The Alleged Decline of Liberation Theology: Natural Death or Attempted Assassination?
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Social Science Research
3. The Impression of Death
3.1. Actions by the Vatican
3.2. Myopic View from São Paulo
3.3. Characterization of Liberation Theology as a Social Movement
3.4. Exaggerated Expectations
4. Attempted Assassination
4.1. Religious Reaction against Change
4.2. Military Assaults on Liberation Theology
- Intensification of internal splits in the church;
- Harassment of progressive church leaders;
- Arrest or expulsion of foreign missionaries;
- Attempts to discredit these missionaries with propaganda emphasizing “that they have been sent to Bolivia for the exclusive purpose of directing the Church toward communism” (Lernoux 1980, p. 143).
4.3. The Combined Assault by Church and State
- Their opposition to communism;
- Their common experience of having been seriously wounded in assassination attempts and their conviction that their survival meant that they were to carry out a divine plan related to ending communism;
- Devotion to Our Lady of Fatima—a one-page note in the Reagan Presidential Library indicated that the Fatima story was relevant to the president’s views on communism;
- Their friendship—Kengor quotes Reagan as actually saying that the pope was his best friend.
“That’s it!!” Reagan had shouted at his television as he and close aide Richard Allen watched the remarkable news footage of the son of Poland’s visit to Warsaw. “The Pope is the key! The Pope is the key!” Reagan told Allen, a Catholic, that he needed to win the presidency and they needed to reach out to this new Polish pope and the Vatican and “make them an ally”.
The scene showing Cardenal in tears was televised nationwide, causing anger everywhere. Cardenal was not only a hero of the revolution but also the most famous living poet of a country where poets are held in the highest esteem. For many the pope’s rebuke signified the humiliation of the revolution as well as a beloved priest.
5. Continued Signs of Life in Liberation Theology
6. A Case Study in Brazil
We went to talk with Dom Serafim, and we brought a letter from Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns of São Paulo, introducing us, and we asked to talk with him. We wanted to begin work with the street population…He agreed. He said it was fine. And actually he was a very effective presence…But [the pastoral] was constructed at the grassroots level, together with the people.
It was difficult for us to accept the pastoral. We thought that they were also police, that they were coming to take away our materials. But it was the pastoral that brought the paper collectors dignity and citizenship.
We go to the streets where the people are. Then we get to know them. For example, we go every Monday to the area around the bus terminal. And then we approach people. We chat with them. And we listen.
It’s that approach of convivência [shared living experience]. It’s not just to go, look, and return home, but a matter of being present, being together with them, seeing their situations, hearing about their situations, and walking with them.
The police would come after us…They would take away the [recyclable material] that for us was always a means of work for income…Then the Pastoral of the Street appeared. If it hadn’t been for the pastoral, we, the collectors, would no longer exist.
All of that is based on a spirituality that comes from the theology of liberation. It comes from the base ecclesial communities, where, beginning with the Gospel, beginning with the Bible, you reflect on the life of the people. So for us, the people of the street are the people of God, who are making the journey in the desert, who are doing this process of liberation.
7. Testimony from an Unexpected Source
Another major contextual issue for the visit is the challenge to the traditional Church played by liberation theology. Pope John Paul (aided by the current pope when he was Cardinal Ratzinger) made major efforts to stamp out this Marxist analysis of class struggle. It had come to be promoted by a significant number of Catholic clergy and lay people…To a large extent, Pope John Paul II beat down “liberation theology”, but in the past few years, it has seen a resurgence in various parts of Latin America.
Also important—and disturbing—to the Holy See is the resilience of Latin American liberation theology. During his time as the powerful Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the 1980s and 1990s, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger opposed liberation theology for its overt sympathy for revolutionary movements. Some of the supporters of this theology—including former clerics—now occupy prominent political positions in countries like Bolivia and Paraguay, a phenomenon that one commentator has described as the secular reincarnation of liberation theology.
8. The Future of Liberation Theology
9. Conclusions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
1 | Although liberation theology has spread beyond the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America, the focus of this article is on Catholicism in that region because this has been the target of most of the attacks on the theology and its adherents. |
2 | A seminal version of this analysis will appear in Cousineau (forthcoming). This material is used with permission of the editor of the volume. |
3 | Citations of authors with differing perspectives are intended to demonstrate the political neutrality of the evidence. |
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Cousineau, M. The Alleged Decline of Liberation Theology: Natural Death or Attempted Assassination? Religions 2022, 13, 1181. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13121181
Cousineau M. The Alleged Decline of Liberation Theology: Natural Death or Attempted Assassination? Religions. 2022; 13(12):1181. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13121181
Chicago/Turabian StyleCousineau, Madeleine. 2022. "The Alleged Decline of Liberation Theology: Natural Death or Attempted Assassination?" Religions 13, no. 12: 1181. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13121181
APA StyleCousineau, M. (2022). The Alleged Decline of Liberation Theology: Natural Death or Attempted Assassination? Religions, 13(12), 1181. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13121181