During a meeting on Monday with priests from the Diocese of Rome,
Pope Francis reportedly suggested that he does not support the version
of liberation theology represented by Peruvian priest Father Gustavo
Gutierrez.
In a post for his Italian-language blog Settimo Cielo, Vatican analyst
Sandro Magister said the Holy Father distanced himself from Archbishop
Gerhard Muller – the current prefect of the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, who supports Fr. Gutierrez's views – in a “brief
but eloquent” observation made during a question-and-answer session with
the priests.
Magister said the meeting was “behind closed doors” and described Pope
Francis’ comment on liberation theology as “serious and sharp,” although
it went largely unnoticed by the media, including the Vatican press
office.
“In the formulation of one of the five questions posed to the Pope, a
priest asking about the centrality of the poor in pastoral ministry made
a direct reference to liberation theology and Archbishop Gerhard
Muller’s stance in support of this theology,” Magister recounted.
But “upon hearing the name of the prefect of the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, Pope Francis didn’t let the priest finish his
question and said, ‘That is what Muller thinks, that is what he
thinks’,” Magister explained.
The Pope’s statement is significant in light of the audience he granted
last Thursday to Fr. Gutierrez, who is considered one of the fathers of
liberation theology. The unscheduled meeting took place at the
insistence of Archbishop Muller.
Liberation theology is a controversial school of thought that developed
in Latin America in the 1950s. It has been criticized as a Marxist
interpretation of the gospel, focusing on freedom from material poverty
and injustice rather than giving primacy to spiritual freedom.
Several of Fr. Gutierrez’s writings have attracted controversy,
including the claim, “Only a radical break with the present state of
things, a profound transformation of the property system, the access to
power by the exploited class, a social revolution that breaks up that
dependence, will allow a different society, a Socialist society to come
to pass.”
“Authentic liberation will be the work of the oppressed themselves, in
them the Lord saves history,” he wrote, also saying that the “Church
must be converted to the world, in which Christ and the Spirit are
present and active, and must allow itself to be inhabited and
evangelized by it.”
One of Pope Francis' former teachers, Argentinean Jesuit priest Fr. Juan
Carlos Scannone, has said that the Holy Father never supported a
Marxist-based liberation theology.
In an extensive interview in the recent book “Francis Our Brother Our
Friend” (Ignatius Press, 2013), Fr. Scannone explained that he has
studied liberation theology extensively, and that “there are different
currents” within it.
“In the Argentinean Liberation Theology, social Marxist analysis is not
used, but rather a historical-cultural analysis, not based on class
warfare as a determining principle for the interpretation of society and
history,” he said, adding that he believes Pope Francis’ pastoral work
and attitude toward the poor can be “understood in this context.”
In comments about the Pope’s recent meeting with Fr. Gutierrez, Cardinal
Juan Luis Cipriani of Lima said on Sept. 14 that the Peruvian priest
still holds positions that need to be rectified.
“The Church does not accept Marxist class warfare,” Cardinal Cipriani
said on his weekly radio program. “During the last conversation I had
with Gutierrez, before he left Lima…I told him that in his youth he took
stances that he should correct now that he is older.”
“If we look carefully at Ratzinger’s instruction,” the cardinal
continued, referencing the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s
1984 document “Liberatis Nuntius,” “we can see very clearly that the
writings of Gutierrez still need to be corrected.”