Liberation theology

National Catholic Reporter, April 27, 2007 by Joseph Nangle

John L. Allen Jr. made a couple of misstatements in his piece on Jesuit Fr. Jon Sobrino (NCR, March 23). He said that Fr. Sobrino "narrowly escaped an attack on the University of Central America" that killed six Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter. In fact, on that fateful night, Fr. Sobrino was on a speaking tour in Asia.

More serious is Allen's description of liberation theology as "designed to break the traditional alliance of the Latin American church with social elites and to support justice for the poor." One would infer from those words that some one or some group of activists planned to utilize the Gospel for partisan objectives. The truth is quite different.

I encountered liberation theology during the late 1960s as a pastor in Lima, Peru, before it even had a name. Clearly, it was an attempt on the part of trained theologians to answer the question: Does the Christian story have any message for the poor of Latin America and the world? These original thinkers felt the need to "interpelar" (question, interrogate, challenge) the Hebrew scriptures and the Gospels regarding the vast numbers of humans in their world who had no possibility of a dignified life.

While the consequences of challenging God's word this way have rightly sparked any number of political responses across Latin America, the original, abiding intent of this theology comes out of serious pastoral concerns for the poor and marginalized. This misunderstanding of liberation theology is precisely what has caused many in the church to condemn it. I would hope that a journalist of John Allen's stature would rethink his words so as not to increase the confusion surrounding this sound, appropriate and ongoing theological investigation.

(Fr.) JOSEPH NANGLE, OFM

Washington