Just prior to Pope Benedict XVI?s pilgrimage to Brazil (9 May), much of the secular media had framed the event directly in the context of Latin American ?Liberation Theology.? The occasion was CELAM V, officially described as The Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean. Latin American ?Liberation Theology? ? ?Theologies? is more precise ? was the topic of Pope John Paul?s visit in 1979 to CELAM III, held in Puebla, Mexico. The Brazilian journey was in continuity with Papal visits to South America reaching back to 1955.

?Liberation Theology,? not widely understood in the United States, except in divinity schools and seminaries where isolated spin-offs from it are studied, is really an ambiguous subject, since, by the close of the ?70s, several forms had emerged. Theologians and clergy who returned to Latin America after Vatican Council II were appalled to discover intensifying ?structured? injustices at home: issues such as denial of basic human rights, abuse of power and laws, arbitrary arrests and imprisonments, the scandal of the severe poverty of the many as contrasted with the wealth of a few, the prevalence of hunger, ignorance, torture and even summary execution. Reflecting on this scene, these theologians and Churchmen began to see Vatican II?s defense of Christian Humanism (e.g., the Constitution Gaudium et Spes) as nonrelevant to Latin America ? a view that frequently approached ridicule.

Moreover, ?Liberation Theology?s? response emphasizes ?experience? so much that principles of faith are downgraded. In theological language, praxis (concrete experience) is viewed as trumping doxis (doctrine), thus degrading the perennial Biblical norms which inspire and support social justice and opening the door to moral relativism, including ?situation ethics.?

In addition to the aforementioned deficiencies, ?Liberation Theology? has in part allowed the injection of Marxist Analysis into the Gospel Message. Marxist Analysis is a socioeconomic hypothesis; it knows nothing of Gospel truths about social justice and the central role of Christ Jesus as the way, the truth and the life. (Jn 14:6) Hence, Christ has often been transformed primarily into a radical social reformer. And because Marxist Analysis is both materialistic and class oriented, ?Liberation Theology? often ignores the spiritual component of man and accepts the premiss that class struggle is a constant dynamic of history demanding the Church?s taking sides absolutely, even by revolutionary means, including violence.

Latin American ?Liberation Theology? (or ?Theologies,? owing to multifaceted thrusts) was openly inserted into Church deliberations in 1968, at Medellin, Colombia, during the Second General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate, known as CELAM from its Latin American title, Consejo Episcopal Latino-Americano. CELAM I took place in 1955 in Rio de Janeiro.

CELAM IV, originally intended as a 20th anniversary reflection on CELAM II, was rededicated at the request of Pope John Paul to the theme of appreciation for 500 years of evangelization in Latin America. It took place in the Dominican Republic in 1984.

Two key Magisterial documents on ?Liberation Theology? were promulgated and signed by John Paul II; both emanated from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger: ?Instruction on Certain Aspects of the ?Theology of Liberation?? (Aug. 1984), and ?Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation? (April 1986).

Pope Benedict?s recent talk was delivered near the Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil. There the Holy Father reaffirmed the Church?s commitment to and perennial concern for the poor and the promotion of social justice in solidarity with the masses of those who are oppressed economically or are politically deprived, or else simply are ignored. ?The peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean,? he said, ?have the right to a full life, proper to the children of God, under conditions that are more human, free from the threat of hunger and every form of violence.? (Sec. 4) This right can be secured, he added, through Christ ? the living Lord who makes himself available to us in his Church through the sacraments, supremely in the Eucharist. ?Only from the Eucharist,? he insisted, ?will the civilization of love spring forth which will transform Latin America and the Caribbean?? (ibid.)

Here the Holy Father cautioned against both Marxism and capitalism as alleged basic ?solutions? to institutionalized injustice. He recalled that both systems have contributed to the destruction of the human spirit. Here, he said, in incomparable words: ?a society in which God is absent will not find the necessary consensus on moral values or the strength to live according to the mode of these values.? And ?the Church is the advocate of the poor, precisely because she does not identify with politicians nor with partisan interests.? Earlier in his talk Pope Benedict had listed some of these values beyond social justice; values like reverence for human life from conception, as well as respect for marriage and human sexuality.

The glorious beginnings of the Church in Latin America were also recalled by the Pope. His remarks, criticized as ?revisionist? by one New York journal, demonstrate how erroneously the history of South America is still understood by contemporary commentators. Despite the human element, the Church in Brazil and the nation itself share a magnificent historical identity. Ad multos annos to the nation, and to this unquestionably great Holy Father, Benedict XVI.