Ivone Gebara

In 1995, her position on abortion earned Gebara an international notoriety for being silenced by the Vatican and sent for two years of theological re-education in Belgium in a theological institute, during which was subjected to forced silence (prohibition to manifest herself publicly) and was condemned for criticizing the moral teaching of the Catholic Church. During that time, she obtained her second doctorate, in Religious Studies from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. Gebara wrote a book addressing evil, Rompendo o silêncio: uma fenomenologia feminista do mal.

In 1993, Gebara had caused a stir within the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) by confiding to the weekly magazine Veja that abortion was not a sin.

Since 1973 Gebara has lived in the Northeast Region. She currently lives in a poor neighborhood of Camaragibe in the Recife metropolitan area, 25 km from Recife.

Gebara taught at the Instituto Teológico do Recife (ITER) for almost 17 years alongside founder Hélder Câmara. Linked to liberation theology, the institution existed from 1968 until it was closed by order of the Vatican in 1989. Since then she has devoted her time to writing and delivering courses and lectures around the world, on the foundations of religious discourse.

In 1962, when she was only 18, Gebara begin teaching philosophy at a public college while also working as a secretary. In 1966, she obtained her degree in philosophy in São Paulo and she traveled the same year to Louvain in Belgium in order to study theology. However, her studies are promptly interrupted when she is asked to return to Brazil in 1973 to replace José Comblin, who had been exiled due to his revolutionary theology. She teached theology and philosophy at ITER (Institute of Theology in Recife) where she met Hélder Câmara, another pioneering liberation theologian who was the archbishop of Recife at the time. It also marked the beginning of her dedication to writings for the theological foundations of community development projects that focused on promoting social change through educational programs.

Ivone Gebara (born December 9, 1944) is a Brazilian Catholic nun, philosopher, and feminist theologian. She is notable for her writing on ecofeminsm.

Ivone Gebara was born in São Paulo on December 9, 1944 to a family of Syrian-Lebanese descent. After receiving a degree in philosophy, she joined the Augustinian Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady in 1967 at the age of 22. She has two doctorates, one earned from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo in philosophy in 1975 and another from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium in religious sciences in 1998.