Anniversary Essay: Church and Revolution

In 1994, the Peruvian theolo-
gian Gustavo Guti6rrez,
whose writings have made lib-
eration theology known world-
wide, observed that the period
which had given birth to that the-
ology was apparently “coming to
an end.” This was due to a “series
of economic, political and eccle-
sial events, as much worldwide as
Latin American or national.”
Noting “the end of certain politi-
cal projects” (presumably social-
ism), he observed that “every-
thing would seem to indicate that
a different period is beginning.”
Phillip Berryman’s latest book is Religion
in the Megacity: Catholic and Protestant Portraits from Latin America (Orbis,
1996).
The cover of the Septemberl October 1985
issue of NACLA Report on the Americas.
For over 30 years, progressive
church activists have had a signifi-
cant presence in Latin American
society. If we are in fact moving
into a significantly different period,
that progressive presence faces a
major challenge-a challenge
that requires a forthright exami-
nation of the role religion has
played in the region’s recent past.
The somewhat surprising emer-
gence of Catholicism as a pro-
gressive political force was a
Latin American response to the
decisions made by Catholic bish-
ops at Vatican Council II (1962-
65). Out of that meeting came
dramatic changes, including the
switch from worship in Latin to
the vernacular languages, and a
moving away from suspicion
toward “the world”-not unlike
that of Christian fundamentalists
today-to an embrace of moderni-
ty. The post-Council period opened
the door to further questioning. In
Latin America that meant asking
NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 10ANNIVERSARY ESSAY/ RELIGION
what the role of the chur
be in a society of ext
wealth and poverty. Di
1966-68 period, radicaliz
formed national groups a
manifestos criticizing
church and society in a n
countries.
This was happening j
Latin American intellect
becoming disenchanted w
ing models of “developm
calling for more radical m
could address the nati
international structures thi
the root of inequality anc
Many sensed that their
countries faced similar
problems, and that
their destinies were
linked, perhaps in a
future Patria Grande.
These ideals were
emerging in a period
which was simultane-
ously a time of relative
intellectual openness
and, in many coun-
tries, a time of severe
political repression.
Indeed, the very violence
repress the left seemed t
not only that the struggle
tion was just and necessar
the prospects of victor
bright. Progressives beli
their work, as modest as
be, was ultimately helping
a different kind of society
In the mid-1960s-b
advent of liberation
itself-the Colombian
Camilo Torres, noted
insight: that Christianit
love of neighbor, and that
could not be expressed s
individuals, but dema
whole change of political,
ic, and social structures-
tion.” Born into an up
BogotA family, Torres re
degree in sociology in Bel
returned to Colombia
then began working at a
ch should
remes of
during the
ed priests
nd issued
both the
umber of
ust when
uals were
‘ith exist-
ent,” and
odels that
onal and
at were at
Poverty.
versity. Through his research on
Colombian cities and land issues,
Torres became personally familiar
with the plight of the poor, espe-
cially in the countryside, and he
became radicalized. In 1965, he and
others formed the Broad Front, a
political coalition seeking to appeal
to a majority of Colombians.
Hounded out of political life by
authorities of both church and state,
he joined the National Liberation
Army (ELN) guerrillas, and fell in
combat in February, 1966.
For years Camilo Torres was an
icon of what came to be called the
cially tl
depended
individua
ing a mo
their relig
In thei
paternalis
tional api
(consciou
by the I
Freire ti
Evangeli
ceived as
experienc
doctrine.
leading
North American control of Protestant missions has
brought about the cultural isolation of the Protestant
community in Latin America.
-December 1970, Vol. 4, No. 8
The Protestant coming-of-age marks the end of
Catholic religious hegemony.
-May/June 1994, Vol. 27, No. 6
e used to “progressive church,” not because ed being
o confirm he chose to fight with the guerrillas, for the pe
for libera- but because he was willing to fol- stimulate
y, but that low his insight into the political their own
iry were nature of Christian love to its ulti- past three
eved that mate consequences. A generation of countless
it might church people, primarily Catholic, ciations, g to build but also including some from the tives and
historic Protestant denominations, bring ab
before the sought to live by that insight and ments an(
theology conviction. ernment
priest, Beginning in the late 1960s, in an vices.
a central effort to come closer to the people This w
y means they served, thousands of Catholic “Christian
such love sisters and priests moved out of tra- lay-led gr
imply by ditional convents and religious read and
nded “a houses, and into poor neighbor- together,
econom- hoods to share the living conditions engaged i
a revolu- of the people. The initial impulse time it wa
per-class was pastoral rather than directly nities woi
received a political. It was partly a recognition nant mod
gium and that the church’s resources had America,
here he been disproportionately devoted to parish wo
local uni- the middle and upper classes, espe- of such c(
through schools which
on tuition payments. The
ls themselves were seek-
ire authentic way to live
:ious vocation.
r concern to avoid any
m, they found the educa-
)roach of concientizacidn
sness-raising) developed
razilian educator Paulo
o be made to order.
nation itself was recon-
Sgroup reflection on life
es rather than as imparting
To the extent. that those
these group reflections
urged people to look
for “root causes,” they
had a radicalizing
effect. In rural areas,
these discussions would
often move from
immediate problems
toward matters such as
land tenure and from
there to class structure.
Consciousness-raising
leads naturally to orga-
nization. Priests and
sisters generally avoid-
leaders or spokespersons
ople, but rather sought to
people to form and run
organizations. Over the
decades there have been
initiatives-barrio asso-
peasant leagues, coopera-
soup kitchens-both to
out immediate improve-
d to put pressure on gov-
officials for needed ser-
ork often took the form of
base communities,” small
oups meeting in homes to
discuss the scriptures, pray
and sometimes to become
n community issues. For a
s hoped that base commu-
uld become the predomi-
el of the Church in Latin
so that, for example, the
uld be primarily a network
)mmunities.
Vol X)(X, No 5 MARCH/APRIL 1997 11 11 Vol XXX, No 5 MARCH/APRIL 1997ANNIVERSARY ESSAY/ RELIGION
Such sisters and
priests were in a privi-
leged position. They
were freer than virtually
any other outsiders to
live in poor communi-
ties and still retain ties
to other sectors of soci-
ety. Leadership develop-
ment in poor Latin
American communities
during these decades
owes much to the daily
work of those church
people-mainly sisters
-who simply knocked
on doors, visited people,
made themselves avail-
able, provided lifts in
their vans, and spent
long hours in conversa-
tion. At the same time, “Who Kill
they could interpret the Brazilian
world of the poor for Wladimir k
those outside it, and Report on
their presence might Project (W
offer at least a degree of protection
from repression.
It should be kept in mind, of
course, that these initiatives never
represented a majority trend in the
Catholic Church. A Brazilian sister
doing research in the mid-1980s
found that only 4 to 5% of sisters
had gone to live with the people.
Similarly, despite talk from theolo-
gians and others about a “church
being born among the people,” base
communities have never become a
mass movement and have remained
dependent on the work of sisters
and priests servicing them.
The term “liberation theology”
emerged in the 1960s as a number
of Latin American theologians–
spurred on by the priests and sisters
working with the poor-started
asking whether the peculiar circum-
stances of their continent might
demand their own theology as
opposed to the one-size-fits-all
assumption of Catholic theology
around the world. Like other Latin
American intellectuals, these the-
ed Herzog?” The Church led mass protests against the
military following the murder of investigative journalist
lerzog in 1975. From the November/December 1993 NACLA
the America. “Insertions into Ideological Circuits: Bank Note
ho Killed Herzog?)” by Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles.
ologians were influenced by
Marxism and in dialogue with it.
While most of them never dis-
cussed Marxism in any detail-in
part because to do so would make
them vulnerable-they assumed
that a broad process of liberation
was underway, and sought to probe
the implications for believers and
the church.
Peru’s Guti6rrez presented the
first explicit sketch of liberation
theology at a meeting of priests in
the Peruvian seaport town of
Chimbote in 1968. He presented
liberation theology as a theological
rationale for doing pastoral work
among the poor, and as a way of
telling the poor that God loves
them. Guti6rrez’s work was devoted
to defending the legitimacy of that
work in the light of official Catholic
teaching itself, as well as the scrip-
tures. The new theology not only
explored the topics that have always
preoccupied Catholic theologians–
God, Christ, salvation, the church
and so forth-but critiqued the exis-
tence of massive
poverty, and de-
nounced unjust social
structures as “sinful.”
T he churches
were most ef-
fective precisely
under the most extreme
circumstances, such as
the period following
the 1973 military coup
in Chile. With political
parties, unions and
other organizations
outlawed, and the
press muzzled or
acquiescent, the church
was the only force that
could in some way
resist the military.
Most immediately this
meant sheltering those
being persecuted, and
helping them leave the
country. Although it
was several years before the
Chilean bishops directly criticized
the repression, Catholic and
Protestant churches helped people
survive economically and docu-
mented human rights abuses, and
tried to help people locate family
members, almost always in vain. In
addition, church organizations doc-
umented the thousands of deaths
and disappearances under the
Pinochet dictatorship, and church
documents became prime sources
for human rights groups as well as
for journalists.
The same was true shortly after-
wards in Bolivia, Nicaragua, El
Salvador, Guatemala and else-
where. Economic elites and the
military saw such church work as
dangerously meddlesome, and
many church people-most notably
in El Salvador-paid with their
lives. In some sense the highest call-
ing of Christian life is martyrdom
-in the likeness of Jesus. The
killing of priests, sisters, lay people
and even bishops brought home the
12NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 12ANNIVERSARY ESSAY/ RELIGION
understanding that genuine martyr-
dom was a real possibility at least
in some circumstances. In the late
1970s, journalist Penny Lernoux
documented hundreds of incidents
of violence against church people
throughout Latin America in her
book, Cry of the People.
In country after country, sisters
and priests played key roles in
human rights work. In Brazil in the
early 1970s, at a time of repression
and extreme press censorship, the
Brazilian Catholic bishops and
Presbyterian pastor Jaime Wright
conceived the idea of publishing a
brochure containing the “Universal
Declaration of Human Rights,”
adding to each right a relevant
quote from the scriptures and from
church tradition. Operating in
secret until the brochures were
ready, they then distributed them
with no announcement, to the cha-
grin of the military. The generals
could hardly put themselves in the
position of impounding scripture
quotes, even though the document
was clearly aimed at delegitimizing
their own practices of torture,
imprisonment and the general muz-
zling of society.
In 1975 in Sdo Paulo, Cardinal
Paulo Evaristo Arns joined pastor
Wright and Rabbi Henry Sobel to
celebrate the funeral of Wladimir
Herzog, an investigative journalist
who had been murdered. Defying
military threats, several thousand
people attended the service in
downtown SAo Paulo, in the first
massive show of resistance to the
military government since the late
1960s. Several years later, Arns,
Wright and others secretly worked
at gathering and photocopying lit-
erally millions of pages of army
records documenting human rights
violations. The compilation became
a best seller when published in the
form of Brasil, Nunca Mais.
Those working at the village or
barrio level interpreted their own
work as solidarity or as “accompa-
niment”-standing by the people,
especially in times of repression.
They felt called to prophetic wit-
ness, analogous to activities of
prophets in Hebrew scriptures and
to Jesus himself. In Nicaragua
under Somoza there were signifi-
cant contacts between the small
struggling Sandinista movement
and church people. A Sandinista
leader later candidly admitted that
his organization had considered
church organizations as “quarries”
from which to mine grassroots
leaders. Priests and sisters working
at the village and barrio level
sometimes resented the work of
organizers who skimmed off lead-
ers that they had spent years train-
ing, and who were then lost to the
local organization-or who
remained, but introduced another
agenda.
Another political role played by
church people was that of media-
tion. Shortly after the outbreak of
guerrilla war in 1981, Salvadoran
Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas
made numerous efforts to urge a
negotiated end to the conflict. At a
time when the very word “dia-
logue” was tantamount to treason,
the Salvadoran bishops-and Pope
John Paul II-helped make it
acceptable, and Rivera y Damas
frequently delivered proposals
from the Farabundo Marti
Liberation Front (FMLN) to the
government. While his role became
less important after the 1987
Central America Peace Plan, Rivera
y Damas had played a critical part
in making negotiations acceptable,
against the opposition of the army
and the Reagan administration. The
Guatemalan bishops, especially
bishop Rodolfo Quezada Toruiio of
Zacapa, played a similar role in the
1988-92 period, to the chagrin of
the military. In a somewhat differ-
ent context the Chilean bishops,
and particularly Cardinal Juan
Francisco Fresno in Santiago,
played a crucial role in encouraging
The easy alliance of right-wing dictatorship and evangelical mis-
sions has its basis in the historic role of missionary movements as organizers of a new cultural base. This base is necessary for the evolution of the market structures that mark the capitalist development of underdevelopment.
-February 1972, Vol. 6, No. 2
Since the Latin American Catholic Bishops met in Medellin, Colombia in August and September, 1968 to call for basic changes in the region, the Catholic Church has been increasingly polarized
between those who heard their words from the point of view of the suffering majorities and those who heard them from the point of view of the vested interests. The former found in the Medellin documents, as in certain documents of the Second Vatican Council and the social encyclicals of Popes Paul VI and John XXIII, the legiti- mation of their struggles for justice and their condemnation of
exploitation and structures of dominance.
-March 1972, Vol. 6, No. 3
Vol XXX, No 5 MARCH/APRIL 1997 13 Vol XXX, No 5 MARCH/APRIL 1997 13ANNIVERSARY ESSAY/ RELIGION
much of the anti-Pinochet opposi-
tion and giving it legitimacy, even
while excluding the more hardline
opposition, especially the
Communist Party.
As early as 1972, conserva-
tive Latin American bish-
ops began to organize sys-
tematically against liberation theol-
ogy. They began by taking control
of the Latin American Bishops
Conference (CELAM). Their
efforts accelerated with the papacy
of Pope John Paul II, whose own
experience in Poland led him to
adamantly oppose any hint of sym-
pathy with Marxism within the
church. In 1984, the Vatican issued
a letter strongly critical of libera-
tion theology, at about the same
time that it silenced the influential
Brazilian theologian Leonardo
Boff. (Boff resigned from the
priesthood in 1992.) Perhaps more
importantly, the Pope systematical-
ly appointed new bishops on the
basis of their loyalty to Rome. For
example, Archbishop Helder
Camara of Recife, Brazil, who had
rankled the military in the
1970s and was known world-
wide as a champion of the poor,
was replaced by a conservative
bishop who quickly dismantled
as much as he could of Helder’s
work.
Pressures from the Vatican
and from increasingly conserv-
ative bishops have had their
impact on progressive church
forces. Even more decisive,
however, has been the scaling
back of possibilities and expec-
tations in the broader society.
Even by the mid-1980s many
on the left, including church
people, were concluding that
necessary social change would
not come quickly. Hopes now
rode on a longer-range process
that would be the result of a
broad variety of social movemen
including traditional labor ai
peasant struggles, as well
women’s, ecological, indigeno
and Afro-Latino movements.
In recent years, liberation theol
gians have insisted that their theol
gy did not come from socialis
N
ts
n
a:
u
o
o
:n
It is in Latin America that the controversies of Vatican II have
proved to have the sharpest repercussions. As in Rome, the conflict
has been between those that believhethat the Church stands above
history, and those who see it as a perpetually evolving institution.
The ramifications of this debate have touched the lives of all Latin
American Catholics, and have helped shape their aspirations about
life and the possibility of influencing social political relations in the
future.
-September/October 1986, Vol. 19, No. 5
A Vatican policy of appointing conservative bishops for
over a decade, along with repeated pressure against
liberation theology, has taken its toll. The crisis is deeper,
however, and has to do with the clash between hopes
invested in the “liberationist project” and the current
projects for Latin American society…. By the 1990s, the
utopian dreams nursed in the climate of military
dictatorship had been dashed by the seeming universal
triumph of capitalism, the crisis of Marxism and the scaling
back of the left’s agenda to reformist social democracy.
-MaylJune 1994, VoL 27, No. 6
-he cover of the February 1972 issue of
IACLA’s Latin America and Empire Report.
, although, as Bishop Pedro
d Casaldaliga of Brazil remarked, it
s had “proved helpful in the critique
s of capitalism and in nourishing cer-
tain utopian horizons.” Bishop
– Casaldaliga expressed the view of
– many: “Today the option for the
poor is more timely than ever. There
are two reasons: There are more of
them, both in Latin America, and in
all the Third World; and they are
ever-poorer.” Not surprisingly per-
haps, women in the church tend to
be less nostalgic for their socialist
hopes, and are developing their cri-
tique of patriarchy, most often on
the margins of the official churches,
both Catholic and Protestant.
“A few years ago, we had many
answers and few questions,” a
Brazilian priest working with the
poor in Sdo Paulo’s crowded down-
town tenements told me in 1993.
“Today we have many questions
and few answers.” His remark, I
believe, reflects the mood of many
who recalled the heady days of
struggle against dictatorship, or per-
haps the hopes for the Workers
Party, when it arose out of strikes in
which church people had been
involved in 1980.
14 NM2IA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS NCIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 14ANNIVERSARY ESSAY/ RELIGION
Today, civilian governments are
the rule, and democratic institutions
operate routinely, even if the poor
have relatively little access.
Hundreds of human rights groups
and other non-governmental orga-
nizations, many of which arose
under Church sponsorship, now
operate on their own. Many of the
roles that church people played in a
situation of emergency are no
longer necessary, although certainly
Bishop Samuel Ruiz in Chiapas
continues to play the roles of both
prophet and mediator.
Some church analysts now speak
of “social apartheid,” referring to
the ever-sharper divide between the
wealthy protected by security
guards, and most people facing job
losses, insecurity and crime. The
main theme progressives drew
from the 1992 meeting of the bish-
ops in Santo Domingo–analogous
to earlier meetings at Medellin and
Puebla-was “inculturation,” mean-
ing the Catholic Church’s recogni-
tion that it must allow people, especially indigenous groups, to
find their own cultural forms of
expression. Thus far in the 1990s, however, there seem to be no new
paradigms analogous to Liberation
Theology.
A very important development
today is the rise to prominence of
Protestants, and especially
Pentecostals, now estimated to be
around 15%-with considerable
variation from country to country
-of the Latin American popula-
tion. Although over 80% of the pop-
ulation may still be baptized
Catholic, only a small proportion
can be described as practicing, and
hence in some ways Protestantism
is on a par with Catholicism. Many
progressive church people and sec-
ular leftists have criticized
Pentecostalism for diverting people
from their real earthly problems, but
the actual behavior of Pentecostals
is not very different from that of
their neighbors. In Brazil, for exam-
pie, a significant propor- tion of the leftist Workers
Party has been Protestant.
Benedita da Silva, a black
woman from a poor fami-
ly in the northeast who
became a social worker
and then a federal senator,
is both an outstanding rep-
resentative of the poor and
a practicing member of
the Assemblies of God.
This does not mean that
the evangelical churches
are ripe for the left, but
simply that organizers and
activists should dispel
their own stereotypes and
seek to learn from, and Bishop: ”
dialogue with, this new God.” M
social force. February
If, as Jean Franco wrote
in NACILA Report on the Americas
a few years ago, it is not only the
left but the “print-oriented intelli-
gentsia” that feels displaced in a
Latin America that is simultaneous-
ly pre-literate and post-literate, it is
not surprising that the progressive
church should also feel perplexed.
%i
“Whoever resisits authority son, resists ilitary Officer: “God? Who, me?” From 1970 NACLA Newsletter.
Gutidrrez perhaps wisely refrains
from defining in detail the new era
that is arriving. The legacy of the
progressive church may yet be
picked up by a younger generation
that has come of age in the world of
globalization, and shares a passion
for justice. U
Under John Paul 11, the Latin American Church has become a symbol for the overall conflict between traditional and modern forces within Catholicism.
-September/October 1986, Vol. 19, No. 5
The Church faces a multitude of problems, but the basic problem to which all others are related is a split between a sector, generally sympathetic to socialism, that seeks to identify the Church with the poor and dispossessed, and another group, fearful of socialism, revolution and communism, that tries to keep the Church firmly on the sides of the established order and free enterprise capitalism.
-September 1978, Vol. 12 No. 5
The widespread portrayal of this as a duel between the Vatican and Marxism misses the point, It is in fact a campaign with profound theological, ecclesial and social origins, aimed at restoring pre-Vatican II lines of authority which demand unity around a traditional vision of the Church.
-September/October 1986, Vol. 19, No. 5