Liberation Theology

• Full text of the Vatican's Instruction on Liberation Theology.

General considerations

The Church has been struggling with the Age of Revolutions since the American Revolution in 1776. The "ancien regime" (French, "old order") against which the political revolutions took place was the age of Christendom, during which time the Church supported the State and the State supported the Church. The "divine right of kings" (and lesser nobility as well) was a popular theological justification for the monarchical and aristocratic institutions that grew up during the early Middle Ages after the collapse of the western part of the Roman Empire (circa fifth century). All of the Revolutions from the American Revolution in 1776 to the Russian Revolution in 1917 were directed against the royalty of Europe whose right to rule was secured by the blessing of the Church.

The Church has taken its time in coping with the modern divorce of church and state. In trying to figure out where to draw the boundaries between good and bad theologies of civil rights, we have to be careful not to abandon deny the reality that God is a just judge, that He calls us to repent of our sins against each other, and that the law of love obliges us to care about those who are suffering injustice. "The aspiration for 'liberation', as the term itself suggests, repeats a theme which is fundamental to the Old and New Testaments. In itself, the expression "theology of liberation" is a thoroughly valid term: it designates a theological reflection centered on the biblical theme of liberation and freedom, and on the urgency of its practical realization."

The fundamental obligation of conscience (synderesis) is that we must do good and avoid evil. We must not call evil good or good evil.

Jesuit slogans

"Preferential option for the poor"

Bad way of thinking about this: rich evil, poor good; it is better to be poor than to be rich; if we make the poor rich, we will make them evil (!).

"Men for others"

Will-power Christianity. Pelagianism.

"Faith that does justice"

In my view, Jesus did not come to incite or support "class warfare."