Founder of Liberation Theology Hailed at Vatican

[DonViejo]

Source: TPM

ASSOCIATED PRESS – FEBRUARY 25, 2014, 5:41 PM EST

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The founder of liberation theology, the Latin American-inspired Catholic theology advocating for the poor, has received a hero's welcome at the Vatican as the once-criticized movement continues its rehabilitation under Pope Francis.

The Rev. Gustavo Gutierrez was the surprise speaker Tuesday at a book launch featuring the head of the Vatican's orthodoxy office, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller; one of Francis' top advisers, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga; and the Vatican spokesman.

The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger spent much of his tenure at Mueller's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith battling liberation theology, arguing that it misinterpreted Jesus' preference for the poor into a Marxist call for armed rebellion.

Guttierez insists true liberation theology was always perfectly in line with the church's social teaching about the poor that Francis widely embraces.

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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/founder-of-liberation-theology-hailed-at-vatican

[Tommy_Carcetti]

1. Gutsy move by Frankie.

JPII was scared to death of liberation theology.

[markpkessinger]

10. He wasn't afraid of it; he was downright hostile to it . . .

. . . largely, I think, because of his experience of Soviet Bloc-style communism in Poland. Thus, I think he was unduly suspicious of all left-wing movements. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to grasp that Polish politics wasn't a very good lens through which to view Latin American politics.

[DonViejo]

11. I think some of JP2's :::ahem::: "advisers" exploited that Pope's

views solely because of his experiences with Soviet style Communism. I also think one of those advisers was Ratzinger, who declared gay people "intrinsically evil."

[Bluenorthwest]

2. Francis needs to take a break from the social whirlwind and address Uganda

He is allegedly the 'spiritual leader' of over 40% of that nation. His Bishops have supported a hateful and purely evil law. Francis himself has remained silent.
But yeah, yeah, Muller, Doctrine, book launch party, wow! Liberation!

[warrant46]

5. The truth of the matter is----

Homophobia is a plank in the Platform of the catlick church.

It would take cajones for Francis to jump into the Uganda fray.

I'm not holding my breath.

[Douglas Carpenter]

3. this is a fundamental change of position from the the days of John Paul when hardline anti-communism

made the official church position hostile to liberation theology

[DLnyc]

4. Wow, that is kind of significant.

There is a pretty entrenched group of rightwing fascist elites in Latin America that just got a fairly good symbolic slap in the face.

Of course, there is more to life than symbols, but this is a pretty big symbol!

I say bravo!

[freshwest]

6. OMG. Clean up on RWNJ aisle! n/t

[JDPriestly]

7. This is good news! It's a move away from the religious theology that was so compatible with

Reaganism. Liberation theology is about caring about the poor and resisting fascism.

Liberation theology[1] is a political movement in Roman Catholic theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in relation to a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions. It has been described as "an interpretation of Christian faith through the poor's suffering, their struggle and hope, and a critique of society and the Catholic faith and Christianity through the eyes of the poor".[2] Detractors have called it Christianized Marxism.[3]

Although liberation theology has grown into an international and inter-denominational movement, it began as a movement within the Catholic Church in Latin America in the 1950s–1960s. Liberation theology arose principally as a moral reaction to the poverty caused by social injustice in that region. The term was coined in 1971 by the Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutiérrez, who wrote one of the movement's most famous books, A Theology of Liberation. Other noted exponents are Leonardo Boff of Brazil, Jon Sobrino of Spain, Óscar Romero of El Salvador, and Juan Luis Segundo of Uruguay.[4][5]

The influence of liberation theology diminished after proponents were accused of using "Marxist concepts" leading to admonishment by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in 1984 and 1986. The Vatican criticized certain strains of liberation theology for focusing on institutionalized or systemic sin, apparently to the exclusion of individual offenders and offences; and for identifying Catholic Church hierarchy in South America as members of the same privileged class that had long been oppressing indigenous populations since the arrival of Pizarro onward.[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_theology

So liberation theology believes we have a moral and religious obligation to work to get a fairer system. I'm for that. I'm not a Marxist. And it would be very difficult to be a real Marxist and a member of just about any religion especially Catholicism.

[Turborama]

8. I misread it as "libertarian theology" and was preparing to go ballistic

LOL, glad I was wrong.

[markpkessinger]

9. This may be Pope Francis' most significant departure yet . . .

. . . from his two immediate predecessors! Pope John Paul II, probably because of his experience of Soviet-style communism in Poland, harbored a real animosity towards the Liberation Theology movement because it was considered to be a left-wing movement. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to grasp that the political realities of Latin America were really quite different from those in Poland, and that his experience in Poland didn't really translate very well to Latin America. Under JPII's papacy, with Cardinal Josef Ratzinger as his chief doctrinal henchman, Jesuits (the order to which Liberation Theology's founder belongs -- long the intellectual jewel of the Roman Catholic tradition -- were relegated to institutional backwaters. (Sadly, this wasn't John Paul II's only blindspot -- his abject refusal to even hear about, let alone address. the systematic abuse of children by not insignificant numbers of clergy, one of the most egregious offenders being his friend Marciel Maciel, will stand as one of the great trageidies of his papacy.)