Saint Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga

Saint Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga was a Chilean Jesuit, trained in law, an educator of young people, and the founder of the Hogar de Cristo, a work that gave the homeless, especially street children, a true home. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on August 18, the day of his death.

He was born on January 22, 1901, in Viña del Mar. He was four years old when his father died. His mother had to sell their modest property at a loss to pay the debts, and Alberto and his brother went to live with relatives and were often moved from one household to another. Early on, then, he learned what it meant to be poor and dependent on others. Thanks to a scholarship he studied at the Jesuit Colegio San Ignacio in Santiago, where he belonged to the Sodality of Our Lady and on Sunday afternoons visited the poor in the most wretched neighborhoods.

After finishing school in 1917 he wished to become a Jesuit, but he was advised first to take care of his mother and younger brother. He supported them by working while studying law at the Catholic University. He received his degree in August 1923, and on August 14 he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Chillán. He studied in Córdoba, Argentina, and in Spain, and, when the Jesuits were expelled from Spain in 1931, at Louvain in Belgium. There he was ordained a priest on August 24, 1933, and in 1935 he earned a doctorate in pedagogy and psychology.

In January 1936 he returned to Chile. He taught religion at the Colegio San Ignacio and pedagogy at the Catholic University, preached retreats, and was the spiritual director of many young men. In 1941 he published his best-known book, “¿Es Chile un país católico?” (“Is Chile a Catholic Country?”), and became the chaplain of the youth branch of Catholic Action, first in the Archdiocese of Santiago and then for the whole country.

In October 1944, while preaching a retreat, he drew his listeners’ attention to the poor, especially to the homeless children on the streets of Santiago. The response was generous, and so the Hogar de Cristo, the Home of Christ, was born, first for children, then for women and men. In 1947 he founded the Chilean Trade Union Association (ASICH), based on the social teaching of the Church, and in 1951 the review “Mensaje.” Benedict XVI called him a true contemplative in action.

Pancreatic cancer brought him to his death within a few months. Amid great pain he would repeat: “Contento, Señor, contento” (“I am content, Lord, content”). He died in Santiago on August 18, 1952. He rests in the shrine beside the Hogar de Cristo, which Pope Francis visited in 2018. In Chile the day of his death is observed as the Day of Solidarity.

John Paul II beatified him in Rome on October 16, 1994, and presented him as a sign of the new evangelization, “a visit of God to the Chilean homeland.” Benedict XVI canonized him on October 23, 2005, in Saint Peter’s Square.