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Juan Landazuri Ricketts
Juan Landazuri Ricketts 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. Before he turned 80 on December 19, 1993, Juan Landazuri Ricketts was the last Cardinal elevated by Pope John XXIII to retain voting rights in a papal conclave.
Born as Guillermo Eduardo Landazuri Ricketts in Arequipa, Landazuri 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 Puerto 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, Landazuri Ricketts was appointed 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. By 1962 he had become Primate of Peru and was made a Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Aracoeli by Pope John XXIII in June 1962. He 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.
Related websites
The Church and the Military
thefarsight2.blogspot.com
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