Joseph De Torre

Joseph De Torre born in Madrid and educated in Spain and Italy, Joseph M de Torre was ordained in 1955. He was with Opus Dei. He spent his first 13 years as a priest in Ireland and England, pursuing pastoral and educational work. He went to the Philippines in 1968 and since then has been serving as a chaplain. Torre believes he is a “spiritual director to people from all walks of life”. Since 1970, he has been teaching social ethics, social economics and modern philosophy at the Center for Research and Communication in the Philippines. He also teaches “theology for lay people”.

Torre is a social and political philosopher. He has written 20 books and many essays, mainly on Vatican II subjects. He also writes on social, biological, economic and political ethics. In 1995, he received an award in the books category at the catholic Mass Media Awards for his book Christ and the Moral Life. In February 1989, the 2nd Asian Catholic Bookfair gave him an award for Outstanding Catholic Author. Many of Torre’s books are used as textbooks in many schools in the Philippines and abroad.

Torre believes that Judeo-Christian tradition has given the edge to the Western world in science and technology, economics and the creative arts. Christian philosophy, according to Torre, is the body of philosophical and scientific insights accumulated by Christian thinkers – theologians, philosophers, poets, historians, artists, dramatists and scientists – in 20 centuries. It is also the methodology of scientific and philosophical enquiry based on the natural logic of the human mind.