Celina Ramos
Elba Julia Ramos
Ignacio Ellacuria, SJ
Amando Lopez, SJ
Joaquin Lopez y Lopez, SJ
Ignacio Martin-Baro, SJ
Segundo Montes, SJ
Juan Ramon Moreno, SJ
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Martyred November 16, 1989
El Salvador
The developed world is not at all the desired utopia, even as a way to overcome poverty, much less to overcome injustice. Indeed, it is a sign of what should not be and of what should not be done.
We must turn this sinful history upside down, and out of poverty we must build a civilization in which all can have life and dignity.
- Ignacio Ellacuria, SJ
Well said – may we all listen.
How do you reconcile the Marxist ideals and Liberation Theology with true Catholic social teaching? The Jesuit universities have already canonized them – they are already adored… how can this be?
Archbishop Oscar Romero, the women martyrs, the six Jesuits, and other clergy and Laymen and laywomen …murdered in El Salvador did not die technically because of their faith but because they were thought to be political subversives. The martyred bishops, priests, religious, and laypeople of Central and Latin America, as Jesuit theologian Jon Sobrino and others have noted, had the dismal honor of being killed not by pagans who hated Christianity but by people who prided themselves on representing the most authentic form of Catholic culture while also fighting against “Marxist traitors.”
How do you reconcile the Marxist ideals and Liberation Theology with true Catholic social teaching?
Which “Marxist ideals”? Can you be more specific? The phrase “Marxist ideals” means nothing in the abstract. And which version of “true Catholic social teaching” do you mean?
The Jesuit universities have already canonized them – they are already adored… how can this be?
Obviously they have not “canonized” anyone as they do not have the power to do so. Saints are always venerated before they become saints. Mother Theresa and John Paul II are already “adored” as well. “How can this be?”
Archbishop Oscar Romero, the women martyrs, the six Jesuits, and other clergy and Laymen and laywomen …murdered in El Salvador did not die technically because of their faith but because they were thought to be political subversives. The martyred bishops, priests, religious, and laypeople of Central and Latin America, as Jesuit theologian Jon Sobrino and others have noted, had the dismal honor of being killed not by pagans who hated Christianity but by people who prided themselves on representing the most authentic form of Catholic culture while also fighting against “Marxist traitors.”
I too have an honest question: Did you write this or did you take it from somewhere else? Whatever the source, this paragraph assumes that “faith” is somehow detachable from culture and politics. The witness of the faith of martyrs always involves politics and culture, all the way back to the earliest martyrs. To think otherwise is to have some kind of idealized, otherworldly conception of faith and of martyrdom.
There are some “Marxist ideals” that are quite Christian, and indeed one can say that the fundamental ethics of Marxism (or, more broadly, socialism) are based on Judeo-Christian ethics from the prophets on. For example, the motto, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” is pretty much lifted from the Acts of the Apostles.
Look at all that stuff in the Bible about bad rich people! God said that stuff! It is hard to ignore–or maybe not, since most of us Catholics do ignore it pretty well, especially the Republicans among us.
At any rate, ideologies are often a mix of a whole lot of stuff from different sources, and all in all one would have to say that Republicanism is not a whole lot more Christian than Marxism in general.
[...] from Vox Nova [...]
David – You’re absolutely right.
The problem I have with liberation theology is that it is an unapologetic mix of religion and politics.How many mistakes we have made going down this road. The Crusades. The State of Israel. The “moral” majority. Always convinced we’re putting politics at the service of religion. But somewhere along the way, its religion that gets put at the service of a political agenda.
I think we are more or less doomed to keep making attempts at this kind of syncretism. Because human beings have an innate thirst for what liberation theology/the mullahs of Iran promise. What a tragic story we have.
Lizzy – Liberation theologians (of various kinds – there is no one thing called “liberation theology”) make explicit what is ALWAYS taking place with regard to the Christian faith: its political nature. ALL forms of Christianity are political. The issue is what kind of political options in the concrete most resemble the kinds of politics described in the gospel. Indeed, the issue is also which version of politics in the scriptures should be seen as embodying the Kin-dom of God, and which should be rejected as imperialistic. No Christian is free from the responsibility of wrestling with these questions. “Syncretism” is part of Christianity whether we like it or not. Liberation theology is not part of the “tragic story” of “getting it wrong” as you describe it, unless you mean the fact that liberationist Christians and theologians seem to always be the target of the enemies of peace and justice. We should be thankful for their witness.
I wonder if all those who criticize “politics working with theology” do so with the writings of Pope Benedict, which are filled with the combination of the two. Or how about Archbishops like Chaput and Pell, who are highly politicized as well.
We really should expect the unity of the two because the eschaton has become immanent. Of course the question is not the working of the two together, but how they should work together.