Latin American Missionaries / Liberation Theology

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EsclavoDeCristo

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I lived in South America for about seven months doing volunteer work with a group of religious brothers. Currently, I am trying to accomplish a year long trip to work in Honduras, Central America. I’m interested in discussing the joys and difficulties of my experiences in Bolivia and Peru and how to react to those Catholics who promote Liberation Theology especially in Latin America.:tsktsk: I would like to speak with people who have had to work with liberations theologans and know how they reacted to it. I almost completely disagree with them but do not know how to constructively disagree with them. I don’t just want it to be a shouting match.:banghead: I want to show them the joy of othodoxy and the fullness of the sacraments. To those I spent my time with the sacraments were only symbolic.:bigyikes:
 
I recommend you browse the Tradition, Family and Property website (www.ftp.org). As an organization founded in Brazil they have a great deal of experience dealing with liberation theology.
 
Thanks for the advice but that web address isn’t working. Maybe you typed it wrong?? -God bless-
 
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EsclavoDeCristo:
I found the correct address. It’s tfp.org :bounce: Thank You
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DOH! I guess I was a little dyslexic last nite…
 
I would like to open up this thread to anything about missionaries, not just Latin American missions. It would be great to hear from others with similar experiences! 👍
 
Clearly these types of missionaries are still stuck in the hippie era of the late 1960’s and the 1970’s. the only liberation is liberation from SIN. All else is just heresy.

There are great REALLY catholic missionaries, and missionary orders which are faithful to the church. I personally know priests, etc, of TWO of those congregations, you may want to check them out, they are great! One is Lumen Dei (not to be confused here with Opus Dei) and the other is; The institute of the incarnate Word(Instituto del Verbo Encarnado). www.iveamerica.org
www.lumendei.org
 
Thats awesome that you mention Lumen Dei.

I met a wonderful Godly priest in the poor barrios of Lima, Peru who is a Lumen Dei priest. In a country where you are hard pressed to find a priest wearing any type of religious garb, these priests were wearing a full white habit. Think white habit in a dirty dusty polluted town!!

Anytime I was struggling with my faith or with other “religious” I could go and speak with this Lumen Dei priest. He always had good advice for me. It wasn’t always what I wanted to hear and sometimes it was difficult to follow, but he always lead me towards Christ. I also got the impression that he and other Lumen Dei priests were persecuted and shunned by other “Catholic” missionaries which are more “progressive” and “liberal”.
 
Has anyone else on this forum had a similar experience? Any Latin American missionaries out there?
 
It is ironic that somebody noted a website concerned with property, that is really in tune with what Jesus taught isn’t it?

But you can’t be against liberation theology if you support a more equitable distribution of native peoples’ property.

Peace
 
:the only liberation is liberation from SIN. All else is just heresy.:

On the contrary, your claim is Gnostic bunk. Liberation from sin means liberation to love God and neighbor. Jesus clearly says that the whole Law is summed up in this, and St. John adds that you can’t love God if you don’t love the neighbor. So if we really want to be liberated from sin and to help others be liberated from sin, we must fight to the death against anything that is incompatible with love of neighbor. Structures of injustice and oppression in society are contrary to love of neighbor. By your logic we shouldn’t care about the evils of abortion, and everyone who fights against abortion is a heretic.

I’m not defending liberation theology as an ideology–from what I know of it, I think it’s very mixed, and at its best it is too one-sided. Some liberation theologians may even be as heretical as you.

In Christ,

Edwin
 
A couple of months ago we had a Colomban Missionary preaching at church. He is working in South America. He said he believed in Liberation Theology! :mad: He was soliciting subscriptions for The Far East magazine. I had a look at a sample copy he left and it contained alot of great stuff they were doing to improve the temporal lives of the people but the magazine told us nothing that they were doing to win souls for Christ. The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart also seem just to be working to improve the temporal lives of the people and the requirement to’ preach the gospel 'seems to have been put on the back burner.

Don’t think I am knocking the great work done to improve the living conditions of people who live in Third World countries but this work should go hand in hand with spreading the Faith not instead of it. 🙂
 
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yinekka:
A couple of months ago we had a Colomban Missionary preaching at church. He is working in South America. He said he believed in Liberation Theology! :mad: He was soliciting subscriptions for The Far East magazine. I had a look at a sample copy he left and it contained alot of great stuff they were doing to improve the temporal lives of the people but the magazine told us nothing that they were doing to win souls for Christ. The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart also seem just to be working to improve the temporal lives of the people and the requirement to’ preach the gospel 'seems to have been put on the back burner.

Don’t think I am knocking the great work done to improve the living conditions of people who live in Third World countries but this work should go hand in hand with spreading the Faith not instead of it. 🙂
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What do you think the work of Christ is? Jesus was about feeding the hungry , clothing the naked etc., don’t you think doing those things brings people to Jesus?

Jesus taught us how to act.

He taught us a path, a way of living.

The church stuff might be nice and all that, but that was not what His message was about.

Peace
 
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ricatholic:
What do you think the work of Christ is? Jesus was about feeding the hungry , clothing the naked etc., don’t you think doing those things brings people to Jesus?

Jesus taught us how to act.

He taught us a path, a way of living.

The church stuff might be nice and all that, but that was not what His message was about.

Peace
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Yes, those are the Corporal Works of Mercy that Jesus told us to do. However, he asked us to do Spiritual Works of Mercy as well. In Matt. 28:19 he said “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit.”
 
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zzzimbob:
Yes, those are the Corporal Works of Mercy that Jesus told us to do. However, he asked us to do Spiritual Works of Mercy as well. In Matt. 28:19 he said “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit.”
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You forgot the back end of that verse which is about teaching all that Jesus caommanded, from the NAB /UCCB:All that I have commanded you: the moral teaching found in this gospel, preeminently that of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). …The commandments of Jesus are the standard of Christian conduct, not the Mosaic law as such, even though some of the Mosaic commandments have now been invested with the authority of Jesus. Behold, I am with you always: the promise of Jesus’ real though invisible presence echoes the name Emmanuel given to him in the infancy narrative; see the note on Matthew 1:23. End of the age: see the notes on Matthew 13:39 and Matthew 24:3.

Peace
 
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ricatholic:
You forgot the back end of that verse which is about teaching all that Jesus caommanded, from the NAB /UCCB:All that I have commanded you: the moral teaching found in this gospel, preeminently that of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). …The commandments of Jesus are the standard of Christian conduct, not the Mosaic law as such, even though some of the Mosaic commandments have now been invested with the authority of Jesus. Behold, I am with you always: the promise of Jesus’ real though invisible presence echoes the name Emmanuel given to him in the infancy narrative; see the note on Matthew 1:23. End of the age: see the notes on Matthew 13:39 and Matthew 24:3.

Peace
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I did not forgot the back end of that verse. My point was that you have to tell people about Jesus. They aren’t going to know about Him if you don’t tell them.
 
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yinekka:
A couple of months ago we had a Colomban Missionary preaching at church. He is working in South America. He said he believed in Liberation Theology! :mad: He was soliciting subscriptions for The Far East magazine. I had a look at a sample copy he left and it contained alot of great stuff they were doing to improve the temporal lives of the people but the magazine told us nothing that they were doing to win souls for Christ. The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart also seem just to be working to improve the temporal lives of the people and the requirement to’ preach the gospel 'seems to have been put on the back burner.

Don’t think I am knocking the great work done to improve the living conditions of people who live in Third World countries but this work should go hand in hand with spreading the Faith not instead of it. 🙂
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I have experienced Latin American missions first hand and agree with you 100%. The works of charity are great, however I think by ignoring the moral issues those commiting grave sins feel that their sins are ok and not really bad. I want peoples lives to be better but imagine the true joy we all will have with ETERNAL union with God in heaven! I want that for everyone, especially for those who have lived a hard life here one Earth.
 
The Church has made clear that not everything in liberation theology is to be rejected. Much in that perspective reflects the authentic social doctrine of the Church.

I suggest that the best practical advice for Catholics is to study Vatican II’s *Gaudium et spes * and the CDF’s two instructions on liberation theology:

rc.net/rcchurch/vatican2/gaudium.ets

vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19840806_theology-liberation_en.html

vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19860322_freedom-liberation_en.html

Keep and spread the Faith.
 
Steve O'Brien:
The Church has made clear that not everything in liberation theology is to be rejected. Much in that perspective reflects the authentic social doctrine of the Church.

I suggest that the best practical advice for Catholics is to study Vatican II’s *Gaudium et spes *and the CDF’s two instructions on liberation theology:

rc.net/rcchurch/vatican2/gaudium.ets

vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19840806_theology-liberation_en.html

vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19860322_freedom-liberation_en.html

Keep and spread the Faith.
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:eek: I went to one of the links and its like a million pages long! I don’t think I could ever read it all :bigyikes:. Seriously though, thanks for the info!
 
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