The pope cares for the poor and calls upon all Christians to assist them.
This must mean that our Holy Father embraces liberation theology, right? I mean, only leftists really care for the poor!
Wrong.
So is Pope Francis a closet liberation theologian, or someone
with strong sympathies for the school of thought? It’s a question that’s
been raised many times since Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s election to the
papacy in March. Most recently, the New York Times weighed in on the subject. While discussing the tone adopted by Bergoglio since becoming pope, the NYT
article claimed that Francis has “an affinity for liberation theology.”
“Francis’s speeches,” the article argues, “draw clearly on the themes
of liberation theology.” It also suggested that “Francis studied with an
Argentine Jesuit priest who was a proponent of liberation theology.”
I’m
afraid, however, that if one looks at Francis’s pre-pontifical
writings, a rather different picture emerges. Certainly Bergoglio is a
man who has always been concerned about those in genuine material need.
But orthodox Christianity didn’t need to wait for liberation theology in
order to articulate deep concern for the materially poor and to remind
those with power and resources that they have concrete obligations to
the less fortunate. From the very beginning, it was a message that
pervaded the Gospels and the Church’s subsequent life.
Read the whole thing.
_______________
Follow HancAquam or Subscribe and DONATE! ----->
It truly is pathetic how our betters in the media are totally incapable of stepping away from their mirrors to understand that other peoples use language differently.
ReplyDeletePope Francis is using the typical language of the Catholic clergy in Latin America, the same language that the proponents of Liberation Theology, many from Latin America, used, but by no means theirs.
Of course, they couldn't care less about listening to the help, much less seriously considering their faith as something more than superstition of the uneducated and oppressed third-world.