Camilo Torres Restrepo

Camilo Torres Restrepo

Father Camilo Torres Restrepo (born in Bogotá, Colombia 3 February, 1929 – Santander, 15 February 1966) was a Colombian Roman Catholic priest, a predecessor of the Liberation Theology and a member of the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group. During his life, he tried to reconcile revolutionary Marxism with Catholicism, or vice-versa.

Torres was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1954, but continued to study for some years at the Pontifical Catholic University of Leuven (Louvain) in Belgium. When he returned to Colombia, he increasingly felt obliged to actively support the cause of poor people and the labouring class. Camilo Torres believed that in order to secure justice for the people, Christians had a duty to use violent action.

As part of the academic staff of the National University of Colombia, he was a co-founder of the Sociology Faculty together with Orlando Fals Borda in 1960.

His involvement in several student and political movements during the time, won him a large following and also, many detractors, specially from the government and the church itself. Due to the growing pressure to back down from his radical positions, Camilo Torres, saw himself persecuted and went into hiding (leaving his job as an academic) by joining the guerrillas in Colombia.

He served as a low-ranking member of the ELN to whom he also provided spiritual assistance and inspiration from a Marxist-Christian point of view. He was killed in his first combat experience, when the ELN ambushed a Colombian Military patrol.

After his death, Camilo Torres was made an official martyr of the ELN.

He is perhaps best known for the quote: "If Jesus were alive today, He would be a guerrillero."

In the Dominican Republic in 1970 a revolutionary group that included catholic clergy members and university students was founded under the name CORECATO which stood for Comando Revolucionario Camilo Torres or Revolutionary Command Camilo Torres.

External links

*es icon [http://www.filosofia.org/ave/001/a230.htm Biography from filosofia.org]
*es icon [http://www.marxists.org/espanol/camilo/cronologia.htm Biography from Marxists.org]


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  • Camilo Torres Restrepo — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Para otros usos de este término, véase Camilo Torres. Camilo Torres Restrepo Miembro del Comando Central, jefe militar y político del ELN Años de servicio 1960 1966 (aproximadamente) …   Wikipedia Español

  • Camilo Torres Restrepo — né le 3 février 1929 à Bogotá, mort le 15 février 1966 à San Vicente de Chucurí, est un sociologue, militant de gauche, prêtre et révolutionnaire colombien. Il œuvra pour la représentation et les droits des Colombiens les plus …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Camilo Torres — Restrepo Camilo Torres Restrepo né le 3 février 1929 à Bogotá, mort le 15 février 1966 à San Vicente, est un sociologue, militant de gauche, prêtre et révolutionnaire colombien. Il œuvra pour la représentation et les droits… …   Wikipédia en Français

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  • Camilo Torres — may refer to:;People* Camilo Torres Restrepo, a liberation theologian, priest and guerrilla member in Colombia during the 1960s. * Camilo Torres Tenorio, a political leader of Colombia s independence struggle against Spain in the 1810s.… …   Wikipedia

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  • TORRES RESTREPO (C.) — TORRES RESTREPO CAMILO (1929 1966) Né à Bogotá, dans une famille de la grande bourgeoisie citadine, Camilo Torres fait des études de droit et collabore au journal La Razón . Ordonné prêtre en 1952, il étudie la sociologie à Louvain, où il est… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Torres Restrepo — Torres Restrepo, Camilo …   Enciclopedia Universal

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