Red Blood Vessel One Eye

Gonzalo Gamio Gehri

I just learned that my good friend Vicente Santuca - Jesuit priest and one of the framers of the University Antonio Ruiz de Montoya - has died. The pain of the loss of so valuable a person is really deep. I have known Vincent since the mid- 1996 when, aged 25, went to teach at the then School Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, assuming the Seminar contemporary authors (communitarians) . Vicente was a master of words deep, sharp intellect and an ability to articulate the philosophical concepts and experiences of everyday life. It was also a priest who had the deep conviction that the Christian commitment should combine faith with the rational pursuit of truth and with the option for the weak. Love of Peru - where he lived for 43 years - was a connoisseur of Amazon and the north (he was one of the founders CIPCA). He would have liked to end his life in our country, but death overtook him in Paris, a city that had been set to begin a sabbatical year of research. Vicente

met in different facets of academic life and priesthood. Rector, philosopher, pastor, retreat director, counselor. He was also the celebrant of baptism of my son Iñigo. In 1999 we published together - and Francis Chamberlain - Democracy, civil society and solidarity , a collection of essays on political philosophy. However, beyond all their academic qualities, was a great friend. We talked often reserved at least an hour to chat despite his busy schedule. He had a hearty laugh, contagious. And an endless hope in the goodness of the human heart that only spirits are really young. I was privileged to have him as a player and partner of my essays, for about thirteen years. I sent my text, and always interesting comments and criticisms received invaluable. Similarly, I assigned the reading of his essays, and frequently talked about them. I knew the manuscripts that shaped Ethics and Politics: What happens to us? , The mole in his labyrinth and his most recent book, Anthropology existential. The theme of the phenomenology of corporeality and language were the philosophical heart of his proposal.

The second stage of my journey in Christianity owe it to Vincent, his direction of Exercises of St. Ignatius back in 1999. Thanks to his teaching, I realized that faith and freedom can stay together without sacrificing the autonomy and critical thinking. His anxiety to return to the "Principle and Foundation", the sense of creature and the perception of the Gratuity marked his experience of Christianity has decisively influenced the perspective of his friends and colleagues. That belief is - and in key concept - the horizon of his own existential anthropology. Faith is not an epistemic concept or a religious doctrine but confidence in the action of love in life.

Still I have a lump in my throat. A dear friend has left us. However, I repeat the words of Vincent as he reflected on the departure of other mutual friends: Thanks for the gift of life, celebrate those who shared with us.

Thank you dear friend.