Was Liberation Theology condemned?

[christcnection1]

I knew the Church has certain reservations about Liberation Theology, but has the movement been formally condemned? (Or just a version of LT?)

This brief article seems to imply that’s the case…

“Their errors stem from the tenets of “liberation theology,” a Marxist interpretation of religion. This “theology” originated in Latin America in the late seventies and was condemned by the Church on August 6, 1984, in the Instruction on Certain Aspects of the “Theology of Liberation,” signed by the then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger.7”

from tfp.org/TFPForum/TFPCommentary/soa_consistent.htm

I am curious about this because the program I am currently in endorses LT, but unlike this article suggests, they recognize that evils and atrocities take place on both sides.

In what measure and in what ways is it acceptable to embrace LT, if at all?

 

[melensdad]

I can’t find any “formal” condemnation of Liberation Theology. However, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the Vatican has consistently opposed the theory and actively fought against it. Pope JP II and now Pope B XVI both have considered Liberation Theology to be a threat to the church.

One of the best articles on LT, as it really was practiced (with plenty of footnotes) and shows it as a real bastardization of the Church teachings is available on-line. catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?recnum=643

For those who dabble in Liberation Theology, I’d strongly suggest a prayerful reading of the subject, as it really replaces the focus onto the here and now, and minimizes salvation.

Pope John Paul II has issued stern warnings against Liberation Theology, replaced LT leaning Bishops, etc. He further equated Liberation Theology with Marxism and Socialism and considered it an evil (it should also be noted that he considered unbridled capitalism to be an equal evil, but embraced western style capitalism and democracy).

Some may also want to see this article on some of the many dangers of Liberation Theology, its ties to Marxism (socialism) and the writings of some of our leaders against the theology: newadvent.org/library/docs_df84lt.htm

The words of Cardinal Ratzinger, written while he was working against Liberation Theology under Pope John Paul II can be found here: christendom-awake.org/pages/ratzinger/liberationtheol.htm

There are many non-Catholic sources for information on Liberation Theology. But the sources of information that hail from our Church are nearly universally opposed to it, in a very critical way. So was it officially condemned, that I don’t know. What I do know is that it was condemned in action and deeds by the Vatican, even if they did not officially make a condemnation of it verbally.

 

[gam197]

Thanks for clarifying.

About eight years ago, when I went to a local church which had some Spanish parishioners. I found copies of a book on Liberation Theology on the rack in back of the church. This Theology is better known in the Latino Countries. I took a copy home and read it.

At the same time, the priests, one of Spanish and one of Irish decent, had a walk scheduled for New York City near 9/11 on the anniversary. The bus load of people would be leaving our state for New York but the walk was also promoted somehow in relationship to Liberation Theology.

 

[peary]

Well, when you put the Gospel in Marxist terms, it loses some of its glory.

 

[mahoneyt]

I knew the Church has certain reservations about Liberation Theology, but has the movement been formally condemned? (Or just a version of LT?)

This brief article seems to imply that’s the case…

“Their errors stem from the tenets of “liberation theology,” a Marxist interpretation of religion. This “theology” originated in Latin America in the late seventies and was condemned by the Church on August 6, 1984, in the Instruction on Certain Aspects of the “Theology of Liberation,” signed by the then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger.7”

from tfp.org/TFPForum/TFPCommentary/soa_consistent.htm

I am curious about this because the program I am currently in endorses LT, but unlike this article suggests, they recognize that evils and atrocities take place on both sides.

In what measure and in what ways is it acceptable to embrace LT, if at all?

Please don’t call it a Marxist tradition, because its not. Your creating a “catagory” in order to dismiss it. It is a serious branch of Theology and there is a lot to be learned from it. Yes the movement works with Marxists but only to create certain politcal goals in an ecomonic climate created by our (America’s) sin. The Doctrine of LT in no way rejects God as Marxism does.

 

[mahoneyt]

I knew the Church has certain reservations about Liberation Theology, but has the movement been formally condemned? (Or just a version of LT?)

This brief article seems to imply that’s the case…

“Their errors stem from the tenets of “liberation theology,” a Marxist interpretation of religion. This “theology” originated in Latin America in the late seventies and was condemned by the Church on August 6, 1984, in the Instruction on Certain Aspects of the “Theology of Liberation,” signed by the then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger.7”

from tfp.org/TFPForum/TFPCommentary/soa_consistent.htm

I am curious about this because the program I am currently in endorses LT, but unlike this article suggests, they recognize that evils and atrocities take place on both sides.

In what measure and in what ways is it acceptable to embrace LT, if at all?

Trying to shut down an operation run by the US government that goes and trains soliders that then kill members of our Catholic Church really doesn’t even need to be done through LT, thats just standing up for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Alot of the people who show up have been influenced by LT, all the Jesuit schools show up and so do the Maryknolls (Fr. Roy) and alot of secular protesters though it was started by Fr. Roy. Then again think whos been killed by SOA graduates, mostly Jesuits and Maryknoll missionaries. If our soldiers killed American priests there would be a riot, but we are a Global (Catholic) church and our government is giving men the tools in which to murder Catholics. Then again though, I go to Jesuit College maybe I’m too “subversive”

soaw.org/article.php?id=205

Gradutes of SOA have killed a number of peaceful priests including an ArchBishop, American Laywomen, Jesuits (6 University Professors, Fr. Grande)

I’d want to shut down any group of people that is murdering members of my Church.

 

[christcnection1]

Trying to shut down an operation run by the US government that goes and trains soliders that then kill members of our Catholic Church really doesn’t even need to be done through LT, thats just standing up for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Alot of the people who show up have been influenced by LT, all the Jesuit schools show up and so do the Maryknolls (Fr. Roy) and alot of secular protesters though it was started by Fr. Roy. Then again think whos been killed by SOA graduates, mostly Jesuits and Maryknoll missionaries. If our soldiers killed American priests there would be a riot, but we are a Global (Catholic) church and our government is giving men the tools in which to murder Catholics. Then again though, I go to Jesuit College maybe I’m too “subversive”

soaw.org/article.php?id=205

Gradutes of SOA have killed a number of peaceful priests including an ArchBishop, American Laywomen, Jesuits (6 University Professors, Fr. Grande)

I’d want to shut down any group of people that is murdering members of my Church.

Thank you for chipping in! I was surprised that there was not more dialogue on this issue. I encourage you to stay on this thread to continue defending your perspective. Generally speaking I agree with you, though I am no expert on the topic.

God Bless,

JB

 

[peary]

Originally Posted by christcnection1
I knew the Church has certain reservations about Liberation Theology, but has the movement been formally condemned? (Or just a version of LT?)

This brief article seems to imply that’s the case…

“Their errors stem from the tenets of “liberation theology,” a Marxist interpretation of religion. This “theology” originated in Latin America in the late seventies and was condemned by the Church on August 6, 1984, in the Instruction on Certain Aspects of the “Theology of Liberation,” signed by the then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger.7”

from tfp.org/TFPForum/TFPComme…consistent.htm

I am curious about this because the program I am currently in endorses LT, but unlike this article suggests, they recognize that evils and atrocities take place on both sides.

In what measure and in what ways is it acceptable to embrace LT, if at all?

**There are all different types of Liberation Theology. The ones that the Church is concerned with are those that are definitely Marxist in tone, which calls for revolution and the rising up of the lower classes against their oppressors in the name of Christ who is not exactly interpreted as the Son of the living God, but as some sort of spiritual Che Guevera.

Some LT theologians maintain that the avenue of God’s grace is only through the poor and oppressed - a notion rejected by the Church.**

 

[melensdad]

It is a serious branch of Theology and there is a lot to be learned from it.

Yet the Vatican and our current as well as our previous Pope both considered it a threat and both considered it wrong.

Yes the movement works with Marxists but only to create certain politcal goals in an ecomonic climate created by our (America’s) sin.

Funny, but Pope John Paul II wrote that Western Style Democracy with its regulated economy was the most just system.

The Doctrine of LT in no way rejects God as Marxism does.

No, it rejects the teaching of the Church in a different way than Marxism. Both reject key theological teachings.

 

[tomarin]

in addition to the fact that wherever revolutionary socialism has arose it has persecuted christians (vietnam, soviet russia and mexico come to mind) and sought to outlaw worship of god, marxism today is a dead letter.

to the extent that liberation theory is an attempt to synthesize marxism and catholicism, why for the reasons stated above would anyone want to lend support to it?

 

[redmars3000]

Liberation Theology puts church teaching into the dialectic and therefore says that teaching needs to be re-evaluated given the historical context. This is the same thing as material dialecticism. Truth does not change and there is only one correct interpretation(dogma) of it.

All liberation theology seeks the same ends of Marxism; the liberation of the lower classes(the poor) against the upper classes. The theological twist to it is that the our Salvation by the Lord is re-interpreted as a material salvation, the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

Read “The Ratzinger Report” if you have any doubts. Liberation theology has been condemned publicly I believe. No more debate about it, I think it’s classified now as a heresy. There was another condemning statement by the Pope about it this year too.

 

[redmars3000]

Correction:
My first paragraph might imply something wrong, when I start the sentence: Truth does not…

It should read:

This automatically stands against the Church, because Truth does not change and there is only one correct interpretation(dogma) of it.

 

[melensdad]

Liberation Theology
. . .
I think it’s classified now as a heresy.

I would love to see proof of that. I don’t doubt it, but I have not seen evidence of it.

Cardinal Ratzinger authored a two-part refutation of liberation theology in the 1984 Instruction on Certain Aspects of the “Theology of Liberation” and the Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation that came out two years later. Pope John Paul II’s main enemy, since his election in 1978, was modern secularism. For the Pope JP II, liberation theology was part of this secularism. I believe the same can be said about Pope Benedict XVI’s feelings regarding the evils of Liberation Theology.

The liberationists are exclusionary, a point that their critics make frequently. Ratzinger wrote in 1986: “the special option for the poor, far from being a sign of particularism or sectarianism, manifests the universality of the Church’s being and mission. This option excludes no one.” All human beings are poor. All people need spiritual sustenance; some need material sustenance also (1986: para. 68).

Clearly Liberation theology addresses economic and social issues by promoting divisions in society and by encouraging envy. This does nothing to ameliorate material deprivation. Class envy or promoting it, does nothing to help the poor, it does however create hostile feelings, something which is anti-Christian.

Faithful Catholics must aid the poor and must try to relieve their suffering. Traditional Catholics believe that they must not sacrifice their souls, nor destroy societal unity, by undertaking sinful, divisive actions to make economic conditions less terrible.

 

[Alexius]

I don’t think that Liberation Theology is necessarily wrong; however, it occasionally goes too far. The Liberation Theology that Pope John Paul II was most opposed to were the movements which taught that liberation is focused on the physical “revolution” rather than the spiritual. These were/are focused on Jesus as the revolutionary and ut little if no significance on the death and resurrection other than political persecution. There is a sense in which LT is compatible, but not in the sense commonly associated with it. Helping the poor and needy and petitioning governments to help those suffering is one thing, but when violence and exclusive humanitarianism is the means, then you have created a new movement apart from spiritual salvation in Christ. The goal is to live in Christ, not utopia…I think I do recall Pope John Paul II being reported as saying that there are rare cases when violence, or atleast civil disobedience can be acceptable like in the case of extreme persecution, but don’t hold me to that (I think I’m misinterpreting it and also, the early Christians did not and I think that was a testimony to the Truth…).

Prayers and petitions,
Alexius

 

[christcnection1]

Here’s a follow up article to the first one. It’s pretty interesting.

tfp.org/TFPForum/TFPCommentary/which_side_has_something_to_hide.htm

I would also like to see where (and if) the Church has officially condemned it, using a wide brush. I don’t doubt that elements of it are, but I have a hard time believing the Church has dismissed the entire thing. Generally speaking, the goals behind LT are good ones, even though I find the theology a little squirrelly.

 

[mahoneyt]

Yet the Vatican and our current as well as our previous Pope both considered it a threat and both considered it wrong.

Funny, but Pope John Paul II wrote that Western Style Democracy with its regulated economy was the most just system.

No, it rejects the teaching of the Church in a different way than Marxism. Both reject key theological teachings.

I know people like to be rude on the internet, I’m guilty of it too sometimes, but it doesn’t really fly in academic discussions. Please show me the key theological teachings, please don’t just make random assertions like that because I have no idea what you are talking about. PJP2 saw the horrors of communism in Poland, but the people in El Salvador saw the evil and horror of capitalism. At one point a dozen or so families owned the majority of the land (over 80% i believe) in El Salvador so Oscar Romero worked on land reform and yes that idea has communist roots but thats not how Romero viewed it. Its about God providing equally for all his children what they need. Our Western style of Democracy is so just here because he exploit most of South and Central America to make it that way (ex overthrowing governments, banana republics, NAFTA). Though I love and respect our Holy Father, though he was a theologian and a professor and in this day and age professors can become very removed from the situation on the ground. I understand Ratzinger 's (at the time) theological points in rejecting LT, but watch the suffering of people in Latin America as Catholics we have in a lot of ways let religion become the opiate of the masses. Instead of standing up for justice in the name of Jesus. God told Moses to led the Israelites out of Egypt because of their condition of slavery and their cries for freedom.

Also remember this is a thread of SOA and how the protest is grounded in LT and therefore not valid and I’m arguing that it doesn’t matter where its grounded, our government is giving other governments the tools to kill our Catholic brothers and sisters.

 

[mahoneyt]

Liberation Theology puts church teaching into the dialectic and therefore says that teaching needs to be re-evaluated given the historical context. This is the same thing as material dialecticism. Truth does not change and there is only one correct interpretation(dogma) of it.

All liberation theology seeks the same ends of Marxism; the liberation of the lower classes(the poor) against the upper classes. The theological twist to it is that the our Salvation by the Lord is re-interpreted as a material salvation, the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

Read “The Ratzinger Report” if you have any doubts. Liberation theology has been condemned publicly I believe. No more debate about it, I think it’s classified now as a heresy. There was another condemning statement by the Pope about it this year too.

“No more debate about it” Sorry maybe I went to a seminar school for to long, but are you kidding me?

We don’t have to re-evaluated anything its already there, people just don’t talk about it.

Acts 2:42-47

2They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Its not material salvation, they believe in Jesus so they share. In some countries its 90% Catholic thats a lot of sharing and you know what some people in the upper class really don’t want to share at all.

There are about 2000 I don’t to get into the all the verses about the poor and oppressed.

Stop marrying it to marxism, that is an ultra-conservative traditionalist way to dismiss the theology without studying it in detail. A “heresy”, what garbage. “Material salvation?”. Please explain the Moses story to me and how God doesn’t want to lead us out of slavery. Don’t just say its slavery to sin because its not. The Israelites believed in God before he led them out of Egypt, we are not trying to “save” people materially. They already believe in Jesus I just don’t want to keep explaining to them that their children are dying because of how international free trade creates uneven trade. Jesus doesn’t just free us from sin, he frees us from oppression. What do you think all those silly prophets were talking about? You can’t do that to God’s people its not God’s way.

Heaven and the Kingdom of Heaven are too different things in the Bible. The Kingdom of Heaven/God is a place where God’s love reigns and if we have to take on poverty to make that happen so be it. All I see in the Catholic mainstream these days is attacking moral issues, instead of the economic issues that create those moral issues. We do not attain salvation through creating the Kingdom of Heaven, I believe in Jesus Christ so Im gonna do everything in my power to build that Kingdom.

 

[Alexius]

Here’s a follow up article to the first one. It’s pretty interesting.

tfp.org/TFPForum/TFPCommentary/which_side_has_something_to_hide.htm

I would also like to see where (and if) the Church has officially condemned it, using a wide brush. I don’t doubt that elements of it are, but I have a hard time believing the Church has dismissed the entire thing. Generally speaking, the goals behind LT are good ones, even though I find the theology a little squirrelly.

I have a book that touches on LT…I’ll take a look at it when I get home…

 

[melensdad]

I know people like to be rude on the internet

I’n not one of those, and don’t understand why you imply I may have been?

Please show me the key theological teachings, please don’t just make random assertions like that because I have no idea what you are talking about.

I provided several links in this thread and provided other references, if you would go back and read my other posts you will probably find links or references to what you seek.

PJP2 saw the horrors of communism in Poland, but the people in El Salvador saw the evil and horror of capitalism.

We do not have unbridled capitalism here, nor did I suggest that Pope JPII favored it. I stated what he favored, a western style democracy with regulated capitalism. What we have is not what El Salvador had/has. Please understand that we a combination of a political system and an economic system that work together to form a just system because the political systems prevents an unbridled economic system, while the economic system is free enough to provide opportunity. That is what Pope John Paul II was referring to when he stated a Western style Democracy with regulated capitalism.

Our Western style of Democracy is so just here because he exploit most of South and Central America …

Again, that is not what I wrote that the Church favors.

I understand Ratzinger 's (at the time) theological points in rejecting LT …

Please do not consider this rude, but no I do not believe you understand it at all.

 

[melensdad]

Its not material salvation, they believe in Jesus so they share. In some countries its 90% Catholic thats a lot of sharing and you know what some people in the upper class really don’t want to share at all.

You are misunderstanding what the Church teaches and then applying it to ‘some’ countries. Realize (I’ve said this before) that Pope JPII stated the ideal was a Western style democracy with a regulated form of capitalism. What you describe in your post is not that form of government or that form of economy.

mahoneyt:

Stop marrying it to marxism, that is an ultra-conservative traditionalist way to dismiss the theology without studying it in detail.

Well it is the Vatican that warns of of the evils of L.T. and associates it to marxist theory. In fact Cardinal Ratzinger mentions marxism 17 times in relation to Liberation Theology in one document alone! In another he relates it to marxism 29 times!

You say it is a way to “dismiss” the theology without studying it in detail, but the Vatican has studied it in detail and keeps referring to it as “wrong” and “marxist” and that leaves you as the one who is not understanding something.

Again I would ask you to read the links I provided, also do a simple google search for the two articles that I cited in one of my posts which were written by Cardinal Ratzinger under the directive of Pope John Paul II to combat Liberation Theology. Please read those articles by Cardinal Ratzinger. You will see that not only does the Church find Libertation Theology to be a threat, you will also see how it does, in fact, relate to marxism.