By Fabíola Ortiz
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 27 2013 (IPS)

The Catholic Church has become sclerotic and is afraid of facing the issues of post-modernity, Brazilian theologian Frei Betto says, although he hopes that Francis, the first Latin American pope, will inspire it to renew its emphasis on social issues and the defence of the poor.

Carlos Alberto Libânio Christo, known as Frei Betto, hopes that Pope Francis will encourage young people to dream again, commit themselves to social issues and believe in utopias, when he visits Brazil Jul. 22-29.

Liberation theology exponent Frei Betto, during the interview. Credit: Fabíola Ortiz/IPS

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires until he assumed the papacy on Mar. 13, will undertake his first international journey to lead the 28th World Youth Day, to be held in Rio de Janeiro Jul. 23-28.

In this interview with IPS, Frei Betto, a Dominican friar who was a special adviser to leftwing former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2011) in the early years of his mandate, called on Brazilian authorities to enter into “face-to-face” dialogue with social movements and listen to their demands, without empty words and hollow promises.

The author of more than 56 books and the winner of major literary prizes and awards for defending human rights, Frei Betto has just published a new work, “O que a vida me ensinou” (What Life Has Taught Me).

Q: What has life taught you?

A: The particular thing about this book is the autobiographical stories that I had never made public before, like my sharing in the last days of Tancredo Neves (the first president elected after the 1964-1985 dictatorship, who died before taking office), or how I looked after my father, who was chemically dependent.

In the book I also tell how I dealt with an attempted bribery, when I was offered a chance to make two million dollars, and I devote three chapters to my current views on spirituality.

Q: As an exponent of liberation theology, what role would you say this school of thought played in Latin American Catholicism?

A: I don’t think it should be consigned to the past. Liberation theology still plays an important role in the Latin American Catholic Church, especially in and through basic Christian communities, Bible reading groups, and meetings like the forthcoming National Conference on Faith and Politics in Brasilia in November.

I believe, moreover, that this school of thought has compelled papal discourse on social affairs to change. Recently pontiffs have been more forceful about these issues, shown by the criticisms of neoliberalism voiced by John Paul II and Benedict XVI, or on the positive side, the visits they both made to Cuba.

Q: How do you interpret Benedict XVI’s resignation and the election, for the first time, of a Latin American, Francis, to succeed him, rather than a European?

A: Resigning was an act of evangelical humility on the part of Benedict XVI, when no other pope had taken such a step for centuries.

I am very hopeful about the pontificate of pope “Chico Bento” (as Francis is popularly known, in reference to a rustic character created by Brazilian comic book artist Mauricio de Sousa), because he is Latin American. He is open to social questions and, above all, committed to defending the rights of the poor.

The fact that he adopted the name of Francis of Assisi, the most beloved saint in Christian history, admired for his evangelical poverty, says a great deal. I look forward to the 12 speeches he is due to give at the World Youth Day celebrations.

Q: Do you think a reform of the Catholic Church is possible? What, in your view, are the most sensitive challenges the church faces?

A: Pope Chico Bento will have to open up debate within the Catholic Church on urgent, burning issues that have long been kept on ice: an end to mandatory celibacy, ordination of women to the priesthood, condom use, biogenetics and the reform of the Roman Curia.

Q: World Youth Day will be Francis’ international debut. What are your expectations for this event?

A: I hope that the Youth Day, through the pope’s words and gestures, will bring hope to young people and encourage them to commit themselves to a world of justice, freedom and peace. I am convinced that the more utopian they are, the less they will turn to drugs, as in my generation, which was 20 years old in the 1960s.

And the less utopian, as in our present “globo-colonised” world, the more the drug use. Nowadays young people have no dreams.

Q: Do you think World Youth Day will be a call on the Church to renew itself, in order to counteract the loss or apathy of the faithful?

A: Yes, the Catholic Church has become sclerotic for fear of facing the issues of post-modernity, like those related to faith and science, social inequality, the new sexual profiles and gender relations.

Q: You were very close to Lula. From that viewpoint, what is your analysis of his successor, President Dilma Rousseff? Do you think that the governing Workers’ Party (PT) has changed course?

A: I regret that the PT has turned its project for Brazil into a project for power. However, I think the governments of Lula and Dilma are the best we have had in our history as a republic. Structural reforms are needed – land reform, political reform and so on – and better communication with the party’s base, the social movements.

Q: What do you think of the president’s handling of the numerous conflicts and social protests that have taken over the main cities?

A: She has shown lack of determination, timidity and a fear of displeasing the most reactionary members of her alliance and the barons of agribusiness. The PT has distanced itself from its social base, the movements that mobilise hope, and now it is in danger of falling victim to them.

The only way out for the government is to enter into face-to-face dialogue with these social movements, without empty words and hollow promises, and for the PT to return to working with its base, together with the oppressed and excluded sectors of the population.

The government is doing well in the distribution of income, and badly in the distribution of ‘political dividends.’ There is no dialogue with grassroots leadership, no progress on the demarcation of indigenous people’s territories or on land reform, nor is there consultation, as the constitution requires, of indigenous peoples about the construction of large projects in their territories.

Q: What is your view on the ongoing social protests, which were originally about public transport fare increases and then flared up because of harsh police crackdowns in Rio, São Paulo and other cities?

A: This is a new phenomenon. Analysts still haven’t realised it, but it’s enough to be linked to the social networking sites to feel the mobilisation, through information or the street demonstrations themselves. These protests confirm that our governments are very much distanced from the social movements and organised youth, especially the São Paulo government and the federal government.

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Frei Betto: "Benedict XVI was never sensitive to social issues." Credit: Official web site for Frei Betto

By Fabiana Frayssinet
RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 15 2013 (IPS)

The only difference the resignation of Benedict XVI as head of the Catholic Church will make in Brazil will be the name changes needed on posters advertising his coming to this city in July for World Youth Day, jokes Frei Betto.

German prelate Joseph Ratzinger, who will retire on Feb. 28 after nearly eight years as Pope Benedict XVI, will have considerable influence on the election of his successor, said the Brazilian friar in an interview with IPS.

Carlos Alberto Libânio Christo, better known as Frei Betto, and other distinguished thinkers, priests and bishops who embrace liberation theology, a progressive form of Catholicism originated in Latin America in the 1960s, have been targeted by critics and were even censured by the outgoing Pope.We are experiencing a change of epoch, from modernity to postmodernity. However, the Catholic Church is still loaded down with mediaeval baggage...

Ratzinger was a hardline opponent of this movement, which emphasises the need to confront social injustice based on the Christian commitment to the “preferential option for the poor”, and used his previous post as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – the successor to the Inquisition – to ban people like Hans Küng, of Switzerland, and Leonardo Boff, of Brazil, from teaching theology.

“I am very pessimistic” about the new Pope being able to change the conservative nature of the Catholic Church and modernise it, said Betto, the author of “Fidel and Religion”, among other books, and a friend and former special adviser early in the government of left-wing Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2011), for programmes like Zero Hunger.

Q: What will the repercussions be for the Catholic Church, especially in Brazil and the rest of Latin America, of Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement of his resignation on Monday Feb. 11?

A: I think that for Brazil, in particular, the only consequence will be having to redo all the publicity for World Youth Day, to be held Jul. 23-28 in Rio de Janeiro, and replacing images of Benedict XVI with those of his successor, who will be elected in March.

The abdication itself will have no major effects. The election of a new Pope could do, depending on the direction in which he steers the Catholic Church.

Q: In that sense, can we look forward to a modernisation of the Church?

A: I am not optimistic, for the following reasons: Benedict XVI will have a major role in the election of the next Pope. And he has decided to continue to live at the Vatican. It appears that the Church is at risk of having, for a time, dual power.

The new Pope will never do anything to displease his predecessor. Therefore he will maintain the Church’s ban on debating issues like abortion, ending priestly celibacy, the ordination of women to the priesthood, condom use, stem cell research, gay unions, etcetera.

Only after Benedict XVI dies will we really know what the new Pope thinks and wants.

Q: How did Joseph Ratzinger imprint his conservatism on Latin America and Brazil?

A: I do not say that Benedict XVI continued the policies of John Paul II (1978-2005) because, in fact, it was Ratzinger who inspired and provided the theoretical background to the conservative measures taken by Karol Wojtyla, the Polish Pope.

They both refused to implement the decisions of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) – a conference held 50 years ago! They both ruled out progressive bishops and appointed conservatives; they gave more importance to movements like the (ultra-conservative) Opus Dei than to pastoral ministry to the poor or basic Christian communities. And they both held Eurocentric worldviews.

The difference is that John Paul II’s head was on the right but his heart was on the left, that is, he was doctrinally conservative but progressive on social issues, to the point of criticising neoliberalism and praising the Cuban revolution. Benedict XVI, on the other hand, was never sensitive to social issues.

Q: What course will progressive approaches within the Church be able to take after his resignation, such as liberation theology, which attained great weight in Latin America?

A: The progressive approach persists at the base of the Catholic Church, in the basic Christian communities and the pastoral ministries (for workers, indigenous people, the elderly and others), and in the writings of liberation theologians. However, this progressive structure has lost the support of bishops and cardinals in the last few decades.

Q: The last Brazilian census indicated that the Catholic Church lost 1.7 million adherents between 2000 and 2010. Now, 64.6 percent of the country’s 192 million people declare themselves Catholics, whereas in 1970 the proportion was 90 percent. How do you explain this steep decline, which is evident also in the rest of Latin America?

A: We are experiencing a change of epoch, from modernity to postmodernity. However, the Catholic Church is still loaded down with mediaeval baggage, such as the division of territories into parishes, and it barely enters into dialogue with modernity.

Hence its difficulty with understanding and entering modernity. The Catholic Church does not even know how to cope with the new digital technologies that are essential for the task of evangelising. This is where the Neo-Pentecostal churches shine, although their content is alienating.

Q: Given this context, what potential for reversing the decline in numbers of the faithful in Brazil does the Catholic Church have with a new Pope?

A: The Catholic Church in Brazil has become increasingly Vaticanised. The national Conference of Bishops, which had a prophetic voice during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship * and up to the 1990s, has now withdrawn into the sacristy, and has ceased to be the voice of the voiceless.

* Because of his political action for the opposition, Frei Betto was imprisoned by the dictatorship on two occasions.

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