Until 2007, the religious was an important theologian of liberation theology, although not as famous as his brother Leonardo, a former Catholic priest who is one of the founders of the movement, which gained popularity in the 1970s and emphasized freedom from poverty and oppression as the key to salvation.

Then, in a move that alienated him from his famous brother, Clodovis Boff published the article "Liberation Theology and Return to Fundamentals," in which he accused liberation theologians of making the poor the center of theology instead of Jesus Christ.

Now, Boff has written a book calling for a re-centering of the Latin American Catholic Church in Christ.

"It is necessary for the Church to once again emphasise Christ as priest, as master and Lord, and not just the fight against poverty and the climate crisis," he said at the launch of the book "The Crisis in the Catholic Church and Liberation Theology," written in collaboration with Father Leonardo Rasera and recently released by Ecclesiae.

"These are important questions, but without drinking from Christ, who is the source, everything dries up, everything dies," Boff said.

In the late 1960s, when liberation theology began its long dominion of religious thought in Brazil, more than 90 percent of Brazilians were Catholics.

Since then, the percentage of Catholics in the Brazilian population has decreased and now stands at 51 percent.

Moreover, Brazilian Catholics have a very low rate of church attendance.

A survey conducted by Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) in 36 countries last year showed that only eight percent of Brazilian Catholics go to Mass on Sunday.

The rate was the third lowest among the analysed countries.

For Boff and Rasera, the decline in church attendance is due to the deposit of faith not being passed on.

With liberation theology, "faith is instrumentalised in terms of the poor," Boff writes in the book.

"One falls into utilitarianism or functionalism in relation to the Word of God and to theology in general," he continues.

He says liberation theology "appeals to ideas such as ‘margins of gratuity' and ‘eschatological reserve' to assert its respect for the transcendence of faith.

In fact, the part of transcendence is, in this theology, the smallest and least relevant part, the ‘lion's share' falling, as always, to the ‘liberating reading' of faith."

According to the friar, this is leading many Catholics to Protestantism, esotericism, neopaganism, and even Satanism. Continue reading

• Marcelo Musa Cavallari is ACI Digital's editor-in-chief.

He was 95.

Known for his trademark black beret and loose white peasant shirts, the author of works such as "Epigrams" and "Zero Hour" was one of the most important and honoured poets in Nicaraguan history.

Cardenal penned verse that went around the globe and lived until his last days with a lucidity that inspired amazement and admiration in the literary world.

"Our beloved poet has begun the process of integrating with the universe, with the greatest intimacy with God," his personal assistant, Luz Marina Acosta, said Sunday.

Bosco Centeno, a close friend of Cardenal, told The Associated Press the poet was hospitalized in Nicaragua's capital of Managua a couple of days ago with a heart problem.

Cardenal received numerous awards during his lifetime including the Reina Sofia poetry prize in 2012, and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 1980.

Argentine poet Jorge Boccanera once said of Cardenal's writing that he "loses his life and at the same time discovers it in a profound delivery; in consecrating and offering himself in that dialogue of soul and blood."

Cardenal was also an essayist and sculptor, and the herons he fashioned from stone and metal are highly prized in Central American cultural circles.

Born Jan. 20, 1925, to a wealthy family in the colonial city of Granada southeast of the Nicaraguan capital, Cardenal became a priest in Colombia and later became enamoured of the leftist Liberation Theology movement that swept through Latin America during the 1960s, centred on ministering to the poor and liberating the oppressed.

On the Solentiname Islands in Lake Nicaragua, he founded a community of peasants, poets and painters in 1966 that came to symbolize artistic opposition to the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza, who was overthrown in 1979 by Sandinista rebels.

Cardenal actively supported the revolution and served as culture minister during the first government of former Sandinista guerrilla Daniel Ortega — causing him to run afoul of then-Pope John Paul II, who firmly held that clerics should not hold political office.

The pontiff was also staunchly anti-communist and opposed some parts of Liberation Theology.

In 1983, John Paul publicly upbraided Cardenal at Managua's international airport at the beginning of a tense visit.

When Cardenal knelt in front of the pope and moved to kiss his hand, the pontiff withdrew it and pointed his finger at him in a moment caught in a widely circulated photograph.

"You should regularize your situation," the pope scolded. Later that year he suspended Cardenal from the priesthood along with his brother Fernando, who was then serving as minister of education.

Only late in life was Cardenal's suspension lifted by Pope Francis: In February 2019, as Cardenal was in the hospital, the Vatican noted that he had accepted the punishment, refrained from pastoral activity and long ago abandoned the political arena.

The Vatican's ambassador to Nicaragua visited him at the hospital and joined him in celebrating Mass, a moment that Cardenal's personal assistant described as "very moving" and said made him "very happy."

While Cardenal never held political office again, that didn't mean he shied away from speaking his mind, and the erstwhile supporter of Ortega distanced himself from his former Sandinista sympathizers over his disagreement with the ex-guerrilla's partisan leadership. Continue reading

Fr Cardenal was suspended from the priesthood after refusing to step down as education minister in the left-wing government, which he joined following the overthrow of the Somoza regime in 1979.

Fr Cardenal, a supporter of Liberation Theology, was expelled from the Jesuits.

But he stated he could not conceive of a God who would ask him to abandon his commitment to the people.

Fr Cardenal led a successful literacy campaign in Nicaragua.

He was eventually re-admitted to the Jesuits in 1996.

Continue reading

The Pope made these remarks "off-the-cuff" while speaking on Friday to a group of Salvadoran pilgrims.

Pope Francis said that Romero suffered martyrdom not just by his murder on March 24, 1980, but afterwards.

The Pope said: "I was a young priest then and I was a witness to this: he was defamed, calumnied and had dirt thrown on his name — his martyrdom continued even by his brothers in the priesthood and episcopate."

He said Blessed Romero was "stoned with the hardest stone that exists in the world: the tongue".

"After having given his life, he continues to give it by allowing himself to be assailed by all this misunderstanding and slander," the Pope said, adding that "this gives me strength".

Blessed Romero had spoken out against repression by the army at the beginning of El Salvador's 1980-1992 civil war.

He was murdered by right-wing death squads as he celebrated Mass in a hospital chapel in San Salvador.

Romero's sainthood case was held up by the Vatican, apparently due to opposition from some Latin American churchmen who feared his association with liberation theology would embolden the movement.

After a 35-year delay, Blessed Romero was beatified in May this year.

Pope Francis, speaking to the pilgrims, said he hoped God would continue what Blessed Romero had hoped would come to El Salvador: "the happy moment when El Salvador's terrible tragedy of suffering of so many of our brothers thanks to hatred, violence and injustice, disappears".

In a message sent for the beatification, Pope Francis said Archbishop Romero "built the peace with the power of love, [and] gave testimony of the faith with his life".

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: OP.org

Father Gutiérrez is a founder of liberation theology, the Latin American movement embracing the poor and calling for social change, which conservatives once scorned as overtly Marxist and the Vatican treated with hostility.

Now, Father Gutiérrez is a respected Vatican visitor, and his writings have been praised in the official Vatican newspaper. Francis has brought other Latin American priests back into favor and often uses language about the poor that has echoes of liberation theology.

And then came Saturday, when throngs packed San Salvador for the beatification ceremony of the murdered Salvadoran archbishop Óscar Romero, leaving him one step from sainthood.

The first pope from the developing world, Francis has placed the poor at the center of his papacy. In doing so, he is directly engaging with a theological movement that once sharply divided Catholics and was distrusted by his predecessors, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. Even Francis, as a young Jesuit leader in Argentina, had qualms.

Now, Francis speaks of creating "a poor church for the poor" and is seeking to position Catholicism closer to the masses — a spiritual mission that comes as he is also trying to revive the church in Latin America, where it has steadily lost ground to evangelical congregations.

For years, Vatican critics of liberation theology and conservative Latin American bishops helped stall the canonization process for Archbishop Romero, even though many Catholics in the region regard him as a towering moral figure: an outspoken critic of social injustice and political repression who was assassinated during Mass in 1980. Francis broke the stalemate. Continue reading

Sources

• The New York Times
• Image: telesur

Fr Gustavo Gutiérrez said that with Francis it's easier to push the global Church to have a special concern for the poor, "something we find in the Scriptures".

But the Peruvian theologian said there has been no "rehabilitation" of Liberation Theology under Pope Francis, because the movement was never formally rejected in the first place.

"To speak of rehabilitation would be inaccurate," Fr Gutiérrez told reporters in Rome ahead of a Caritas Internationalis assembly, at which he is guest theologian.

"It would imply that there was a de-habilitation first," he said.

Two documents were issued about Liberation Theology in the 1980s by then-Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

They praised the movement's concern for the poor and for justice, but condemned a tendency to mix Marxist social analysis and concepts such as "class struggle" with religious commitments to end poverty and injustice.

"I believe that it's clear now that the key element of Liberation Theology is the special care for the poor," Fr Gutiérrez said on Tuesday.

He stressed that the CDF never went as far as to ban Liberation Theology.

Fr Gutiérrez also said that even though he was "very happy" to be invited to participate in Caritas's general assembly, attention shouldn't be drawn to LiberationTheology, but to "the rehabilitation of the Gospel, the poor and the peripheries".

The Peruvian thinker said that while he holds a high regard for theology and theologians, at the end of the day "theology . . . has a modest role".

"What matters in the life of a Christian is to follow Jesus and to put his teachings into practice."

"There's no passage in the Bible that says ‘Go and do theology'," Fr Gutiérrez said, "but there's one that says, ‘Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations'."

Sources

• Crux
• Image: National Catholic Reporter

Msgr Jesus Delgado said Archbishop Romero was visited by proponents of liberation theology and they left him their books.

Msgr Delgado said he doubted the archbishop ever read them.

Liberation theology "was in opposition to what he preached, which is what the Church asks of all: conversion to Jesus, a personal encounter with Jesus", the monsignor said.

Romero's theology was focused on the presence of God among the poor, Msgr Delgado added.

Asked why the Vatican received negative reports for years about Archbishop Romero, Msgr Delgado said: "The Popes did not have a good understanding of the situation in Latin America. They were very prudent in response."

But Pope Francis, who does understand the situation, has made the right call in declaring Romero a martyr and unblocking his cause, Msgr Delgado said.

Continue reading

The postulator of the archbishop's cause, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, said that Romero's killers wanted "to strike the Church that flowed from the Second Vatican Council".

On February 3, Pope Francis formally recognised that the slain Salvadoran archbishop was killed "in hatred of the faith" and not for purely political reasons.

A right-wing death squad shot Archbishop Romero dead as he celebrated Mass on March 24, 1980.

This was one day after the archbishop gave a sermon calling on soldiers to stop enforcing the El Salvador government's policies of oppression and violations of human rights.

Sources believe it is likely Archbishop Romero will be beatified within five months in El Salvador and will be canonised by 2017.

Archbishop Paglia said the two decades it took to obtain the decree of martyrdom were the result of "misunderstandings and preconceptions".

During Archbishop Romero's time as archbishop of San Salvador - from 1977 to 1980 - "kilos of letters against him arrived in Rome".

"The accusations were simple: He's political; he's a follower of liberation theology."

To the accusations that he supported liberation theology, Archbishop Paglia said, Archbishop Romero responded, "Yes, certainly".

"But there are two theologies of liberation: one sees liberation only as material liberation; the other is that of Paul VI.

"I'm with Paul VI", Archbishop Paglia indicated how Archbishop Romero would have responded, in seeking the material and spiritual liberation of all people.

All the complaints, Archbishop Paglia said, slowed the sainthood process and "strengthened his enemies".

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith examined all Romero's homilies and writings and cleared them.

But the congregation, led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) at the time, told the Congregation for Saints Causes that the process should be put on hold.

There were concerns about the use of Romero's words for political ends and about being seen to endorse political forms of liberation theology.

But Pope Benedict XVI unblocked the process for Archbishop Romero's cause in 2012, having earlier expressed support for his beatification in 2007.

Sources

• The Tablet
• National Catholic Reporter
• Vatican Insider
• Associated Press
• Image: Fox News

But much less attention was given to another of the pope's actions, one that underscores a significant shift inside the Vatican under the first Latin American pope in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.

Archbishop Romero was assassinated after speaking out in favor of the poor during an era when right-wing death squads stalked El Salvador under an American-backed, military-led government in the 1970s and '80s.

For three decades Rome blocked his path to sainthood for fear that it would give succor to the proponents of liberation theology, the revolutionary movement that insists that the Catholic Church should work to bring economic and social — as well as spiritual — liberation to the poor.

Under Pope Francis that obstacle has been removed.

The pope now says it is important that Archbishop Romero's beatification — the precursor to becoming a saint — "be done quickly."

Conservative Catholics have tried to minimize the political significance of the pope's stance by asserting that the archbishop, though a champion of the poor, never fully embraced liberation theology.

But another move by Pope Francis undermines such revisionism.

This month he also lifted a ban from saying Mass imposed nearly 30 years ago upon Rev. Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, who had been suspended as a priest for serving as foreign minister in Nicaragua's revolutionary Sandinista government in the same era.

There is no ambiguity about the position on liberation theology of Father d'Escoto, who once called President Ronald Reagan a "butcher" and an "international outlaw."

Later, as president of the United Nations General Assembly, Father d'Escoto condemned American "acts of aggression" in Iraq and Afghanistan. Continue reading

Source

• Paul Vallely in The New York Times

Paul Vallely is a director of The Tablet and the author of "Pope Francis: Untying the Knots."

Mounting a defense could take years, with long, confidential letters sent back and forth to the Vatican's powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

For lay people, non-compliance could mean losing university tenure.

For priests, brothers, and sisters, it could mean an order of silence or even removal from your religious order.

But in a unique turn of events, the theologian credited with founding the sometimes-controversial liberation theology movement was invited to speak at the Vatican Tuesday by none other than the current leader of its doctrinal office, Cardinal Gerhard Müller.

Dominican Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez was a surprise guest and speaker during a book launch for a new book by the cardinal, titled Poor for the Poor: The Mission of the Church.

The book, which has a preface from Pope Francis, also has two chapters written by the theologian and is largely focused on explaining — sometimes even defending — liberation theology. Continue reading.

Source: National Catholic Reporter

Image: NS/Reuters/Max Rossi

Fr Gutierrez, a Peruvian theologian, contributed two chapters to "Poor for the Poor: the Mission of the Church" by Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the head of the Church's doctrinal watchdog.

Pope Francis wrote the preface to the book, launched on February 26.

Fr Gutierrez, a long time friend of Cardinal Müller and a co-author with him of a previous book, spoke briefly at the launch.

Cardinal Müller told CNA that he and Fr Gutierrez have had significant discussions on "some, let's say problematic issues of the Liberation Theology",

He said the elimination of Marxist influences had produced an important "clarification" of the controversial movement

Speaking informally with journalists, Fr Gutierrez also underscored that his discussions with the cardinal have been very important for him.

The 85-year-old theologian said that the inspiration for liberation theology came directly from Vatican II, with its call for the Church to serve the poor.

He said that the Church is always called "to serve and to search for the image of Christ in every man and go toward the ends of the earth and peripheries, as Pope Francis invites us to do".

In the 1980s, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Cardinal Müller now heads, issued two instructions about Liberation Theology.

The first condemned the movement's Marxist orientation, while the second acknowledged Liberation Theology's "preferential option for the poor".

After the launch, Cardinal Müller said "when a new theology is developing, there are issues to clarify".

Sources:

• Catholic News Agency
• Associated Press
• Catholic World News
• Image: The Daily Mail

Between his hints at rehabilitating liberation theology—condemned by his predecessors—and talk about casting off "the economic and social structures that enslave us," Marxism isn't totally out of the question.

But happily for nervous church leaders, Francis's first Apostolic Exhortation, issued Tuesday, doesn't quite suggest someone who would get "Marx" in an Internet-style "Which Economic Theorist Are You?" quiz.

Granted, he wouldn't exactly get Friedrich von Hayek or Ayn Rand, either.

But you know whom he might plausibly be matched with, though? A favorite political economist of anti-free market academics: Karl Polanyi.

Karl Polanyi is most famous for his book The Great Transformation, and in particular for one idea in that book: the distinction between an "economy being embedded in social relations" and "social relations [being] embedded in the economic system." Continue reading.

Source: The Atlantic

Image: The Telegraph

A report by the Religion News Service noted that the meeting can be a sign of "increasing favor" for liberation theology, which has been a subject to hostility and censure in the Vatican.

Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, announced the coming meeting on September 8.

Liberation theology arose as a Catholic response to the Marxist movements that fought Latin America's military dictatorships in the 1960s and '70s. It criticized the church's close relations, including often overt support, with the regimes.

It affirmed that, rather then just focusing on seeking salvation in the afterlife, Catholics should act in the here and now against unjust societies that breed poverty and need.

In his 1971 book, Gutierrez wrote that the church should have a "preferential option for the poor," following the example of Jesus, who chose to live mostly with poor and marginalized people.

In the '80s, the Vatican's doctrinal office, then headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (who later became Benedict XVI) condemned liberation theology for its "serious ideological deviations."

The RNS report said the coming meeting between Pope Francis and Gutierrez "signaled a thaw in the tension between liberation theology and the Vatican.

Source

Religion News Service

Image: d.umn.edu

On the Pope's record in Argentina, Allen says:

= Despite Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio's reputation as an opponent of liberation theology during the 1970s, historian Roberto Bosca insists that wasn't actually the case. He said Bergoglio accepted the premise of liberation theology, especially the option for the poor, but in a "nonideological" fashion.

= The Wall Street Journal reported that the bishops' conference of Argentina failed to meet a Vatican-imposed deadline of May 2012 for submitting a formal set of policies on fighting child abuse, noting that Bergoglio is the former president of the conference.

But Allen says Bergoglio's term as president ended in November 2011, and the bishops say the task was delayed until after a February 2012 summit on abuse in Rome, organised to give bishops' conferences information on best practices.

= Though the director of the Argentinian Catholic Information Agency insisted that Bergoglio would "never" have favoured any legal recognition of same-sex unions, two senior officials of the bishops' conference told Allen he supported civil unions.

= As for allegations that Bergoglio failed to oppose the "Dirty War" of the former military dictatorship, Allen was told there is no record of him being either a supporter or a critic of the regime.

"Bergoglio was not really a church authority back then," said the historian Roberto Bosca. "He wasn't a bishop yet in Buenos Aires, he was simply the regional superior of a religious order. The nature of his job didn't lend itself to taking positions for or against the government, and my impression is that during that period was simply trying to do his job."

Source:

National Catholic Reporter

Image: Voice of America