Born in 1945 in Butte, Montana, Judd<\/a> was raised in a mining community composed of people from diverse backgrounds looking for work. He comes from a family of Italian immigrants who established a small business, Charley\u2019s New Deal Bar. Learning from his parents to welcome all kinds of people \u2014 \u201csaloon ministry\u201d \u2014 formed him for mission, Father Judd says. He later remarked that a priest convenes people of different backgrounds for a single purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Judd studied Spanish at the University of Montana and earned a master\u2019s degree in Spanish literature at the University of New Mexico. He then joined the Air Force. While stationed in Cape Cod, he came across Maryknoll flyers in the military base chapel. Judd soon got in touch with Father Shea, then vocations director in Boston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Father Judd recalls as if it were yesterday his arrival at the Maryknoll Seminary<\/a> in New York. Bags still unpacked, he sat down for breakfast at the table with a priest who ministered in Peru. At the end of the meal, the priest invited him to visit. \u201cAt that very moment,\u201d Father Judd says, \u201cI felt called to serve there.\u201d It was on the resulting trip that he met the renowned Dominican priest and Peruvian philosopher, Father Guti\u00e9rrez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ordained five years later, in 1978, Father Judd\u2019s first assignment was to Peru.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Liberation theology became an essential lens for him in mission. \u201cI had an experience with this new current of theological reflection as a methodology,\u201d Father Judd says, \u201cto respond to my concerns regarding the signs of the times \u2014 through the eyes of my faith.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Father Judd returned to the U.S. to complete a doctorate at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California<\/a>. Through his studies, he reflected on his experience of serving the poor in Peru. He became absorbed in the writing of Father Guti\u00e9rrez and Latin American liberation theology. \u201cThis theology did not have as its starting point doctrinal dogmatic questions,\u201d he explains, \u201cbut rather the faith experience of poor people in Latin America in their search for meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The core of liberation theology is found in the mission of Jesus, Father Judd explains, citing the Biblical verse, \u201cHe has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free\u201d (Luke 4:18<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Christian mission is oriented towards the integral liberation of each person from sin, but it extends to the human family \u2014 and God\u2019s creation \u2014 through global solidarity and a life of witness to the joy of this good news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The point of departure is the collective life of faith \u2014 especially of the people \u201ccrucified\u201d in the world today. The sixteenth-century missionary Fray Bartolom\u00e9 de Las Casas<\/a> \u201cspoke of \u2018crucified peoples who die before their time of an early and unjust death,\u2019\u201d Father Judd says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Father Judd, this has meant walking with Indigenous people, notably in Peru for 26 years and in Bolivia for 16 years. \u201cI have been guided by the profound pastoral experience among the Andean peoples (Aymara and Quechua) in Peru and Bolivia, the Maya in Guatemala and Mexico, the Mapuche in Chile and the Patagonia of Argentina, the Krah\u00f4 tribe in Brazil and most recently among the Lakota people<\/a> here in the U.S.,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have been formed and nourished through learning about their cosmovisions, rich in symbolic worldview,\u201d Father Judd continues. \u201cI have been evangelized by them throughout my missionary journey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this journey, he follows in Maryknoll\u2019s footsteps in Latin America. Arriving first in Bolivia in 1942<\/a>, Maryknoll missioners served marginalized, primarily Indigenous communities. They learned to approach the people \u201cwith an appreciation for their original cultures in dialogue with our shared Christian faith,\u201d he says. \u201cOur pastoral practices were created with respect, without impositions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n These perspectives influenced the development of Maryknoll\u2019s mission theology. \u201cThey instilled in us a sensitivity to listen to new voices,\u201d he says, and \u201callowed us to cultivate an openness to new theological expressions and to learn from the social sciences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Working with local churches and communities throughout Latin America, early efforts led to rural development projects, the Institute for Rural Education and a radiocommunications school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Serving in the southern Andes of Peru, Father Judd witnessed \u201cthe struggles of Indigenous peoples who were denied a claim to their ancestral lands, which had unjustly been placed in the hands of large landowners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also witnessed the way that native Andean language, symbols and rituals were incorporated into pilgrimages and liturgical celebrations, giving the people hope and strength in their struggles. The local church even supported massive nonviolent marches and other campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An approach to theology that challenges power structures and systems of oppression is not without critics and opponents. Some claimed that Guti\u00e9rrez and other liberation theologians overly politicized the Gospel. But the Church was catapulted into the modern world not by liberation theology, but by the Second Vatican Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the second conference in Medell\u00edn, Colombia, in 1968<\/a>, the Latin American bishops took this challenge to heart. They began to respond to unjust social structures and embraced the concept of a \u201cpreferential option for the poor.\u201d \u201cThere, in Medell\u00edn, theologians like Gustavo Guti\u00e9rrez shared their reflections which were in tune with what became the seeds of the new liberation theology,\u201d Father Judd says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was a litany of martyrs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Bolivia, the Jesuit priest Luis Espinal<\/a> was martyred on March 21, 1980. Three days afterward, Saint Oscar Romero<\/a> was killed in El Salvador. Similar struggles were taking place in other parts of Latin America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Maryknoll, the impact of liberation theology has been substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the States, Orbis Books<\/a> (the publishing house of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers) was founded in 1970. According to its website, the mission of Orbis was initially \u201cto amplify theological voices from the Global South \u2014 or as it was then called, the \u2018Third World.\u2019\u201d The English translation and publication of Guti\u00e9rrez\u2019s A Theology of Liberation<\/em><\/a> was a foundational event. Last year, a celebration marked the 50th anniversary of this book which transformed the Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Father Judd now serves as director of Maryknoll\u2019s Mission Formation Program<\/a>, promoting a culture of mission in the U.S. through developing resources, formation programs and mission immersion trips<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n He notes that the Church has become more attuned to the ecological crisis the planet is facing. This, too, is a current of liberation theology, he says. Citing Pope Francis\u2019 encyclicals Laudato Si\u2019<\/em> and Laudate Deum<\/em>, he adds, \u201cWhile we listen to the cry of the poor, we must listen to the cry of the Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Liberation theology will continue to enrich the Church as long as people still strive for liberation in light of the Gospel\u2019s promises. It has left its mark on Maryknoll, and on Father Steve Judd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maryknoll Father Stephen Judd tells his story through the lens of liberation theology, which shaped his four decades in Latin America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":3817,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_eb_data_table":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,39],"tags":[435,432,434,433,436,442,353,133,437,438,215,439,440,441,443],"class_list":["post-3810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-stories","category-summer-2024","tag-saloon-ministry","tag-a-theology-of-liberation","tag-andean-peoples-aymara-and-quechua-in-peru-and-bolivia","tag-father-gustavo-gutierrez","tag-maryknoll-father-stephen-judd","tag-maryknoll-mission-formation-program","tag-orbis-books","tag-ray-almanza","tag-second-conference-in-medellin-colombia-1968","tag-sixteenth-century-missionary-fray-bartolome-de-las-casas","tag-summer-2024","tag-the-kraho-tribe-in-brazil","tag-the-lakota-people-the-u-s","tag-the-mapuche-in-chile-and-the-patagonia-of-argentina","tag-the-maya-in-guatemala-and-mexico"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Just](\"http:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/10\/51-56-DMM-Story-on-Stephen-Judd-1-768x1008-1.jpg\")
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Featured image: At a Maryknoll gathering in Chile, Maryknoll Father Stephen Judd holds up the \u201ccross of life.\u201d Studded with locally produced seeds, grains and fruits, it symbolizes God\u2019s love for creation. (Paul Sykora\/Maryknoll Mission Archives\/Chile)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"