RELIGION-LATAM: Progressive Theologians Differ on Pope

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Oct 16 2003 (IPS) - Although Pope John Paul II has staunchly opposed ”liberation theology”, two internationally renowned exponents of that progressive current in the Roman Catholic Church differ in their views of the Pope.

Gustavo Gutiérrez, 75, a Peruvian theologian who was one of the founders of liberation theology, and who coined the term itself in one of his books, is congenial to the 83-year-old Karol Wojtyla, who became Pope 25 years ago Thursday.

But Nicaraguan poet and Jesuit priest Ernesto Cardenal has only harsh words for John Paul, who systematically appointed conservative bishops in Latin America, and under whose papacy the Vatican clamped down on progressive clergy who followed the tenets of liberation theology and fought for social justice.

Nevertheless, Gutiérrez said the Pope’s main legacy was ”the Church’s insistence on the preferential option for the poor, and the repeated assertion that improving social conditions and fighting for justice must be intrinsic aspects of evangelisation.”

The Peruvian priest, who received the Prince of Asturias Award for Communications and Humanities this year for his ”concern for the needy and dispossessed,” said in an interview with IPS that John Paul ”has been a strong voice speaking out against the inhuman poverty in which the majority of humanity, and consequently of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean, live.”

But Cardenal, the poet-priest who served as culture minister in the early 1980s under the leftist government that ruled Nicaragua for a decade after the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) overthrew the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in 1979, sees things in a very different light.

In a chapter of his new book, which is soon to be published and was made available to IPS, the 78-year-old Cardenal states that John Paul acted out of sentiments of ”hatred” towards the left and ”Christian revolutionaries” when he visited Nicaragua in 1983, and publicly chastised Cardenal.

The Pope lashed out at the ”people’s Church” and accused ”revolutionary Christians of trying to destroy the unity of the Church,” writes Cardenal.

Liberation theology, a social justice-oriented current that emerged in Latin America in the late 1960s, stresses a ”preferential option for the poor,” criticises the existence of widespread poverty, and denounces unjust social structures.

Liberation theologians emphasise compassion and provide leadership in the struggle by the poor against their ”oppressors,” for a better life in the here and now, and for economic justice.

The exponents of liberation theology believe that in the eyes of God, it is sinful for 44 percent of Latin America’s 505 million people to be steeped in poverty.

The theoretical reference points of liberation theology’s ”Christian base communities” and socially-oriented pastoral work – the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and two key bishops’ conferences in Latin America, in Medellin, Colombia in 1968 and Puebla, Mexico in 1979 – were pushed into the background under the current Pope.

Nonetheless, Gutiérrez, the first to define liberation theology at a 1969 conference and in a book published in 1971, said that what liberation theologians have received from the Vatican in the last few years have merely been ”critical observations and requests for clarification.”

He added that ”there has been a dialogue (with the Vatican) that might have been tense at times, but which in the end has been very beneficial.”

”Allow me to tell you that greater resistance to liberation theology, tinged with hostility, came especially from outside the Church, from the military or civilian elites and powers-that-be, both Latin American and from outside of this region. We mustn’t forget that,” he said.

Under the Latin American dictatorships of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, dozens of priests, nuns and church-workers became victims of forced disappearance in Argentina and Central America, while many were arrested and tortured in Brazil.

A number of 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.

Based on liberation theology and other ideas arising from Marxism, Cardenal backed the leftist Sandinista movement that took up arms and overthrew the Somoza family dictatorship, and was suspended from the priesthood by the Vatican.

Pope John Paul ”hated the Sandinista revolution,” writes Cardenal in his as-yet unpublished book.

Cardenal argues that the Church hierarchy should apologise ”for opposing progress and social revolutions, and for trying to remain stuck in the past.”

In 1984, John Paul gave his approval to the ”Instruction on Certain Aspects of the ‘Theology of Liberation’,” by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the stated purpose of which was to ”draw the attention of pastors, theologians, and all the faithful to the deviations, and risks of deviation, damaging to the faith and to Christian living, that are brought about by certain forms of liberation theology.”

Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff, another founder of liberation theology, was silenced by the Vatican in 1985, and finally left the priesthood in 1992 – after receiving a second silencing order – complaining that a majority of the leaders of the Catholic Church ”work with the oppressors.”

Gutiérrez, however, argued that in the end, the Vatican understood and accepted the validity of liberation theology.

He said that in 1986, ”John Paul addressed a letter to the Brazilian bishops in which he stated that liberation theology was timely, useful and necessary.”

Asked about the marginalisation and even ”attacks” suffered by progressive priests at the hands of the Vatican, Gutiérrez acknowledged that ”many people within the Church did not comprehend the testimony of these pastors.” But, he added, ”many others did, and continue to be inspired by them.”

Practically none of the cardinals and bishops named by John Paul in his 25 years as Pope have defended liberation theology.

Gutiérrez insisted, nevertheless, that ”John Paul has clearly defended human rights and fought for justice,” and in that sense has supported the progressive current in the Church.