What is liberation theology?

By Kira Dault |

A little more than a year into his papacy, Pope Francis seems to be speaking
loudest about economic injustice, alternatively denouncing “trickle-down”
economics and calling over and over again for a “poor church for the poor.”
Francis’ supporters and opponents alike often blame this particular attitude on
one source: liberation theology.

Broadly speaking, liberation theology is a social and political movement within

the church that attempts to interpret the gospel of Jesus Christ through the lived
experiences of oppressed people. While that doesn’t necessarily seem like it
should be a cause of contention in the church, it has, in the 60 or so years that
it has been practiced and thought, caused a tremendous amount of controversy.

Liberation theology has its origins in Latin America in the mid-1950s as socio-
economic development pushed the peasant workers and farming populations
into desperate poverty. With the economic unrest came political unrest, and
military dictators took over many governments in the name of national
security.

While these social and political transformations were taking place, the church
as a whole was also moving toward a more socially oriented mission.
Laypeople, religious, and charismatic members of the hierarchy committed
themselves to working with the poor.

The final piece of the puzzle, and the one that caused most of the controversy,
was that some strains of liberation theology used Marxist economic theory,
applying it to the gospel. In this interpretation, Jesus becomes the “liberator”
and always is firmly on the side of the poorest of the poor. Because of this
preference for the poor, liberation theology often calls for reorganization of
social, governmental, and economic structures so that the poor are not merely
cared for, but brought into the fullness of human flourishing. The seminal work
on liberation theology was written by Dominican Father Gustavo Gutiérrez in
1971. A Theology of Liberation gave the movement its name, and emphasized
the church’s mission to those on the periphery of society.
As liberation theology picked up steam and support, its relationship with the
Vatican and the church hierarchy became chilly—and sometimes hostile. In
1984 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, led at the time by Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger, condemned liberation theology because of its use of Marxist
principles and its association with political movements. Pope Francis himself
had a rocky relationship with the movement when he was in Argentina,
clashing with some of his fellow Jesuits who wanted to confront Argentina’s
violent military dictatorship.

Today, however, the Vatican seems to be warming to liberation theology. In

February of this year, Gutiérrez was invited to the Vatican and reportedly
received a hero’s welcome. The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore
Romanodeclared after Francis’ election that liberation theology can no longer
“remain in the shadows to which it has been relegated for some years, at least
in Europe.”
This article appeared in the October 2014 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 79, No.
10, page 46).