Pere Casaldāliga was born in February 1928 in Balsareny, in the province of Barcelona. Son of a country rancher, he studied in La Gleva and Vic, and enrolled in the order of the Claretians. Ordained as priest in Montjuīc, Barcelona, in 1952, he carried out several offices in Sabadell, Barcelona, Barbastre and Madrid, until he accepted in 1968 the task of founding a Claretian mission in Brazil, in São Félix do Araguaia, in the State of Mato Grosso.
El 1970, he published a first document entitled 'Feudalism and slavery in the North of Mato Grosso', that describes the situation of feudal slavery in which the peasants of the region live.
Sanctified as bishop in 1971, he was entrusted with the Prelature of São Félix do Araguaia, where he discovered a town totally oppressed by the latifundists, with a very high level of illiteracy, a town without any sanitary assistance, means of communication, etc. So began an intense task in the defence of the weakest in a system full of extreme inequalities.
His first pastoral letter, 'A church in Amazonia in conflict with latifundism and social marginalisation', in 1971, reflected the reality of the Prelature and pondered on the Christian commitment in the name of the Gospel with justice and peace, and rapidly became programmatic.
CKnown as 'Mr. Pedro', Casaldāliga is one of the most representative personalities of the Church of the Poor in Brazil, in Latin America and throughout the entire world. Considered as one of the most faithful followers of the theology of releasement, he is one of the founders of the Indigenous Missionary Council and of the Pastoral Committee of the Earth of the Brazilian Church.
His loyalty to his people and to his principles has often earned him the animosity of governors and of some powerful men. The military dictatorship has tried to expel him from the country on five occasions. His Prelature has been invaded in military operations on another four. In 1977, Father Juan Bosco Penido Burnier was shot and murdered, at his side. He and Casaldāliga were protesting against the tortures that the police were carrying out against imprisoned women. Some of his priests were arrested and one of these, Francisco Jentel, was condemned to 10 years of imprisonment and expelled from the country. The file of the Prelature was sacked and its bulletin was edited in an apocryphal manner, in order to incriminate the bishop. Mr. Pedro has also been pursued by conservative sectors of the Roman Curia and of the Brazilian and Central American Church.
A writer and poet, he is the author of tens of books, records and videos, always with the profile of the theology of releasement. He so has an extensive literary, essayist and poetical production, in Catalan, Spanish and Portuguese. He is one of the authors of the 'Mass of the World without evils' and of the 'Mass of the Palenques (Quilombos)', with Milton Nascimento and Pedro Tierra.
Casaldāliga has received numerous distinctions, including the Cross of Sant Jordi of the Generalitat de Catalunya (1990), the Alfons Comín International Award (1992), the Jaume I Prize of Honour (1993), and the Peace Prize of the Association for United Nations in Spain (1997); In the year 2000, he was invested as Doctor Honoris Causa of the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), of Sao Paulo, in Brazil.
In September 2003, after 35 years of dedication to his Prelature, Casaldāliga placed his position at the disposal of the Pope, and his resignation was accepted. In February 2005 a new bishop was appointed to the Prelature, but Pere Casaldāliga remains there, with the desire to die one day among his people.
- Minutes of the Jury (55 kb) (cat)