Julio de la Torre, C.Ss.R.

Professor Emeritus of the Alphonsian Academy Julio de la Torre, C.Ss.R. passed away September 24, 1998. He was residing in the Redemptorist community of the Instituto de Ciencias Morales de Madrid. A diabetic coma claimed his life only a few hours after having admitted himself to a local hospital. Funeral services were held in Madrid.

Professor de la Torre was born in Noain (Navarra - Spain) on December 5, 1919. He completed his studies in the humanities (1930 - 1936) at the Redemptorist seminary in El Espino (Burgos). His theological studies were interrupted by his military service during the Spanish civil war (1936 - 1939) He pronounced his vows as a Redemptorist on August 24, 1937 and was ordained a priest in Astorga (León) on March 26, 1944.

From 1952 until 1955 he specialized in Political Science earning his advanced degree from the University of Louvain. In 1974 he earned his Doctorate in Moral Theology from the Alphonsian Academy.

Father Julio de la Torre’s service had only one focus. As soon as his studies were completed he was destined for the world of academics. Totally giving himself to his mission he dedicated his life, heart and soul, to teaching and study. His work as a professor, begun in the Redemptorist institutes of higher education in Spain (Astorga, Valladolid, Madrid) soon spread to numerous universities: Universidad del Norte de España (Vitoria), Facultad de Teología de Deusto (Bilbao), The University of the Sacred Heart of Milan (Rome), The Augustinianum (Rome) and the Marianum (Rome).

However, Father de la Torre’s primary dedication and efforts were reserved for the two Redemptorist centers which he held closest to his heart: The Alphonsian Academy in Rome where he taught since 1970 and the Instituto de Ciencas Morales of the Pontifical University of Comillas in Madrid where he was a professor since 1971.

His academic activity often went beyond the walls of the institutes at which he taught actively participating in Congresses and Seminars in Spain, Italy, Switzerland and numerous countries in South America.

As an author, he made his presence felt in the scientific world by means of various books such as Nuevos supuestos metodológicos de la Teología política and Cristianos en la sociedad política.

Professor de la Torre emerges as a wonderfully complete combination of a very human personality filled with graciousness, sympathy and respect for others, and at the same time, a profound life in the mistery of the transcendent. Father De la Torre was a deeply religious man. It was precisely this co-mingling of the human and transcendent that gave rise to his passion for Political Theology on which he would center his teaching and literary activity.

His close personal contact and experience with thousands of students are the foundation of the central role which Professor de la Torre assigned to the concrete human person, who, from the study of current patterns of thought, attempts to develop new patterns that will serve to organize his future in the society and Church in which he will live. This led to, his concentration on the problems related to the "method", understood as "the way of arriving at the reality within reality".

This focus on the "method" led him to discover one of the fundamental causes for the hardening of Catholic theology which, having confused method with logic, had consigned revelation to the same logical game that Aristotle played with concepts. Consequently, Professor de la Torre’s focus became to reorient theological reflection so as to consider reality as a dynamic and evolving whole.

This methodological insight is of great importance for Moral Theology which must address concrete historical problems and which requires a theological instrument which will neither prevent nor lead astray its access to the concrete.

The contemporary relevance of Father de la Torre’s thought consists in elucidating how politics and economy are the great challenge to Moral Theology in our time. These two forces condition the structures and behavior of society and individuals.

His students recognized the depth and relevance of his moral teaching. That is why they flocked with great interest to attend his classes, lectures and seminars. He was one of the most popular professors at the Academy and one to which a great number of students wanted as director for their licentiate and doctoral theses. On his retirement at a very young 70 years of age a friend and collegue of his commented that his living quarters were filled with hundreds of theses which he had directed over his long tenure at the Alphonsian Academy. His memory now becomes part of the rich heritage of the Alphonsian Academy as the preeminent professor of Political and Economic Moral Theology.

We ask you to remember Father De la Torre in your prayers. We ask this especially of all those who have known, admired and shared a closeness with him as professor and guide.