From: tmpmac@eua.ericsson.se (Antonio Macchi III)
Subject: Re: Interview with Dom Pedro Casaldaliga
Reply-To: tmpmac@eua.ericsson.se
Organization: Ellemtel Telecom Systems Labs, Stockholm, Sweden
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 10:48:54 GMT


--<Tsen> writes:
>fighting poverty, educating the people, etc... Few years back I knew there
>were some disagreements between the Vatican and the followers of T. da L.
>I don't know if they reached an agreement or not.

Liberation Theology is unfortunately still a very controversial subject for the Vatican and most of the Catholic Church, with exception, of course of the progressive sectors.
One of the leading progressive persons in the Catholic Church in Latin America,
Leonardo Boff, a brazilian theologist, has recently renounced his formal connections
to the Church because of the strong opposition for his work in Liberation Theology.
For several years has he accepted prohibitions and very active opposition on his work
from the Vatican and the Church. He wanted to continue his work on a "bare foot"
theology from within the organizations, but it was not possible to do that in the
current context. His renouncement letter has been published recently on a magazine
from IBASE, I believe it is "Politicas Governamentais". If people are interested I
could put it in soc.culture.brazil, given that IBASE authorizes, what I am sure it is
not a problem.


By the way, something else...
--<Nelson Muller> writes:
>I think the Church has no business interfering in political and power
>strugle in Brazil or any other country in which the constitution clearly
>indicates a total separation between state and Church.  The Church's

Nelson, you are right that the church, as a religious institution should
                                                      ^^^^^^^^^^^
not interfere on the processes of directing a society, but things are not
so simple. In a democratic society not only the citizens but also institutions
(democratic or not) participate on the political processes of a society (you
know what lobying is ...). In fact many of our actions have a political
component, whether we are aware of it or not. The Theology of Liberation
recognizes man as not only a spiritual entity but also as a physical entity.
This means that the processes related to the physical entities of man should
not be ignored by the church. People must have also food, education, work
and a happy life; not only promisses of a living in a paradise when they die.
Now you probably understand how controversial this can be if the whole population
of a christian, Catholic nation, like Brazil would, with the help of the church,
develop consciousness about the political processes in which they are involved.
The abstract spiritual statement of "to share the bread with your brother"
has deeper consequences if it would be generalized to more concrete physical
contexts in the brazilian society.
This can be considered as an utopical assumption, but I'm sure the consequences
would be very, very big for Brazil.


Once more,lets see the clear differences between affecting power directly and
participating democratically on the ideological and political processes of a society.
As an instrument for a true democracy, the church cannot be excluded of the political
processes the brazilian society must go through to give a better life to its people.

Tchau, Abracos,

A. Macchi III


Newsgroups: soc.culture.brazil