)
• Hurtado purchased a 1946 green pickup truck and personally drove Santiago's streets at night to reach people sleeping homeless on the streets, a practice that became emblematic of his direct personal ministry. (likely)
• Conservative Catholics denounced Hurtado's 1941 statistical survey of Chilean religious practice as Communist propaganda — an attack that reflects resistance within Chilean Catholicism to the Church's own social encyclicals of the era. (likely)
• At Hurtado's canonization in Saint Peter's Square on October 23, 2005, a large Chilean delegation led by President Ricardo Lagos attended; several senators present had been Hurtado's students during his years as a schoolteacher. (likely)
• A frequently cited saying attributed to Hurtado reads: "I hold that every poor man, every vagrant, every beggar is Christ carrying his cross. And as Christ, we must love and help him." (likely)