Juan Carlos Scannone, S.J.

Juan Scannone at PUC-Rio, October of 2019..

Father and friend

This section is dedicated to the theologian we wish to honor. Juan Carlos Scannone SJ, Argentine, Jesuit, 88 years old, died on November 27, 2019. This is intended to communicate comprehensive information about his person and work, as well as reflections on the impact that his work brought and brings to theology in North and South America.
To all who knew him, Fr. Scannone impressed with his great intelligence and deep knowledge, but also for his fantastic ability to transmit ideas and make that knowledge accessible to intellectuals, university students, and simple and humble people.
He was a lovely and simple person. Trained in the best philosophical and theological centers of Europe, in Germany, in Italy, he nevertheless had an incredible capacity to never lose his Latin American roots. His work was always directed towards the people of the continent that he loved so much and about which he studied and reflected deeply about.
He was founder and great diffuser of the theology of the people, a branch of Latin American theology that he elaborated on the option for the poor from the history of culture. His bibliography is immense, with articles and books about this theology, which were read and learned by many generations of Latin American and European theologians.
In his teaching work he had many illustrious students. But one stands out in a special way: Jorge Mario Bergoglio SJ, today Pope Francis. In dialogue with Fr. Scannone, who was only a few years older than him, the Argentinean Bergoglio, has surely drawn much from Scannone in terms of the background of his theology and its spiritual and apostolic tenor. Much of the thought that overflows from the pontifical documents he writes, beginning with the Evangelii Gaudium, can be found in an embryonic form in the thought and work of Fr. Scannone.
At the Rio de Janeiro meeting from October 16 to 18, during which the Ecclesia in America network was founded, Scannone was an invaluable presence. Each of his interventions, each reflection provided an openness to newness and a deeply enriching depth for what was built together.
In the concluding session, he made an intervention that was a blessing and a confirmation for all of us who were there.

The reality of America is polyhedral, we are one and at the same time different. It is important to strengthen not only the unity of Latin America and the Caribbean, but of América as a whole. There is something typical of América that differentiates us from Europeans ... This meeting represents something new and different from other similar events. It was not merely academic and, on the other hand, something emerges that challenges us strongly: the issue of difference and of those below. We are not peripheries, because we are academia. We can put our service there where there is wisdom of life and the future of new life that arises from below. From here a seed of the university’s response to the service of the mission of the Church can be born, in favor of the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.

We did not know that those words that expressed what was lived in those days was also a farewell. Today we remember him with infinite respect and affection, and we are comforted by the security that he accompanies us and encourages us from the light of the Risen Lord where he now lives. May we continue to deepen and disseminate his invaluable work for the Church and society.

 

 

:: Curriculum

:: Publications

:: The Symbol-Laden Book of Experience
> Juan Carlos Scannone S.J. and Emmanuel Levinas

:: Mensaje del Papa Francisco por el doctorado Honoris Causa recibido por Juan Scannone

:: Foreword > Peter Casarella, Duke Divinity School

:: Spadaro: padre Scannone e le culture fecondate dal Vangelo
> Vatican News

:: Morto Juan Carlos Scannone, maestro di papa Francesco
> Avvenire.it

:: El profesor del Papa Francisco
> Por Emilce Cuda

:: Homilía de la misa exequial del P. Juan Carlos Scannone S.J.
> Por Gonzalo Zarazaga S.J.

:: Morre o jesuíta Juan Carlos Scannone, um dos fundadores da Teologia do Povo e da Filosofia da Libertação
> Instituto Humanitas Unisinos – IHU

:: In Memoria P. Juan Carlos Scannone S.J.
> Grupo de Doctrina Social de la Iglesia de la Organización de Universidades Católicas de América Latina y el Caribe

:: Carta do Prof. Mons. Piero Coda al Provincial de la Compañía de Jesús
Provincia Argentina-Uruguay