3 September 1984 A.D. Vatican Squeezes Marxist Theologians—JP2 & the Ratzinger (The Bavarian German Shepherd, “The Battle Ship16,” later Benedict XVI)
3
September 1984 A.D. Vatican
Squeezes Marxist Theologians—JP2 & the Ratzinger (The Bavarian German
Shepherd, “The Battle Ship16,” later Benedict XVI)
Graves, Dan. “Vatican Rebuked Theology of
Marxists.” Christianity.com. Apr 2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1901-2000/vatican-rebuked-theology-of-marxists-11630849.html. Accessed
19 May 2007.
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict
XVI, was a close ally of Pope John Paul II. As Cardinal Prefect of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, his pronouncements carried
weight. On this day, September
3, 1984 he denounced aspects of a theology which had been growing in popularity in Latin
American countries.
In the second half of the 20th century, Liberation
Theology, a fusion of Christian and Marxist ideals, emerged from among some of
Spanish America's prominent Catholic theoreticians. Marxist ideas seemed to
propel the religious. In Liberation Theology, Latin Americans are the
underclass, the oppressed. They are victims and not responsible for their
spiritual and economic condition. Outsiders force both on them. Liberation
theologians hoped through Christianized socialist mechanisms to find a better
life here without losing eternity hereafter. Some had no compunction in calling
for violence to change the system. They were opposed to such Western concepts
as free enterprise and private property.
John Paul II had suffered under socialism. He had
few illusions as to the damage any materialistic system (Capitalistic or
Communistic) can do to the soul. The Vatican found it needful to protest.
"Millions of our own contemporaries
legitimately yearn to recover those basic freedoms of which they were deprived
by totalitarian and atheistic regimes which came to power by violent and
revolutionary means, precisely in the name of the liberation of the people.
This shame of our time cannot be ignored: while claiming to bring them freedom,
these regimes keep whole nations in conditions of servitude which are unworthy
of mankind. Those who, perhaps inadvertently, make themselves accomplices of
similar enslavements betray the very poor they mean to help."
Leading Liberation theologian Gustavo Guiterrez
writes thus: "It is to see man in search of a qualitatively different
society in which he will be free from all servitude, in which he will be the
artisan of his own destiny. It is to seek the building of a new man." This
is to be accomplished through putting into place a socialistic economic system.
You do not hear as much about Liberation Theology
today as you did ten years ago. Vatican chastisement and changing world
political conditions seemed to have diminished its prestige, but its ideas are
still taught in all sorts of connections (such as women's liberation) and
remain influential.
Bibliography:
2.
Martin, Malachi. The Jesuits. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1987.
3.
Novak, Michael. Will it Liberate? New York: Paulist
press, 1986.
Last updated April,
2007.
Comments
Post a Comment