Juan Landázuri Ricketts
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Cardinal Juan Landázuri Ricketts (born Guillermo Eduardo Landázuri Ricketts December 19, 1913, Arequipa, Peru; died January 16, 1997, Lima, Peru) was one of the most prominent Roman Catholic Churchmen during the 1960s and 1970s in Latin America. This was a period in which the Church was compelled to take a strong stand on human rights abuses by numerous military juntas and also concerning problems of extreme poverty and wealth inequality.
Born in Arequipa, Landázuri Ricketts joined the Order of Friars Minor in 1937 (taking the name Juan) and became a priest two years later. His ability as a priest was immediately noticed and he became secretary to the general delegation of his order as early as 1943. After finishing his theological studies in 1949, he was briefly a faculty member of the Franciscan Theological Seminary in Ocopa, but his status within the wider Church was increasing rapidly and he became the general definitor of the Order of Friars Minor by 1951.
The following year, Landázuri Ricketts was chosen as titular bishop of Roina and was chosen in 1955 to replace the deceased Juan Gualberto Guevara as Archbishop of Lima. His appointment coincided with the a radically modernising military dictatorship under Manuel Odria - which they were to hold on and off until 1980. As Archbishop, he collaborated with these efforts for sweeping agricultural and institutional reforms aimed at taking Peru into the modern world and developing its great economic potential, because he felt strongly that these would improve social conditions in the country. At least initially, he did believe that what the first military governments did was changing Peru for the better, but by 1962 he had became Primate of Peru and was made a cardinal by Pope John XXIII in June of that year.
Landázuri Ricketts also made great efforts, aided by the Jesuits in Peru, to consolidate the vast archives of the Lima Archdiocese that had accumulated ever since European colonisation of Latin America. This has been seen as a major effort because consolidation had been so completely neglected by his predecessors.
The following period saw Landázuri Ricketts have to contend with the rapid development of liberation theology and resistance to the military dictatorship under Manuel Perez Godoy ruling Peru. Landázuri Ricketts responded to this with considerable support, trying his best to ensure that laity and nuns had considerable say in local decision-making. He became a major participant as Acting President in the 1968 Medellin Conference and was elected as the leader of local episcopal conferences almost without opposition until he reached the age of 75 in 1988. During this period, in accordance with his Franciscan ideals, Landázuri Ricketts also left the Archbishop's palace and moved into a small house in working-class areas of Lima. His tall, stately figure impressed almost everybody who knew him.
Although Landázuri Ricketts served on the Pontifical Institute for Interreligious Dialogue during the 1970s, his relationship with the Vatican soured after the ascension of John Paul II as that pope aimed to deal with the problem the Vatican believed to be posed by liberation theology. Despite being an extremely respected prelate, he was not able to stem the tide of Opus Dei bishops and sympathisers appointed in Peru during the 1980s and 1990s, and his advancing age led him to resign his role as head of the South American Bishops' conferences in 1989.
He retired from the episcopate in 1990 and was succeeded by Vargas Alzamora. After his death in 1997 he was accused by the next Archbishop of Lima, Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne of having committed "immoral behaviour" whilst in office. The charge was not taken seriously either inside or outside the Vatican.
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[edit] Trivia
Before he turned 80 on December 19, 1993, Juan Landázuri Ricketts was the last cardinal elevated by John XXIII to retain voting rights in a papal conclave.
