Liberation Theology

   A radical theology that arose in the Latin American Catholic Church during the 1960s. Unlike the traditional church in the region, which had aligned itself for centuries with the military and the wealthy elites, practitioners of liberation theology aligned themselves with the region’s poor. Liberation theology emerged from the intersection of the social sciences and changes within the wider Catholic Church. Sociology—especially Marxist sociology—provided progressive members of the Latin American church with the analytical tools to understand the region’s economic and social underdevelopment. Out of this analysis came the theory of dependency, which saw Latin America as an economic satellite of the United States, just as the region had been a satellite of Spain or Portugal and then, after independence, of other European countries like Britain. According to this view, Latin America was not only a source of raw materials and cheap labor for U.S. industry but also a market for its finished products, including arms. U.S. loans and foreign investment were seen as having an opposite effect than the one intended. Instead of leading to an economic boom, which would help prevent the region from falling to communism, U.S. involvement brought only dependency and suffering.

   Equally important to liberation theology were the changes in Catholicism that emerged out of the Second Ecumenical Council, or Vatican II (1962–1965). Convened in Rome by Pope John XXIII with the intention of modernizing the church, the Council situated the church squarely within this world and invited laity to full participation alongside priests and bishops. Meeting in 1968, in Medellín, Colombia, the bishops of Latin America committed the church to social justice, breaking the institution’s long-standing relationship with the rich and powerful. The Medellín conference had the blessing of the new pope, Paul VI, who had traveled to Colombia to open the discussion and whose encyclical Populorum Progressio had promoted social, economic, and political rights.

   Having charted a new course, the church in Latin America placed a premium on liberating the masses through education. Drawing on the techniques of Paulo Freire, a noted Brazilian philosopher of education, church members developed educational programs aimed at helping people understand their plight. Comunidades de base (base communities) were formed, where small groups of people (a dozen or so) could live and work together and organize for grassroots change. Although the bishops at Medellín had stopped short of calling for revolution, many young priests and nuns chose to participate in leftwing causes, some even joining armed guerrilla organizations. The priest Camilo Torres Restrepo, for example, who had joined the guerrillas in his native Colombia, died in combat on 15 February 1966. The following year a small group of students calling itself the Comando Camilo Torres was formed in Argentina. This group would later become the Montoneros, one of the most powerful guerrilla organizations in Latin America.