[3] His father asked him to go to university before becoming a candidate for membership of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts, so he studied engineering for one year, and law for another.
[3] Father Osvaldo Lira began his teaching in the Congregation's schools in Valparaíso, Concepción and Santiago, settling down in the capital in 1934.
[1] Living in Santiago, he met other great intellectuals of the time, with whom he shared his social and religious beliefs, as well as long talks and debates.
[4] Father Lira was known for having advanced thoughts as well as for using a vehement tone, which got him into trouble with his superiors in the congregation, adding to this the great popularity he had among his students, Gonzalo Ibáñez Santa María said that “no one who has ever met him has remained indifferent to him”.
Retamal emphasizes that after this episode Father Lira never thought of retiring from the congregation, although he considered that they never encouraged, or showed any interest in, his intellectual action and production.
[3] Father Osvaldo Lira traveled to Europe in 1940, arriving in Spain on May 15, after being in Belgium with his superiors before the country was invaded by the Germans.
[4] His other writings in Spain include Visión política de Quevedo (1948), La Vida en torno (1949) and Hispanidad y mestizaje (1952).
Professor Juan Antonio Widow, in the prologue to the second edition of La Vida en Torno, published in 2004 for the centenary of Lira's birth, wrote: His written work is the tip of the iceberg that stands out of the water.
These friends, many of them, were the students who had been conquered by the clear intelligence, by his honesty, by the passion with which he defended the truth and by the spontaneous and almost childlike affection he showed for his disciples and, in general, for the ones who, even in disagreement with him, kept their calm and their good humour in discussion; that is, who weren't tontos graves.
[7]”In the year 1994, University Adolfo Ibáñez together with Zig-Zag Publisher, released the book Padre Osvaldo Lira: En torno a su pensamiento.
The articles were written by 35 professors and friends: Julio Retamal Favereau, Rafael Gambra, Enrique Díaz Araujo, Alberto Boixados, Mario Soria, R.P.
Alfredo Sáenz, S.J., Carlos Francisco Cáceres, Alejandro Guzmán Brito, Gonzalo Ibáñez Santa María, Héctor Herrera Cajas, Edberto Oscar Acevedo, Juan Vicente Ugarte del Pino, José Joaquín Ugarte, Bernardino Bravo Lira, Cristián Garay Vera, Rubén Calderón Bouchet, Bernardino Montejano and Alberto Falcionelli.