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Speaking last month at the CEHILA USA 2009 gathering at the University of New Mexico, Mario T. Garc'a, professor of Chicano studies and history at the University of California, Santa Barbara called veteran Catholic journalist Moises Sandoval, “one of the most important Latino Catholic writers in the United States during the last third of the twentieth century.”
This is true. I would only add that Sandoval is and will increasingly be seen as one of the most important Catholic writers in the United States during the last third of the twentieth century. His prescient writings have brought deep spiritual insight into the field of journalism and these writings are going to increasingly be seen as building blocks in the still forming field of liberation theology.
Sandoval’s dedication to the marginalized, his prescient understanding of the role of multiculturalism in American society, his commitment to the gospels, his personal humility and dedication to family all make him one of a kind.
CEHILA USA is an organization of Catholic, Protestant, and independent scholars, pastors, and students involved in the historical study of Hispanic Christianity in the U.S. It is the U.S. branch of a Pan-American organization dedicated to the historical study of Latin American Christianity, called CEHILA: Comisión para el Estudio de la Historia de la Iglesia en América Latina y el Caribe / Commission for Historical Studies of the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean. It was established in 1972 through the efforts of Latin American historian and philosopher Enrique Dussel. He and others were inspired by Vatican II and the Latin American Bishops Conference at Medell'n in 1968 to create an organization that would examine the history of the church in Latin America from the perspective of the poor.
In his remarks, Garc'a focused on a key element of Sandoval’s writings, his homilies, or sermons, as they appeared in the form of many editorials he wrote in Maryknoll magazine and Revista Maryknoll, the bi-lingual edition Sandoval founded.
You can read Garc'a’s paper here.
Sandoval is the author of several books including “On the Move, a History of the Hispanic church in the United States” (Orbis Books, 1990).