Most students of
Liberation Theology are familiar with the Jesuits, primarily because
Gustavo Gutierrez, father of modern Catholic liberationism, comes from that order. The works of other Jesuit advocates widely read in the United States include Juan Luis Segundo’s five-volume A Theology for Artisans of a New Humanity and Arthur F. McGovern’s Marxism: an American Perspective. McGovern,
a Jesuit professor at the University of Detroit, contends that much
diversity exists among liberation advocates in regard to their
commitment to Marxism. He does not, however, deny that they derive their
insights from overtly Marxist critiques of society. Catholic
Liberation Theology has posed such a significant threat to U.S. policy
at home and abroad that the Reagan White House launched a campaign in 1984 to educate U.S. Catholic bishops against Marxist ideology. That
campaign helped conservative critics of the U.S. Catholic Conference
disseminate their message to the hierarchy
Link (here)
7 comments:
Fr. Gutierrez is a Dominican!
Gustavo Gutierrez is a Dominican. Arthur McGovern has been dead for over a decade.
Gutierrez is not and has never been a Jesuit. He was a secular priest who later joined the Dominicans
Guttierez is a domenican priest not a jesuit
Fr. McGovern's (RIP--he died about ten or so yrs. ago) did acknowledge the connection--but he was careful to note that Marx's analysis of the workings of capitalism are not at odds with many of the Church's encyclicals and pastoral letters on the economy and workplace rights.
Matthew 7:16 "by their fruits shall they be known". Liberation Theology has been a disaster in Latin America by every measure; in some countries like Guatemala, nearly half the population is now Protestant/heretic. Why? By and large it is due to liberation theology for two reasons; a) the perpetrators of it sought to deemphasize the traditions of the church and the role of the clergy making it into a very Protestantized version b) Reagan (as mentioned) saw it as a threat and sponsored Protestant missionary activity through the CIA (remember Iran-contra?) to convert Latin Americans to a more US-friendly version of Christianity. Way to go, Libbies-- you have broken the back of the church in Latin America (and I'm sure that was the real goal all along).
Liberation theology was one of the bright spots in LA--the hierarchy, long dominated by the elite, alienated so many of the poor.
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