Ratzinger assails WCC

Christian Century, June 18, 1997

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, one of the most powerful Vatican officials, has accused the World Council of Churches of "harming the life of the gospel" in Latin America by giving financial support to "subversive movements." The WCC, based in Geneva, has more than 330 member churches, including the world's main Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox bodies. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member, though there is cooperation and dialogue between the Vatican and the WCC. Ratzinger is head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The 70-year-old cardinal made his remarks at a dune 9 press conference at the Vatican to launch Il quinto sigillo (The Fifth Seal), a book about "the unity of Christians for the third millennium" written by Nicola Bux, a priest from southern Italy. According to Bux's book, the WCC lent its support to "certain campaigns promoting revolution in Latin America" but failed to help "Christians and the `churches of silence' in Eastern Europe."

When a journalist asked for further clarification about the book, Cardinal Ratzinger replied: "Many Latin American bishops and I have deplored the fact that the WCC has given strong support to subversive movements. Perhaps this support was given in good faith, but it was highly damaging for the life of the gospel." Added Bux: "Between the 1960s and 1980s there was in the West a strong `Third World' movement highly influenced by Marxism. Many sectors of Christianity, above all Protestants, gave their support to Marxist movements, encouraging within Catholicism the strengthening of liberation theology."

At the press conference Ratzinger argued that liberation theology becomes "true theology" only "if it refuses to accept power and worldly logic and becomes [a theology of] inner liberty. It seems to me that we need not theology of liberation but theology of martyrdom."

Of the theological problems dealt with in Bux's book, Cardinal Ratzinger contended that only the "Petrine principle" (the Roman Catholic doctrine that the pope is the sole legitimate head of the Christian church) and not "conciliarity" could restore the unity of the whole church. To consider any path other than the Petrine principle is, according to the cardinal, "a romantic, unrealistic dream."

The cardinal's comments seemed to be directed at attempts to promote a new bid for dialogue to improve interchurch relations at the start of the new millennium. Among recent proposals for such dialogue is a suggestion by the WCC that all Christian churches start to prepare for "an ecumenical council of the entire church of Jesus Christ, in the sense of the ancient, undivided church."

Within 48 hours, Ratzinger's remarks were published in the media in Latin America, Africa and Europe. While WCC General Secretary Konrad Raiser initially declined to comment on the cardinal's views, characterizing them as an "unscripted" response to a journalist's question, a senior council staff member later defended the organization's record of strong support for liberation theology and Latin America's poor and oppressed.

Dwain Epps of the WCC's Commission of the Churches on International Affairs explained in a background briefing that liberation theology had grown from dialogue between Roman Catholics and Protestants, and that the Catholic hierarchy had itself played a key role in the formulation of the new theology. Epps also said that the WCC had never given financial support to movements involved in armed struggle in Latin America.

"In its beginnings, liberation theology was an ecumenical endeavor between Roman Catholics and Protestants," Epps said, adding that since Latin America was predominantly Catholic, it was "not surprising that [this theology] became overwhelmingly identified with Roman Catholicism." Epps averred that Catholic liberation theologians formulated their ideas within "the Roman Catholic framework" and were responding to the vision of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). This theology had been elaborated by Latin America's Catholic bishops at a meeting held in Medellin, Colombia, in 1968 at the request of Pope Paul VI.

Of the criticism made by Cardinal Ratzinger that the WCC had financially supported "subversive movements in Latin America," Epps said: "It is true that military dictatorships in Latin America and those allied with them, including some elements of the church, regarded liberation theology itself as subversive." But "few, if any, liberation theologians were engaged in any armed rebel movement." Epps went on to say that the WCC had not provided financial support for any such movement in Latin America. "This is distinct from the support offered by [the WCC's] Program to Combat Racism in Southern Africa where the WCC supported certain humanitarian aspects of the work of armed revolutionary movements."

Epps stressed that it was also important to remember that "the 1970s in particular was one of the darkest periods of Latin American history" when "the systematic torture of political opponents and assassinations were widespread"--a period that "saw the formation in Latin America of human rights defense groups, nearly all of which were related to one or another of the churches, in a number of cases under the auspices of the bishop or cardinal of the place." According to Epps, "Many of these groups appealed to the WCC for moral and financial support. This was generously given for a period of more than 20 years to help equip churches to become effective protectors and defenders of the poor and the oppressed.