1.
LiberationTheology –Readandanswerthe questions…
Liberation theology was a radical movement that grew in South America. It said the church
should act to bring about social change, and should ally itself with the working class to do
so. The late Pope John Paul II opposed the movement.
The case for liberation theology
Love for the poor must be preferential, but not exclusive.
Ecclesia in America, 1999
Liberation theology grew in South America as a response to the poverty and the ill-
treatment of ordinary people. The movement was caricatured in the phrase ‘If Jesus Christ
were on Earth today, he would be a Marxist revolutionary’ but it's more accurately
encapsulated in this paragraph from Leonardo and Clodovis Boff:
Q: How are we to be Christians in a world of destitution and injustice?
A: There can be only one answer: we can be followers of Jesus and true Christians only by
making common cause with the poor and working out the gospel of liberation.
Leonardo and Clodovis Boff
Liberation theology said the church should derive its legitimacy and theology by growing out
of the poor. The Bible should be read and experienced from the perspective of the poor. The
church should be a movement for those who were denied their rights and plunged into such
poverty that they were deprived of their full status as human beings. The poor should take
the example of Jesus and use it to bring about a just society. Some liberation theologians
saw in the collegiate nature of the Trinity a model for co-operative and non-hierarchical
development among humans.
Most controversially, the Liberationists said the church should act to bring about social
change, and should ally itself with the working class to do so. Some radical priests became
involved in politics and trade unions; others even aligned themselves with violent
revolutionary movements.
A common way in which priests and nuns showed their solidarity with the poor was to move
from religious houses into poverty stricken areas to share the living conditions of their flock.
The Pope disagrees.
The case against liberation theology
The late Pope John Paul II was frequently criticised for the severity with which he dealt with
the liberation movement.
His main object was to stop the highly politicised form of liberation theology prevalent in
the 1980s, which could be seen as a fusion of Christianity and Marxism. He was particularly
criticised for the firmness with which he closed institutions that taught Liberation Theology
and with which he removed or rebuked the movement's activists, such as Leonardo Boff and
Gustavo Gutierrez.

2.
LiberationTheology –Readandanswerthe questions…
He believed that to turn the church into a secular political institution and to see salvation
solely as the achievement of social justice was to rob faith in Jesus of its power to transform
every life. The image of Jesus as a political revolutionary was inconsistent with the Bible and
the Church's teachings.
He didn't mean that the Church was not going to be the voice of the oppressed, was not
going to champion the poor. But it should not do it by partisan politics, or by revolutionary
violence. The Church's business was bringing about the Kingdom of God, not about creating
a Marxist utopia.
No more exploitation of the weak, racial discrimination or ghettoes of poverty! Never again!
These are intolerable evils which cry out to heaven and call Christians to a different way of
living, to a social commitment more in keeping with their faith.
Pope John Paul II at Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico, 1999
Nicaragua was a particular hot-spot. Priests had been active in the overthrow of a dictator,
and had taken jobs in the revolutionary government that followed, despite being forbidden
to by the Pope.
What the Church should be doing
In 1984 and 1986 the Church issued major documents on the theme of Liberation. They
echoed John Paul's view that the Church should work for the liberation of the poor, but do
so in an appropriate way for a church, inspired not by a political vision of a perfect world,
but by helping each human being to find their freedom by redemption from sin - the
church's job was to bring people into personal contact with God.
The Pope stated this clearly in a sermon in Mexico in 1990:
...When the world begins to notice the clear failures of certain ideologies and systems, it
seems all the more incomprehensible that certain sons of the Church in these lands -
prompted at times by the desire to find quick solutions - persist in presenting as viable
certain models whose failure is patent in other places in the world.
You, as priests, cannot be involved in activities which belong to the lay faithful, while
through your service to the Church community you are called to cooperate with them by
helping them study Church teachings...
...Be careful, then, not to accept nor allow a Vision of human life as conflict nor ideologies
which propose class hatred and violence to be instilled in you; this includes those which try to
hide under theological writings.
Pope John Paul II, 'Option for the Poor' sermon in Mexico, 1990
This didn't exclude social action - far from it, but the social action should be in the image of
the gospel and the gospel was open to everyone.

3.
LiberationTheology –Readandanswerthe questions…
Jesus makes it a condition for our participating in his salvation to give food to the hungry,
give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, console the sorrowing, because "when you do this
to one of my least brothers or sisters you do it to me" (Mt 25:40).
Pope John Paul II
Liberation theology's martyr - Óscar Romero (1917-1980)
One of the most high profile clerics associated with liberation theology was the Archbishop
of San Salvador, Óscar Romero. Initally considered a social conservative, he became
increasingly an outspoken advocate for the poor and oppressed as the security situation in
El Salvador deteriorated in the late 1970s. He was assassinated while saying mass in a
cancer hospice in San Salvador on 24th March 1980.
Over to you:
TASK 1: Outline some of the factors which led to the development of liberation theology
(text book).
TASK 2: Using some of the above quotes and the text book where necessary, explain how
the liberationist’s used their interpretations of the Bible and Christian teachings led to
liberate themselves.
TASK 3: Explain why the liberation theology would be supported by Marxists. In your
answer, refer to why Marxists see liberation theology as ‘religiously inspired social change’?
TASK 3: Using direct quotes from above were necessary:
a) What were the late Pope John Paul II’s arguments against liberation theology?
b) What do you think he meant by “The Church's business was bringing about the
Kingdom of God, not about creating a Marxist utopia”?
c) How should the people in Latin America deal with their situation? What does the
Pope and the Church suggest?
EXT: What do you think? Is liberation theology the only way? Was Marx right?