RELIGION-LATAM: ‘Church of the Poor’ Growing Without Fanfare

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 3 2000 (IPS) - The so-called “progressive” current of the Roman Catholic Church is not only surviving in Latin America but growing, albeit quietly, according to Brazilian priest José Oscar Beozzo.

Claims that the current has been losing strength are based on waning news coverage, not real developments, said Beozzo, director of the Ecumenical Centre of Services for Popular Evangelisation and Education and a member of the Commission of Research on the History of the Catholic Church in Latin America.

Even in Argentina, where Catholic bishops have traditionally been conservative, “ecclesiastic base communities (CEBs) and socially-oriented pastoral work are thriving today,” the product of economic crisis in the region and growing poverty since the 1980s, said Beozzo.

High unemployment and the rise in the number of poor have resulted in the breakdown of families, the top priority of churchworkers in the past, and led the clergy to modify their approach and focus on social problems while, in many cases, questioning government policies, he said.

Poverty levels have risen throughout Latin America in the past few years, and “it is very difficult to turn our backs on that reality,” the priest stated.

The retirement and deaths of several well-known bishops has led some analysts to conclude that the progressive current of the Church is gradually disappearing, Beozzo added. But its continuing strength was demonstrated by the election of the current leadership of Brazil’s National Conference of Bishops.

Besides, the activities of the entire Church must be observed, not just the movements of prominent figures or developments covered by the press, said Beozzo.

He stressed that there are “three fulcrums that move together but are autonomous” in the so-called Church of the poor. The first consists of the CEBs, in which the poor are organised in their own communities and faith is linked to local concerns and problems.

The second is socially-oriented pastoral action, which takes a broader approach towards specific issues like land, indigenous peoples, marginalised women, children, and labour.

And the third leg is theology, the history of the Church and biblical studies, the reflective process that forms a backdrop to and accompanies the efforts of the grassroots communities and pastoral work.

Liberation theology gets less coverage today by the mass media, but it has impregnated the thinking and practices of the Catholic Church in many countries. Furthermore, the best-known liberation theology authors continue publishing.

A prime example is Leonardo Boff, Brazil’s leading liberation theologist, who has published several works since leaving the priesthood and his teaching posts in Church institutions, due to constant pressure and sanctions from the Vatican.

And Peru’s Gustavo Gutiérrez, one of the founders of liberation theology, who coined the term itself in one of his books, works in the Bartolome de las Casas Centre, a Catholic organisation which publishes many works, including those written by Gutiérrez, who is presently working on a new book in France.

The main thing is that religious thinking has diversified and deepened, incorporating new questions such as gender, race and environmental issues, although in the works of less famous authors, said Beozzo.

Meanwhile, liberation theology focusing on the problems plaguing indigenous people has gained strength in southern Peru, Bolivia, Mexico and Guatemala, whose large Indian populations are caught up in poverty.

The grassroots work of the CEBs has also been growing in strength. More and more CEBs have cropped up, for example, among indigenous communities in Ecuador and southern Mexico, where the work of Bishop Samuel Ruiz has stood out in the southern state of Chiapas, as well as among the shantytowns ringing large cities in the region.

Beozzo said that in his parish, Lins, located 440 kilometres from Sao Paulo, the number of CEBs grew from one to six in the past few years, flying in the face of arguments that liberation theology is waning in strength. What there is, he said, is “less noise in the press.”

The Vatican, however, has tried hard to reduce the number of representatives of the progressive current in the Church hierarchy and seminaries.

In Mexico, for example, 86 bishops of a total of just over 100 have been replaced under Pope John Paul, at the expense of those who professed liberation theology.

The changes in the current of the Church that takes a “prefential option for the poor” also reflect broader developments in Latin America. The dictatorships and political violence of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s led to the emergence of “guerrilla-priests” like Camilo Torres in Colombia, and more politically-oriented action among many members of the clergy.

Dozens of priests, seminarists and nuns were the victims of forced disappearance and murder in Argentina and Central America in those decades, while many were arrested and tortured in Brazil.

Many bishops risked – and some like El Salvador’s Oscar Romero gave – their lives by assuming the option for the poor, denouncing repressive violence or defending political prisoners and the victims of politically-motivated persecution.

With the democratisation of the region that began in the 1980s, activities by progressive churchworkers became less political and more social and ethical in nature, and thus lost the high-profile coverage they had been given in the press.

The Church’s commitment to the poor is growing in response to the increasing marginalisation and poverty resulting from the neo- liberal economic policies prevailing in the region, according to Beozzo.