From what I have understood, the Church’s concern about the Liberation Theology
movement has been the Marxist component, which aims to restructure society into a “one-class” society. It distorts the Church’s “preferential love for the poor” and is seemingly unconcerned about the salvation of souls.
From Wikipedia:
Liberation theology, is a **political movement **in 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 by proponents 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”, and by detractors as Christianized Marxism… Liberation theology arose principally as a moral reaction to the poverty caused by social injustice in that region. …
The influence of liberation theology diminished after proponents were accused of using “Marxist concepts” …The Vatican criticized certain strains of liberation theology …
As in everything we can acknowledge the good within the LT movement, but the movement has done much damage – to the poor, to unity within nations, etc…
A weak analogy: People will suffer if they don’t drink water. But we don’t give them a glass of water which has a little bit of poison in it, and say, “Drink this water, it’s good for you” and ignore its toxicity.
…An analysis of the phenomenon of liberation theology reveals that it constitutes a fundamental threat to the faith of the Church. At the same time it must be borne in mind that no error could persist unless it contained a grain of truth. Indeed, an error is all the more dangerous, the greater that grain of truth is, for then the temptation it exerts is all the greater.
Furthermore, the error concerned would not have been able to wrench that piece of the truth to its own use if that truth had been adequately lived and witnessed to in its proper place (in the faith of the Church). So, in denouncing error and pointing to dangers in liberation theology, we must always be ready to ask what truth is latent in the error and how it can be given its rightful place, how it can be released from error’s monopoly…
…Since the phenomenon of liberation theology indicates a lack of conversion in the Church, a lack of radical faith, only an increase in conversion and faith can arouse and elicit those theological insights and those decisions on the part of the shepherds which will give an answer to the magnitude of the question…
It is one thing to “participate in the life of the poor” and “to respect human rights and demand for fair share in cultural and political life of democracy.” (Archbishop Mueller, 2008). It is another thing to politicize the Gospel by applying it to earthly goals, at the expense of Truth and teaching God’s salvific message.
“Let us recall the fact that atheism and the denial of the human person, his liberty and his rights, are at the core of the Marxist theory. This theory, then, contains errors which directly threaten the truths of the faith regarding the eternal destiny of individual persons. Moreover, to attempt to integrate into theology an analysis whose criterion of interpretation depends on this atheistic conception is to involve oneself in terrible contradictions. What is more, this misunderstanding of the spiritual nature of the person leads to a total subordination of the person to the collectivity, and thus to the denial of the principles of a social and political life which is in keeping with human dignity…” *Instruction on Certain Aspects of the “Theology of Liberation”, *Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 1984 ([
ewtn.com/library/curia/cdflibr1.htm)]](
http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/cdflibr1.htm)])
"… When the political authorities regulate the exercise of freedoms, they cannot use the pretext of the demands for public order and security in order to curtail those freedoms systematically. Nor can the alleged principle of national security, or a narrowly economic outlook, or a totalitarian concept of social life, prevail over the value of freedom and its rights…Separation between the Gospel and culture is a tragedy of which the problems mentioned are a sad illustration…
Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation, Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 1986 ([
ewtn.com/library/curia/cdflibr2.htm#6)]](
http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/cdflibr2.htm#6)])
…The basic disagreement between orthodox Catholics and liberationists is over what begets unity. For the liberationists, unity will come when economic and social divisions are eliminated, and they are willing to use violence to achieve this end. For their opponents, the unity that matters is cultural, spiritual, and far removed from economics…" [Edward A. Lynch, Analysis: *The Retreat of Liberation Theology
, Homiletic & Pastoral Review / Ignatius Press (
catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=643 )]
Also see
Liberation Theology’s Civil War (2008)
catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=8364
The Church should not be involved in the promotion of marxist ideology, which is concerned about collectivism and power at the expense of individual dignity and authentic evangelization. Let’s hope that “Liberation Theology” will cease to be a political or intellectual movement which focuses on class struggle and power, and that it will be purified and made practicable in the light of the true message of the Gospel.
