Christians and the meaning of freedom and liberation
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from April 1986.
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Publication of the Vatican's second major document on liberation theology reflects the remarkable impact the subject has had on the Roman Catholic Church - even though it was intended as part of a concerted attempt by key figures in the hierarchy to curb its influence.
"The Christian Meaning of Freedom and Liberation," was promised in the Vatican's "Instruction on Some Aspects of Liberation Theology," released in 1984. This first instruction condemned ideas attributed to some liberation theologians, particularly their use of a marxist-inspired social analysis and concepts of class struggle.
It also promised another document "to detail in a positive fashion the great richness of this theme" of Christian freedom and liberation.
Liberation theology, a rethinking of the Christian tradition from the standpoint of the poor, first emerged in Latin America in the late 1960s. Identifying poverty and injustice as contrary to God's will, this theology sees the struggle for social justice as an essential part of being a Christian.
Under its inspiration, countless priests, sisters and lay people have become active and vocal proponents of radical social change, upsetting the conservative elites and their supporters, notably the US administration.
Thousands of Latin American Christians, including three bishops, have been killed over the past two decades for their commitment to its views.
Leaks in the Italian press before the latest document's publication indicated that rather than concentrating on a polemical attack on ideologies, particularly marxism, it would set forth an "authentic Christian message" of liberation.
News agencies report Vatican sources as saying that Pope John Paul sent a first draft back to be rewritten because he found it to extensive, insufficiently grounded in the Bible and not positive enough towards Christian communities' contribution to the life of the Church.
Apart from its content, however, the novelty of this new document is that the Catholic Church is acknowledging that the theme of liberation is an essential aspect of Christianity.
Never before has the Church, in condemning what it considers erroneous theological ideas, also admitted the validity of their fundamental theme. In this sense, liberation theology can be said to have placed the theme of liberation at the heart of the Church's agenda.
The Vatican's first document was widely criticised in Latin America for failing to understand the nature of poverty and injustice out of which liberation theology has emerged.
The Brazilian bishops' conference, the world's largest and one of the few that firmly defends liberation theology, criticised the lack of consultation with Latin American bishops in the document's preparation.
Pope John Paul's meeting in mid-March with the leadership of the Brazilian bishops' conference, therefore takes on a special significance. While it dealt with wider aspects of Church life in Brazil, the bishops reportedly had the chance to look over the new document during a wide-ranging debate with the Pope on liberation theology.
The moving figure behind this special gathering was Cont'd. on page 14 from page 10 the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli. Very much a moderate in today's conservative Roman curia and the architect of the Vatican's policy of rapprochement with communist governments under Pope Paul VI, he was reported to have been angered at the tone of the 1984 instruction, especially its reference to communist societies as "this shame of our time."
Although he is a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Fatih, the former Holy Office which issued the instruction, he said it had been approved at a meeting he could not attend.
However much Rome might want to see this document as the final, definitive word on liberation theology, debate on the issue rages in Latin America. Conservative sectors of the Church, strengthened by what they see as backing from Rome, are much on the offensive. For example, Bishop Ricardo Durand Florez of Callao, Lima's port town, has recently published an extensive condemnation of the writings of the father-figure of liberation theology, Father Gustavo Gutierrez, a parish priest just a few kilometres away in the heart of Lima. Durand condemns the resort to marxist concepts in the theologian's writings. Meanwhile, Gutierrez has received the implicit backing of Cardinal Juan Landazuri Ricketts of Lima, the president of the Peruvian bishops' conference. In an interview published in late March by the Lima weekly Caretas, the Cardinal referred to Gutierrez's "brilliant defence" of his doctrinal dissertation in Lyons last May.
This, said Landazuri, had helped to clarify many of his ideas on "marxism and class struggle....At least I will not condemn it (his theology), since he has clarified some points and I am sure will clarify the others, and will be more specific about them."
Divisions between senior Catholic bishops on the issue also came out into the open during the synod of bishops from around the world held in Rome last November and December.
A written statement circulated at the synod by the president of the Brazilian bishops' conference, Bishop Ivo Lorscheiter, strongly defended liberation theology, saying it is "in the tradition of sound Catholic theology." His cousin, Cardinal Aloisio Lorscheider of Fortaleza (Brazil), pubicly back him.
However, Cardinal Eugenio de Araujo Sales of Rio de Janeiro, who has forbidden liberation theologians from teaching in Rio's Catholic university, denounced "the grave dogmatic and moral errors" of theology professors "who teach their own doctrines and opinions and not the doctrine of the Church."
It was Cardinal Sales who first began the investigation into the writings of Brazil's best known liberation theologian, Father Leonardo Boff, which later led to Boff being silenced by Rome despite the open support given him by two other Brazilian cardinals.
In Nicaragua as well, these divisions between conservative and progressive have almost reached breaking point. A visit to the country by the Brazilian Bishop Pedro Casaldaliga last year led to an unprecedented note of protest from the Nicaraguan bishops' conference to their Brazilian colleagues complaining of interference in their affairs. Bishop Casaldaliga afterwards accused Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo of Managua, a strong opponent of the country's left-wing Sandinista government, of being "used as a mouthpiece by the bourgeoisie and anti-Sandinista elements in general, both inside and outside the country and especially in Miami."
In a letter to Cardinal Obando recently made public, Bishop Casaldaliga and his Mexican colleague, retired Bishop Sergio Mendez Arceo, told the Nicaraguan cardinal: "You ought not fail to make your own the efforts of your people to liberate themselves form the traditional imperialist enemy."
The deep divisions on the topic of liberation theology look set to continue throughout Latin America.
As Father Clodovis Boff, a brother of Leonardo Boff, said in a recent interview "It is impossible to remove this Church, through disciplinary means, from its immersion with the poor in their struggles. Withdrawal is impossible; the Church is not an army or a football team that limits itself to following orders from a captain or a coach." - (GEMINI)
