Virgilio Elizondo, 'father of U.S. Latino religious thought,' dies at age 80
Virgilio Elizondo, 80, a Mexican-American Catholic priest and theologian described as “the father of U.S. Latino religious thought,” died March 14 in San Antonio.
The Medical Examiner’s Office for Bexar County, Texas, determined his death from a gunshot wound to have been a suicide.
Elizondo was professor of pastoral and Hispanic theology at the University of Notre Dame, and his scholarly work drew from his own roots in Latin America’s mix of Spanish and indigenous, or mestizo, cultures. Elizondo authored more than a dozen books, including The Future Is Mestizo: Life Where Cultures Meet and Galilean Journey: The Mexican-American Promise. He also directed and produced films in English and Spanish. While serving as rector of San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio in the 1980s and 1990s, his broadcast of Spanish-language mass reached more than 1 million households, Catholic News Service reported.
