U.S.-Vatican Relations, 1975-1980: A Diplomatic Study by P Peter Sarros

Author:P Peter Sarros [Sarros, P Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Religion; Politics & State, Religion, Diplomacy, United States, 20th Century, Political Science, History
ISBN: 9780268106812
Google: ttDKDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 44639755
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
Published: 2020-01-31T00:00:00+00:00

CELAM III AND THE DEBATE ON LIBERATION THEOLOGY

CELAM, since its founding in Rio in 1955, had become the Catholic Church’s most important regional organization and the model for the creation of other such conferences throughout the world. There had not been a meeting of CELAM since its second meeting at Medellin, Colombia, in 1968, which had encouraged an active sociopolitical role for the Church in Latin America. This stance conformed with the spirit of Vatican II, and also to Pope Paul’s encyclical Populorum progressio (1967).3 Having adopted as one of its principal objectives a “preferential option for the poor,” the Church in some countries in Latin America emerged as a dynamic, progressive force for economic, social, and political development, modifying its traditional links to the oligarchies and military regimes. It also prompted activist theologians to conceptualize liberation theology as a guide for the sociopolitical role of the clergy.4 Certain of its tenets, especially those derived from Marxism, such as class struggle, anticapitalism, “dependence” theory, and toleration of “violence” for change, were highly controversial, and had divided the Church in several countries, especially in Central America. In Chile, for example, it had spawned, in 1972, Christians for Socialism, which supported the Marxist Salvador Allende rather than the Christian Democrats of Eduardo Frei. In some other countries, it encouraged the formation of “base ecclesiastical communities,” which the Vatican feared because they were creating a “parallel” entity, competing with the traditional Church. In Central America, especially in Nicaragua and El Salvador, many priests actively supported revolutionary and pro-Marxist movements.5

CELAM III was scheduled for Puebla, Mexico, in late October 1978. Preparations for it were going on throughout the Church in Latin America for at least a year. A “consultative document” had been prepared in 1977 by the CELAM Secretariat and circulated to the national episcopal conferences and the Vatican for comment. The document generated acrimonious debate between conservatives and the advocates of liberation theology.6 The choices made at Puebla could affect the lives of the nearly 350 million Latin American Catholics, which, as nearly one-half the worldwide Catholic population, had attracted significant international attention. The attendance of the new pope heightened international attention because it could be a harbinger of the direction that he would take the Church.

During the summer and early fall of 1978, Cardinal Sebastiano Baggio, the powerful prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, and his staff at the offices of the Pontifical Council for Latin America continued the preparatory work for CELAM, for which they examined the proposed issues and the agenda. Since CELAM was scheduled for late 1978 or early 1979, John Paul I and then John Paul II were expected to make key decisions regarding the direction of the conference at the very beginning of their papacies. John Paul I, only a few days after his election, indicated that he opposed the direction some prelates chose to follow after Medellin. On September 20, at his regular Wednesday general audience, he made two statements. First, he declared that he did

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