Beginnings Pere Casaldàliga was born on 16 February 1928 in
Balsareny,
Catalonia,
Spain, and grew up on his family's cattle ranch. He joined the
Claretians, entering the Claretian Seminary of
Vic at the age of nine. He was ordained a priest in Barcelona on 31 May 1952. Casaldàliga moved to Brazil as a missionary in 1968. On 27 April 1970,
Pope Paul VI named him Apostolic Administrator of the Territorial Prelature of São Félix. On 27 August 1971, Pope Paul named him prelate of that jurisdiction and titular bishop of
Altava. He received his episcopal consecration in the night of 23 October 1971 from Fernando Gomes dos Santos,
Archbishop of Goiânia near
Araguaia river.
Brazilian dictatorship In the 1970s, the military regime ruling Brazil tried without success to force Casaldàliga to leave the country. His advocacy for indigenous peoples and peasants resulted in repeated death threats, and in 1976 a priest was killed standing alongside him at a march protesting the mistreatment of female prisoners. In 1986, Casaldàliga founded a pilgrimage, Romería de los Mártires, held every five years.
Liberation theology movement and friction with the Vatican In June 1988, as part of a Vatican effort to place restrictions on the liberation theology movement and following its 1985 silencing of Brazilian theologian
Leonardo Boff, Casaldáliga was called to Rome to be examined by Cardinals
Joseph Ratzinger and
Bernadin Gantin on his theological writings and pastoral activity. The
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) and the
Congregation of Bishops produced a statement for him to sign as an acknowledgment of his errors. The statement decreed that he would not add political content to processions, would accept restrictions on his theological work, and only say Mass or preach outside of Brazil, especially in Nicaragua, with permission from the local bishop. He did not sign it. He summarized his views: "My attitude is a reflection of the view of the church in many regions of the world... I have criticized the Curia over the way bishops are chosen, over the minimal space given to women, over its distrust of liberation theology and bishops' conferences, over its excessive centralism. This does not mean a break with Rome. Within the family of the church and through dialogue, we need to open up more space." Despite its regimen anti-religious policies, he was a self-described "passionate" supporter of the communist regimen of
Cuba and
Fidel Castro. In 1999, he published a "Love Declaration to the Total Revolution of Cuba" ("Declaração de Amor à Revolução Total de Cuba").
Later years Pope John Paul II accepted Casaldàliga's resignation on 2 February 2005. Anticipating the appointment of his successor, he objected that it would happen without the people of the prelature being consulted. In retirement he continued to live in
São Félix do Araguaia, He had Parkinson's disease since at least 2012; he referred to it as "Brother Parkinson". In 2015,
Pope Francis consulted Casaldàliga, among others, during the writing of the encyclical ''
Laudato si'''. ==Death threats==