Fr Charlie Currie SJ: Ignatian family loses a giant for social justice

Fr Charles Currie

Source: ISN

Fr Charlie Currie SJ, a founding board member of the Ignatian Solidarity Network and co-catalyst of the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice, passed away January 4, 2019, at the age of 88, the Ignatian Solidarity blog reports.

November 16, 1989, is a day that would alter Fr Currie's path for the rest of his Jesuit ministry.

Currie had just returned from a trip to Vietnam, when he received a call from Fr Leo O'Donovan, SJ, then-president of Georgetown University. O'Donovan shared the news that six Jesuits - Fr Ignacio Ellacuría, SJ, Fr Ignacio Martín-Baró, SJ, Fr Segundo Montes, SJ, Fr Juan Ramón Moreno, SJ, Fr Joaquín López y López, SJ, Fr Amando López, SJ - and their housekeeper Elba Ramos, and her 15-year-old daughter Celina Ramos, had been murdered at the Jesuit's University of Central America (UCA) in San Salvador, El Salvador. O'Donovan asked Fr Currie to coordinate Georgetown University's response to the murders, including serving as a liaison to the US Congressional investigation that would evolve over the next few years.

A few days later, Fr Currie met with Fr Jon Sobrino, SJ, the liberation theologian who avoided being a ninth victim at the UCA because he had been traveling in Thailand at the time of the murders. Sobrino came to Georgetown days after the murders and provided integral context for Currie to understand the significant work of the UCA Jesuits, in particular, Ignacio Ellacuria, SJ, the university president, to be fully committed to the economically poor and marginalized of El Salvador through teaching, research, and public discourse.

To read on, click here on the Ignatian Solidarity blog https://ignatiansolidarity.net/blog/2019/01/06/charlie-currie-the-ignatian-family-loses-a-giant-for-social-justice/?utm_source=ISN+Updates+List&utm_campaign=da31d9cd08-NEWS_VOICES_011019&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f721035495-da31d9cd08-255752897&mc_cid=da31d9cd08&mc_eid=b25524e010