François Houtart facts for kids
François Houtart (born March 7, 1925, in Brussels, Belgium – died June 6, 2017, in Quito, Ecuador) was a Belgian priest and a sociologist. He studied how societies work, especially looking at religion and social justice.
François Houtart became a priest in 1949 after studying philosophy and theology in Mechelen, Belgium. He also earned several university degrees. He got a master's degree in political and social sciences from the Catholic University of Leuven. Later, he earned a PhD in sociology from the Catholic University of Louvain. He then became a professor there, teaching from 1958 until 1990.
His PhD research focused on the sociology of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. This means he studied how the Buddhist religion affected society and people's lives there. He wrote many books and articles about religion and society. For almost 40 years, he was the main editor of an important journal called "Social Compass." He also gave advice to another international Catholic journal, Concilium, on topics related to the sociology of religion.
Houtart was an expert advisor during the Vatican II (1962–1965). This was a very important meeting for the Catholic Church. He helped write part of a key document called Gaudium et spes. Over time, he developed a special way of studying world religions, looking at how different ideas and beliefs interact.
In 2008, during a big global money crisis, the UN invited Houtart to speak in New York. He talked about how money and businesses were becoming global, affecting people all over the world.
In 2009, François Houtart received the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for promoting tolerance and non-violence. He won this award because he spent his life working for world peace, understanding between cultures, human rights, and fairness for everyone. He shared this award with a kind person from Pakistan named Abdul Sattar Edhi.
Houtart was also very active in the World Social Forum. This is a meeting where people from different social movements discuss how to create a more fair and equal world. He was especially interested in how globalization affects ethics and fairness.
Organisational Activities
François Houtart was involved with several important groups:
- Center Tricontinental (CETRI): This group works to help social movements in developing countries.
- International Association of Sociology of Religion: This group brings together people who study religion and society.
- World Forum for Alternatives: This group explores different ways to solve global problems.
Publications
Here are some of the books François Houtart wrote or helped write:
- The Church and Revolution: from the French Revolution of 1789 to the Paris riots of 1968, from Cuba to Southern Africa, from Vietnam to Latin America (1971)
- Religions and ideology in Sri Lanka (1974)
- El campesino como actor (The Peasant as an Actor) (1982)
- Religion et modes de production précapitalistes (Religion and Pre-Capitalist Ways of Production) (1992)
- Sociología de la Religión (Sociology of Religion) (2000)
- Mondialisation des Résistances (Globalization of Resistances) (2002)
- Haïti et la culture dans une commune vietnamienne (Haiti and Culture in a Vietnamese Community) (2004)
See also
In Spanish: François Houtart para niños
