St. Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga

  Posted on August 18, 2024  by admin  No comments

Born: 22 January 1901 at Vina del Mar, Chile

Died: 18 August 1952 at Santiago, Chile of pancreatic cancer

Canonized: 23 October 2005 by Pope Benedict XVI at Rome, Italy.

Alberto’s father died when the boy was four years old, and he grew up in poverty. Educated at the Jesuit College in Santiago, Chile. He early felt a call to religion, and to work with those as poor as himself. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1923, and was ordained in 1933. He taught religion at Colegion San Ignacio, trained teachers at Catholic University in Santiago, led retreats for young men, and worked in the poor areas of the city whenever he could. In 1941 he wrote Is Chile a Catholic Country?, and became national chaplain to the youth movement Catholic Action. During a retreat in 1944, Father Alberto started the work that would lead to El Hogar de Cristo which shelters the homeless and tries to rescue abandoned children, and was later modelled somewhat on the American Boys Town movement. In 1947, Hurtado founded the Chilean Trade Union Association (ASICH) to promote a Christian labour-union movement. He founded the journal Mensaje, dedicated to explaining the Church’s teaching, in 1951. He wrote several works in his later years on trade unions, social humanism and the Christian social order.