Juan Carlos Scannone, an Argentine Jesuit born in 1931 and who died in November 2019, was a one of the great figures of the Church in Argentina and Latin America. He was also very aware of the problems of the universal Church. He obtained a doctorate in theology with a thesis written in Innsbruck, directed by Karl Rahner, and one in philosophy with a dissertation on Maurice Blondel, presented in Munich.
He was a keen reader of the French phenomenologists and a member of many ecclesial institutions where reflection focused on the reality of the life of the Church and its tradition. He animated with unusual energy many study groups, whereby he gradually deepened his reflections at the service of the Church.
After his course of formation in the Society of Jesus, he taught, from 1967, in Buenos Aires, at the Colegio Máximo of San Miguel (the Faculties of Philosophy and Theology of the Jesuit Province in Argentina). A certain Jorge Bergoglio studied theology there. Scannone already knew him. At the end of the 1950s, in the period preceding his entry into theology, he had given him lessons in ancient literature at the diocesan seminary. Having become a Jesuit, Bergoglio later became his provincial in 1973, then rector of the College, and finally parish priest of the parish he had created a stone’s throw away.
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