Organized by the Academic Department of Humanities of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and the Peruvian Academy of Ecclesiastical History, the International Conference “Between the two Vatican Councils: the Church in Peru, 1869-1965” took place on Friday, August 28 at PUCP.

Among the 18 exhibitions there were two related to the prelature of Yauyos, a new ecclesiastical territorial structure that Pope Pius XII entrusted to Opus Dei in 1957, a territory that was separated from the archdiocese of Lima.

Manuel de la Puente gave a session on the Prelature of Yauyos and the “preferential option for the poor”, while the director of the Josemaría Escrivá Center for Studies (CEJE) of the University of Navarra (Spain), Santiago Martínez Sánchez, spoke on “Two bishops and one destiny: Ignacio de Orbegozo and Luis Sánchez-Moreno in the prelature of Yauyos (1957 and 1996)”.

The activity took place on the PUCP campus in Lima and, among other topics, addressed: the contributions to evangelization in the 20th century, the Vatican Councils and Peru; prelates, clergy and secularization in Peru; as well as Church, laity and devotions in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The evangelization of Yauyos and the “preferential option for the poor”

Father Manuel de la Puente, a researcher at the University of Piura, explained how Opus Dei became involved in the evangelization of Yauyos, a rugged area south of Lima. The Spanish priests who arrived in 1957 undertook evangelization work and a comprehensive human development program in the villages, some located at altitudes of over 4,500 meters, lacking roads and adequate transportation, and in a dramatic state of religious and material neglect.

“The creation of the Prelature of Yauyos was providential for Opus Dei in Peru, because it wasn’t an initiative they sought, but rather a response to a direct request from the Holy See. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to reach those extremely impoverished rural communities so quickly. It’s important to note that this task wasn’t solely the work of clergy, as lay people, both men and women, also participated, conveying Opus Dei’s message of spreading the call to the fullness of Christian life amidst everyday realities in the course of their professional work,” he pointed out.

“The pastoral work in Yauyos can be seen as an alternative manifestation of what would later be called ‘the preferential option for the poor.’ An alternative option, because it was an evangelizing task that was not imbued with the narrative of class struggle.”

To understand the pastoral work underway in Yauyos, it is illuminating to consider the vision of Saint Josemaría, founder of Opus Dei, regarding the Peruvian situation. In 1966, speaking with Father Luis Tejerizo, a priest who had lived in Peru since the age of 25, he said: “In Peru there is a great difference between social classes, and Opus Dei tries to reduce it, not by going against those at the top, but by lifting up those at the bottom, lifting them up through work.”

To contribute to the basic needs of the population of Yauyos

Manuel de la Puente also explained that alongside the pastoral and evangelizing work carried out by the priests, there was always a tremendous human development effort. “They became managers of the population’s basic needs. They themselves understood it as a human task of community development,” stated Father de la Puente Brunke, who is currently researching a publication on the history of the beginnings of Opus Dei in Peru.

“This inclusive pastoral work was divided into two fronts: on the one hand, the spiritual work of the sacraments: baptisms, confirmations, confessions, first communions, last rites, and marriages. On the other hand, the social work and infrastructure: the priests channeled aid from the United States and Caritas to carry out large-scale community projects. Thus, the Prelature of Yauyos undertook dozens of ongoing projects, including 78 kilometers of access roads to the villages, dams on lagoons at 5,000 meters, irrigation canals, schools, health posts, and sports fields.”

They also organized more than two hundred Caritas centers to serve the poor in as many villages, distributing food and clothing. This work was not limited to providing assistance. The aim was for the farmers themselves, through their voluntary work, to become the protagonists of their own well-being.

Monsignor Enrique Pélach in Yauyos

One figure stands out in this story: Enrique Pélach, one of the first priests to arrive in Yauyos to provide pastoral care, who would later become Bishop of Abancay from 1968 to 1992, another very poor area in southern Peru, ravaged by terrorism. Manuel de la Puente indicated that he was unjustly censured in the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which disqualified him: “…for not considering social concerns as part of his pastoral mission.”

De la Puente points out that “apart from the perplexity that arises when one notices that a civil society organization is allowed to judge the pastoral work of a bishop, recent academic research has described this situation as ‘ironic’, because it was precisely Pélach who promoted in Abancay a whole generation of native and Quechua-speaking priests.”

In conclusion, “Yauyos appears as a pastoral task, among others carried out in Peru, that, knowing how to deal with the intellectual elites in the capital, did not hesitate to become involved in serving the Church among its most needy members. They put into practice a preferential option for the poor, neither exclusive nor exclusionary, which sees in the poor a child of God called to the fullness of Christian life that includes human development.”

“Two bishops and one destiny: Ignacio de Orbegozo and Luis Sánchez-Moreno in the prelature of Yauyos (1957 and 1996)”

For his part, Professor Santiago Martínez Sánchez, from the University of Navarra and director of the Josemaría Escrivá Center for Studies (CEJE) at that university, addressed the similarities and differences between the first two bishops of Yauyos, Ignacio de Orbegozo and Luis Sánchez-Moreno Lira, who were the first two bishops in the history of Opus Dei.

“Ignacio de Orbegozo was appointed prelate in 1957 and later consecrated bishop in 1964; Luis Sánchez-Moreno became auxiliary bishop of Chiclayo in 1961. Both are the first of a series of Opus Dei bishops who would eventually serve in various dioceses in Peru,” Martínez noted. Monsignor Orbegozo served in the Prelature of Yauyos from 1957 to 1968. From then until 1996, it was pastorally governed by Monsignor Sánchez-Moreno.

Monsignor Ignacio de Orbegozo

The speaker noted that Ignacio de Orbegozo, a doctor by profession and ordained a priest in 1951, was an austere, very affectionate, and witty person, sometimes even a bit blunt in his manner. A bishop who traveled by horse and jeep, an active man who, above all, had an extraordinary closeness with his presbytery.

“To exaggerate, but not by much—not by much, I tell you the truth—his priests would kill for him, and he would kill for his priests (figuratively speaking, of course). There was an extraordinary bond between him and his presbytery. In a letter of his from 1958, he recounts driving fourteen hours round trip from Lima to Yauyos to visit one of his priests who, he believed, was very ill. He meets with them for monthly retreats, visits them as often as he can. And with them, he hunts partridges, fishes for trout in Yauyos, and plays five-a-side football… and he always tries to beat them.”

Monsignor Luis Sánchez-Moreno Lira

For his part, the director of CEJE explains, “Luis Sánchez-Moreno Lira is a refined man from Arequipa, quite the opposite of Orbegozo’s personality. He is a lawyer and also holds two doctorates, one in civil law and the other in canon law. He is a very methodical, organized, systematic, and detail-oriented person, and more distant in his dealings with the clergy. These differences stem from their individual personalities. I wouldn’t define them as antagonistic, but rather as quite different.”

Santiago Martínez also explained the similarities between the two, which are numerous. Both were young when appointed bishops: Ignacio de Orbegozo, 34; Luis Sánchez-Moreno, 36. Both participated in the Second Vatican Council; they shared an interest in fostering Peruvian vocations; a desire to secure financial resources for Yauyos; and a common wish to contribute to the social and economic improvement of the population in their region.

The relationship of both bishops with Saint Josemaría and their concern for vocations

“Both bishops belong to Opus Dei and have a strong connection with its founder, Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, whom they know and interact with frequently. Ignacio de Orbegozo, in particular, met him in Spain and later lived with Escrivá in Rome. Luis Sánchez-Moreno met him in Rome between 1955 and 1957, the year he was ordained a priest. Both feel enormous veneration, respect, and affection for Escrivá de Balaguer, whom they consider a true father.”

One piece of advice from Saint Josemaría that they both followed was to have their own seminary and, thus, have native priests: it was the best way to guarantee the pastoral and evangelizing future in Yauyos, the goal and at the same time the origin of Pius XII’s decision to entrust that territory to Opus Dei.

The work of Valle Grande and Condoray

Martínez comments that “housing was an area to which they both paid close attention. But it wasn’t the only one. The agricultural training of the peasantry after the 1968 agrarian reform in Peru was also very important. This field, above all, was covered by Valle Grande, a rural institute launched in 1965 by some engineers from Opus Dei, along with other professionals, in San Vicente de Cañete. It organized numerous courses, initially aimed at the peasant cooperatives that emerged after the expropriation of the haciendas, and later at small-scale peasant landowners.”

There were also numerous women’s literacy programs undertaken by Condoray, a women’s training institute run by women of Opus Dei, in Cañete in 1963; as well as programs to improve child nutrition that began in 1989, and countless initiatives that contributed to women’s leadership, through the training of rural promoters.

What was Opus Dei doing in Yauyos?

“On an institutional level, I would say that the view that Opus Dei is only interested in the rich is nuanced or, to use a more colloquial Spanish term, completely false. If that opinion were true, Opus Dei would never have gone to Yauyos, an area of ​​extreme poverty. Or, if they had gone, they would have withdrawn immediately upon seeing the very unfavorable material conditions of that land. But neither of those things happened. When the Holy See entrusted Yauyos to Opus Dei, the founder and his advisors were well aware of its poverty, neglect, and material and spiritual needs,” noted historian Martínez.

Martínez indicates that the prelates and their presbytery did not conceive of Christianity (nor pastoral action) as divided into the spiritual and the material, as two incompatible or antagonistic areas. Rather, in the Prelature of Yauyos, three aspects went hand in hand from the beginning: the administration of sacraments, the celebration of the Word and the spiritual life of the parishioners, and the social advancement of those abandoned people who warmly welcomed the presence of those priests who came from Spain and those native priests who began to be ordained from 1978 to the present day.

Author:  Carlos Enríquez