Professor Gonzalo Aranda passed away on April 4 in the Clínica Universidad de Navarra after a long illness. He was born on November 25, 1943 in Torralba de los Frailes, in the region of Campo de Daroca, Zaragoza. "Aragonese roots, family genes, talent and virtue contributed to make Gonzalo a bold, sober, discreet and wise person," said Professor Juan Chapa, Dean of the School of Theology.

After his years of priestly training in the seminar of Zaragoza, he was ordained to the priesthood on July 16, 1967. A few months later he moved to Pamplona to fill in his programs of study of Theology, being one of the students of the first class of the then Theological Institute of the University of Navarra, the germ of the current School of Theology. In 1969 he joined as a professor teaching assistant in the department of Sacred Scripture. He received his doctorate in Theology in 1972 and the following year he obtained the licentiate degree in Sacred Scripture by the Pontifical Biblical Commission of Rome. In 1977 he received his doctorate in Trilingual Biblical Philology from the Complutense University. His academic life focused on two lines of research: the Bible received and read in the Church and the texts in their religious context.

For 47 years he dedicated himself to teaching and research at Sacred Scripture. His Dean has said that "he knew how to put into internship what the Founder of the University of Navarra, St. Josemaría Escrivá wanted for the professors of the School: love for theological truth and a sense of service to the Church. Gonzalo was always characterized by his wisdom, availability and open-mindedness: there was no opinion or text from which he was not willing to learn".

Professor Gonzalo Aranda combined his work in the School of Theology with his work as a parish priest in the villages of the Pamplona basin: Ororbia, Aizoáin, Ballariáin, Berriosuso, Elcarte, as well as attending for many years to the Daughters of Charity in Ororbia. Daughters of Charity in Ororbia. He also collaborated with the Centro Superior de programs of study Teológicos de Pamplona and with the Centro Regional de programs of study Teológicos de Aragón, in Zaragoza.

Testimony

Testimony of Mª Covadonga García Benedi, student of high school program in Religious Sciences(PDF)