= Liberation theology =

======================================================================
= Liberation theology =
======================================================================

Introduction
======================================================================
Liberation theology is a synthesis of Christian theology and
socio-economic analyses, often based in far-left politics,
particularly Marxism, that emphasizes �social concern for the poor and
political liberation for oppressed peoples�. In the 1950s and the
1960s, liberation theology was the political praxis of Latin American
theologians, such as Gustavo Gutiérrez of Peru, Leonardo Boff of
Brazil, Juan Luis Segundo of Uruguay, and Jon Sobrino of Spain, who
popularized the phrase "Preferential option for the poor".

The Latin American context also produced evangelical advocates of
liberation theology, such as C. René Padilla of Ecuador, Samuel
Escobar of Peru, and Orlando E. Costas of Puerto Rico, who, in the
1970s, called for integral mission, emphasizing evangelism and social
responsibility.

Theologies of liberation have developed in other parts of the world
such as black theology in the United States and South Africa,
Palestinian liberation theology, Dalit theology in India, and Minjung
theology in South Korea.

Latin American liberation theology
======================================================================
The best-known form of liberation theology is that which developed
within the Catholic Church in Latin America in the 1950s and 1960s,
arising principally as a moral reaction to the poverty and social
injustice in the region. The term was coined in 1971 by the Peruvian
priest Gustavo Gutiérrez, who wrote one of the movement's defining
books, 'A Theology of Liberation'. Other noted exponents include
Leonardo Boff of Brazil, Jon Sobrino of Spain, and Juan Luis Segundo
of Uruguay.

Latin American liberation theology met opposition in the United
States, which accused it of using "Marxist concepts", and led to
admonishment by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith (CDF) in 1984 and 1986. While stating that "in itself, the
expression "theology of liberation" is a thoroughly valid term",
[http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_
doc_19840806_theology-liberation_en.html]
The Vatican rejected certain forms of Latin American liberation
theology for focusing on institutionalized or systemic sin and for
identifying Catholic Church hierarchy in South America as members of
the same privileged class that had long been oppressing indigenous
populations from the arrival of Pizarro onward.

History
=========
A major player in the formation of liberation theology was the Latin
American Episcopal Conference (CELAM). Created in 1955 in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, CELAM pushed the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965)
toward a more socially oriented stance. However, CELAM never supported
liberation theology as such, since liberation theology was frowned
upon by the Vatican, with Pope Paul VI trying to slow the movement
after the Second Vatican Council.

More or less at the same time as the initial publications of Latin
American liberation theology are also found voices of Black liberation
theology and feminist liberation theology.

After the Second Vatican Council, CELAM held two conferences which
were important in determining the future of liberation theology: the
first was held in Medell�n, Colombia, in 1968, and the second in
Puebla, Mexico, in January 1979. The Medell�n conference debated how
to apply the teachings of Vatican II to Latin America, and its
conclusions were strongly influenced by liberation theology. Although
liberation theology grew out of these officially recognized ideas, the
Medell�n document is not a liberation theology document. It did,
however, lay the groundwork, and since then liberation theology has
developed rapidly in the Latin American Catholic Church.

Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo was a central figure after the
Medell�n Conference, who as priest in Bogota he did not attend, and
was elected in 1972 as general secretary of CELAM, and then, its
president in 1979 (at the Puebla conference). He represented a more
orthodox position, becoming a favourite of Pope John Paul II and the
"principal scourge of liberation theology." Trujillo's faction became
predominant in CELAM after the 1972 Sucre conference, and in the Roman
Curia after the CELAM conference in Puebla, Mexico, in January 1979.

Despite the orthodox bishops' predominance in CELAM, a more radical
form of liberation theology remained much supported in South America.
Thus, the 1979 Puebla Conference was an opportunity for orthodox
bishops to reassert control of the radical elements, but they failed.
At the Puebla Conference, the orthodox reorientation was met by strong
opposition from the liberal part of the clergy, which supported the
concept of a "preferential option for the poor". This concept had been
approved at the Medell�n conference by Ricard Durand, president of the
Commission about Poverty.

Pope John Paul II gave the opening speech at the Puebla Conference.
The general tone of his remarks was conciliatory. He criticized
radical liberation theology, saying, "this idea of Christ as a
political figure, a revolutionary, as the subversive of Nazareth, does
not tally with the Church's catechesis"; however, he did acknowledge
that "the growing wealth of a few parallels the growing poverty of the
masses," and affirmed both the 'principle' of private property and
that the Church "must preach, educate individuals and collectivities,
form public opinion, and offer orientations to the leaders of the
peoples" towards the goal of a "more just and equitable distribution
of goods".

Some liberation theologians, however, including Gustavo Gutiérrez, had
been barred from attending the Puebla Conference. Working from a
seminary and with aid from sympathetic, liberal bishops, they
partially obstructed other clergy's efforts to ensure that the Puebla
Conference documents satisfied conservative concerns. Within four
hours of the Pope's speech, Gutiérrez and the other priests wrote a
20-page refutation, which was circulated at the conference, and has
been claimed to have influenced the final outcome of the conference.
According to a socio-political study of liberation theology in Latin
America, a quarter of the final Puebla documents were written by
theologians who were 'not invited' to the conference.

Theology
==========
Liberation theology could be interpreted as an attempt to return to
the gospel of the early church where Christianity is politically and
culturally decentralized.

Liberation theology proposes to fight poverty by addressing its
alleged source, the sin of greed. In so doing, it explores the
relationship between Christian theology (especially Roman Catholic)
and political activism, especially in relation to economic justice,
poverty, and human rights. The principal methodological innovation is
seeing theology from the perspective of the poor and the oppressed.
For example, Jon Sobrino argues that the poor are a privileged channel
of God's grace.

Some liberation theologians base their social action upon the Bible
scriptures describing the mission of Jesus Christ, as bringing a sword
(social unrest), e.g., , , � and 'not' as bringing peace (social
order). This biblical interpretation is a call to 'action' against
poverty, and the sin engendering it, to affect Jesus Christ's mission
of justice in this world.

Gustavo Gutiérrez gave the movement its name with his 1971 book, 'A
Theology of Liberation'. In this book, Gutiérrez combined populist
ideas with the social teachings of the Catholic Church. He was
influenced by an existing socialist current in the Church which
included organizations such as the Catholic Worker Movement and the
'Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne', a Belgian Christian youth worker
organization. He was also influenced by Paul Gauthier's 'The Poor,
Jesus and the Church' (1965). Gutiérrez's book is based on an
understanding of history in which the human being is seen as assuming
conscious responsibility for human destiny, and yet Christ the Saviour
liberates the human race from sin, which is the root of all disruption
of friendship and of all injustice and oppression.

Gutiérrez also popularized the phrase "preferential option for the
poor", which became a slogan of liberation theology and later appeared
in addresses of the Pope. Drawing from the biblical motif on the poor,
Gutiérrez asserts that God is revealed as having a preference for
those people who are �insignificant", "marginalized", �unimportant",
"needy", "despised", and "defenseless". Moreover, he makes clear that
terminology of "the poor" in scripture has social and economic
connotations that etymologically go back to the Greek word, 'pt�chos'.
To be sure, as to not misinterpret Gutiérrez's definition of the term
"preferential option", he stresses, "Preference implies the
universality of God�s love, which excludes no one. It is only within
the framework of this universality that we can understand the
preference, that is, 'what comes first'."

Gutiérrez emphasized practice (or, more technically, "praxis") over
doctrine. Gutiérrez clarified his position by advocating a circular
relationship between orthodoxy and orthopraxis seeing the two as
having a symbiotic relationship. Gutierrez' reading of prophets
condemning oppression and injustice against the poor (i.e., Jeremiah
22:13-17) informs his assertion that to know God (orthodoxy) is to do
justice (orthopraxis). Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict
XVI), however, criticized liberation theology for elevating
orthopraxis to the level of orthodoxy. Richard McBrien summarizes this
concept as follows:

God is disclosed in the historical "praxis" of liberation. It is the
situation, and our passionate and reflective involvement in it, which
mediates the Word of God. Today that Word is mediated through the
cries of the poor and the oppressed.

Another important hallmark for Gutiérrez's brand of liberation
theology is an interpretation of revelation as "history". For example,
Gutiérrez wrote:

History is the scene of the revelation God makes of the mystery of
his person. His word reaches us in the measure of our involvement in
the evolution of history.

Gutiérrez also considered the Church to be the "sacrament of history",
an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace, thus
pointing to the doctrine of universal salvation as the true means to
eternal life, and assigning the Church itself to a somewhat temporal
role, namely, liberation.

Practice
==========
One of the most radical aspects of liberation theology was the social
organization, or reorganization, of church practice through the model
of Christian base communities. Liberation theology strove to be a
bottom-up movement in practice, with biblical interpretation and
liturgical practice designed by lay practitioners themselves, rather
than by the orthodox Church hierarchy. In this context, sacred text
interpretation is understood as "praxis". Liberation theology seeks to
interpret the actions of the Catholic Church and the teachings of
Jesus Christ from the perspective of the poor and disadvantaged. In
Latin America, liberation theologians specifically target the severe
disparities between rich and poor in the existing social and economic
orders within the nations' political and corporate structures. It is a
strong critique of the various economic and social structures, such as
an oppressive government, dependence upon First World countries and
the traditional hierarchical Church, that allow some to be extremely
rich while others are unable to even have safe drinking water.

The journalist and writer Penny Lernoux described this aspect of
liberation theology in her numerous and committed writings intended to
explain the movement's ideas in North America. Base communities were
small gatherings, usually outside of churches, in which the Bible
could be discussed, and Mass could be said. They were especially
active in rural parts of Latin America where parish priests were not
always available, as they placed a high value on lay participation. In
May 2007, it was estimated that 80,000 base communities existed in
Brazil.

Contemporaneously, Fanmi Lavalas in Haiti, the Landless Workers'
Movement in Brazil, and Abahlali baseMjondolo in South Africa are
three organizations that make use of liberation theology.

Brazilian liberation theology
===============================
The Brazilian Catholic Church is arguably one of the most
theologically progressive Catholic congregations due, in large part,
to a history of violent military and political conflicts as well as a
divisive socioeconomic climate. During Brazil's military rule from
1964 to 1985, the Catholic Church and its members assumed
responsibility to provide services to the poor and disenfranchised,
often under threat of persecution. The Vatican II and Medell�n
conference innovations in liberation theology entered the Brazilian
Church as the Brazilian lower classes experienced sharply
deteriorating economic and political conditions. Among these were an
increase in landownership concentration, a decline in wages and
standards of living, and a rise in the military state's political
repression and violence, including mass detainment, torture, and the
assassination of political opponents.

Base ecclesial communities
============================
After decades of repression from the government authorities, the
liberationist Catholic Church in Brazil is absent of traditional
centralization and encourages an increased lay participation. Faced
with a severe priest shortage, much of the Brazilian Catholic Church
is organized into Base Ecclesial Communities or, "CEBs" in which the
Mass, community spirituality programs, and community needs are led or
addressed by a single clergy member or a trained lay member in either
a small chapel or an individual's home. The CEBs introduced new social
ideas and democratic methods which led to many participants' active
involvement in popular movements of Brazil that worked for progressive
social change. An example of progressive social change initiated by
the CEBs is in Nova Iguaçu. A health program began there to try to
organize the population in order to remedy widespread malnutrition,
open sewers, and other health hazards. Eventually the neighbourhood
initiative reached a national interest level where it then became a
mass movement in nearly every neighbourhood. Initiatives like the
health program in Nova Iguaçu illustrate how CEBs have helped the
transition from military to democratic rule.

While liberation theology has brought about significant progressive
reforms in Brazil, anthropologist Robin Nagle questions the
effectiveness of Catholic Church theology in Brazil. Nagle
concentrates on the conflict between conservatives and liberationists
in Recife, Brazil, in 1990. The poor neighbourhood of Morro da
Conceição had a liberationist priest named Reginaldo who was expelled
by the traditionalist archbishop because the archbishop found
Reginaldo's politics and social theology annoying and adverse to his
own agenda. When Reginaldo and his followers refused to accept the
expulsion and the new priest, the archbishop called in the Military
Police. Conversely, the event did not cause a mass response because
the liberationist agenda aroused distrust and even hatred among many
of its intended audience. The main reason was that it was too much to
ask poor parishioners to embrace a Church focused more on the troubles
of this life than solace in the next.

While Robin Nagle claims that liberation theology is ineffective for
genuine social change, anthropologist Manuel Vásquez argues that
liberation theology embraced by CEBs create a twofold effect, because
it not only provided moral justification for resistance but it also
served as a means to organize the resistance. Many people come to the
CEB through conversion experiences, but also because they are keenly
concerned with the spiritual and infrastructural needs of their
community. Through his fieldwork in working-class neighbourhoods of
Rio de Janeiro, Vásquez reveals that CEBs combat disenfranchisement
but also serve to overcome the obstacles associated with materialism
and globalization. The social and political impact can be viewed in
terms of initial consciousness-raising, the motivation for
involvement, the sense of community they develop, the experience of
grassroots democracy, the direct actions they engage in, and finally,
directly political actions.

The Tapeba
============
Anthropologist and author Max Maranhão Piorsky Aires analyzes the
influence of liberation theology on the transformation of the
indigenous Tapeba people of Brazil from poor, uneducated inhabitants
neglected by the state to rights-bearing and involved citizens.
Specifically he largely attributes the work of the Brazilian Catholic
Church to the progression of the Tapeba. The Catholic Church enlisted
state authorities, anthropologists, and journalists to help uncover
the identity of neglected indigenous peoples of Brazil. Early
recognition by missionaries and followers of liberation theology
stimulated indigenous identification of the Tapeba population as a
possibility for attaining rights, especially land, health, and
education. The Church gathered and contributed historical knowledge of
indigenous territory and identity of the Tapeba in Caucaia that
ultimately succeeded in the tribes obtaining a legally codified
identity as well as a rightful place as Brazilian subjects.

Gurupá
========
In Gurupá, the Catholic Church employed liberation theology to defend
indigenous tribes, farmers, and extractors from land expropriation by
federal or corporate forces. New religious ideas, in the form of
liberation theology, have fortified and legitimized an evolving
political culture of resistance. Meanwhile, the Church-supported Base
Ecclesial Communities (CEBs) have promoted stronger social connections
among community members that has led to more effective activism in
Gurupá. Anthropologist Richard Pace's study of Gurupá revealed that
CEBs assured safety in united activism, and, combined with liberation
theology, encouraged members to challenge landowner's commercial
monopolies and fight for better standards of living. Pace references a
specific incident in the CEB of Nossa Senhora de Fátima, in which a
community of 24 families of farmers, timber extractors, and traders
resisted an extra-regional timber extraction firm. The community
negotiated an agreement with the firm that gained them a higher
standard of living that included imported goods, increased food
availability, and access to health care. While severe social
dislocations such as government-initiated capitalist penetration, land
expropriation, and poor wages persist, small-farmer activism is
fortified by liberation theology and receives structural support from
unions, political parties, and church organizations.

Joseph Ratzinger
==================
In March 1983, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI),
head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
(CDF), made ten observations of Gustavo Gutiérrez's theology, accusing
Gutiérrez of politically interpreting the Bible in supporting temporal
messianism, and stating that the predominance of orthopraxis over
orthodoxy in his thought proved a Marxist influence. Ratzinger
objected that the spiritual concept of the Church as "People of God"
is transformed into a "Marxist myth". In liberation theology he
declared, the "'people' is the antithesis of the hierarchy, the
antithesis of all institutions, which are seen as oppressive powers.
Ultimately anyone who participates in the class struggle is a member
of the 'people'; the 'Church of the people' becomes the antagonist of
the hierarchical Church."

Ratzinger did praise liberation theology in some respects, including
its ideal of justice, its rejection of violence, and its stress on
"the responsibility which Christians necessarily bear for the poor and
oppressed". He subsequently stated that no one could be neutral in
the face of injustice, and referred to the "crimes" of colonialism and
the "scandal" of the arms race. Nonetheless, media reports tended to
assume that the condemnation of "liberation theology" meant a
rejection of such attitudes and an endorsement of conservative
politics.

In 1984, it was reported that a meeting occurred between the CDF and
the CELAM bishops, during which a rift developed between Ratzinger and
some of the bishops, with Ratzinger issuing official condemnations of
certain elements of liberation theology. These "Instructions" rejected
as Marxist the idea that class struggle is fundamental to history, and
rejected the interpretation of religious phenomena such as the Exodus
and the Eucharist in exclusively political terms. Ratzinger further
stated that liberation theology had a major flaw in that it attempted
to apply Christ's sermon on the mount teachings about the poor to
present social situations. He asserted that Christ's teaching on the
poor meant that we will be judged when we die, with particular
attention to how we personally have treated the poor.

Ratzinger also argued that liberation theology is not originally a
"grass-roots" movement among the poor, but rather, a creation of
Western intellectuals: "an attempt to test, in a concrete scenario,
ideologies that have been invented in the laboratory by European
theologians" and in a certain sense itself a form of "cultural
imperialism". Ratzinger saw this as a reaction to the demise or
near-demise of the "Marxist myth" in the West.

Throughout the 1990s, Ratzinger, as prefect of the CDF, continued to
condemn these elements in liberation theology, and prohibited
dissident priests from teaching such doctrines in the Catholic
Church's name. Leonardo Boff was suspended and others were censured.
Tissa Balasuriya, in Sri Lanka, was excommunicated. Sebastian Kappen,
an Indian theologian, was also censured for his book 'Jesus and
Freedom'. Under Ratzinger's influence, theological formation schools
were forbidden from using the Catholic Church's organization and
grounds to teach liberation theology in the sense of theology using
unacceptable Marxist ideas, not in the broader sense.

Towards reconciliation under Pope Francis
===========================================
According to Roberto Bosca, a historian at Austral University in
Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio (later Pope Francis) had "a reputation
as an opponent of liberation theology during the 1970s" but he
"accepted the premise of liberation theology, especially the option
for the poor, but in a 'nonideological' fashion." Before becoming
Pope, Bergoglio said, "The option for the poor comes from the first
centuries of Christianity. It's the Gospel itself. If you were to read
one of the sermons of the first fathers of the Church, from the second
or third centuries, about how you should treat the poor, you�d say it
was Maoist or Trotskyist. The Church has always had the honor of this
preferential option for the poor ... At the Second Vatican Council the
Church was redefined as the People of God and this idea really took
off at the Second Conference of the Latin-American bishops in
Medell�n." Bosca said Bergoglio was not opposed to liberation theology
itself but to "giving a Catholic blessing to armed insurgency",
specifically the Montoneros, who claimed liberation theology as part
of their political ideology. Blase Bonpane, a former Maryknoll father
and founding director of the Office of the Americas, said "The new
pope has not been comfortable with liberation theology."

On September 11, 2013, Pope Francis hosted Gutiérrez in his residence,
where he concelebrated mass with Gutiérrez and Gerhard Müller, then
Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Some saw
this meeting as a sign of warming relations between the hierarchy and
liberation theologians. The same month, 'L'Osservatore Romano'
published an article by Archbishop Müller praising Gutiérrez. On
January 18, 2014, Pope Francis met with Arturo Paoli, an Italian
priest whom the Pope knew from Paoli's long service in Argentina.
Paoli is recognized as an exponent of liberation theology 'avant la
lettre' and the meeting was seen as a sign of "reconciliation" between
the Vatican and the liberationists.

Miguel d'Escoto, a Maryknoll priest from Nicaragua, had been
sanctioned with an 'a divinis' suspension from his public functions in
1984 by Pope John Paul II, for political activity in the leftist
Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Pope Francis lifted the suspension
in August 2014, in response to a request by d'Escoto.

At a 2015 press conference in the Vatican hosted by Caritas
International, the federation of Catholic relief agencies, Gutiérrez
noted that while there had been some difficult moments in the past
dialogue with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
liberation theology had never been condemned. Although he saw an
increasingly clear emphasis on Church teachings on the poor, he did
not consider that liberation theology was undergoing a rehabilitation,
since it had never been "dishabilitated".

In January, 2019, during the World Youth Day in Panama, Pope Francis
discussed changing attitudes to liberation theology during an extended
discussion with a group of thirty Jesuits from Central America. He
noted that he had a devotion to the martyred Salvadoran Jesuit priest,
Rutilio Grande, even before he came to know �scar Romero well. Francis
commented that "Today we old people laugh about how worried we were
about liberation theology. What was missing then was communication to
the outside about how things really were."

Accusations
=============
Communist era general of Romania's secret police, Ion Mihai Pacepa,
claims that the KGB created liberation theology. Commentators, notably
John L. Allen of 'Crux' on the left and Damian Thompson of 'The
Spectator' on the right, have suspected these claims are exaggerated.

US political reactions
========================
In 1983 US vice president George H. W. Bush said he could not
comprehend how Catholic theologians could harmonize Catholicism and
Marxism and support revolutionaries in Central America. "I'm puzzled.
I just don't understand it."

Latin American integral mission
======================================================================
Integral mission or holistic mission is a term coined in Spanish as
'misión integral' in the 1970s by members of the evangelical group
Latin American Theological Fellowship (or FTL, its Spanish acronym) to
describe an understanding of Christian mission which embraces both the
evangelism and social responsibility. Since Lausanne 1974, integral
mission has influenced a significant number of evangelicals around the
world.

The word 'integral' is used in Spanish to describe wholeness (as in
wholemeal bread or whole wheat). Theologians use it to describe an
understanding of Christian mission that affirms the importance of
expressing the love of God and neighbourly love through every means
possible. Proponents such as C. René Padilla of Ecuador, Samuel
Escobar of Peru, and Orlando E. Costas of Puerto Rico have wanted to
emphasize the breadth of the Good News and of the Christian mission,
and used the word integral to signal their discomfort with conceptions
of Christian mission based on a dichotomy between evangelism and
social involvement.

The proponents of integral mission argue that the concept of integral
mission is nothing new - rather, it is rooted in Scripture and
wonderfully exemplified in Jesus� own ministry. "Integral mission" is
only a distinct vocabulary for a holistic understanding of mission
that has become important in the past forty years in order to
distinguish it from widely held but dualistic approaches that
emphasize either evangelism or social responsibility.

Camilo Torres
===============
The priest Camilo Torres (a leader of the Colombian guerrilla group
ELN) celebrated the Eucharist only among those engaged in armed
struggle against the army of the Colombian state. He also fought for
the ELN.

Black theology
======================================================================
Black theology refers to a theological perspective which originated in
some black churches in the United States and later in other parts of
the world, which contextualizes Christianity in an attempt to help
those of African descent overcome oppression. It especially focuses on
the injustices committed against African Americans and black South
Africans during American segregation and apartheid, respectively.

Black theology seeks to liberate people of color from multiple forms
of political, social, economic, and religious subjugation and views
Christian theology as a theology of liberation�"a rational study of
the being of God in the world in light of the existential situation of
an oppressed community, relating the forces of liberation to the
essence of the Gospel, which is Jesus Christ," writes James Hal Cone,
one of the original advocates of the perspective. Black theology mixes
Christianity with questions of civil rights, particularly raised by
the Black Power movement and the Black Consciousness Movement.

Palestinian liberation theology
======================================================================
Palestinian liberation theology is an expression of political theology
and a contextual theology that represents an attempt by a number of
independently working Palestinian theologians from various
denominations�mostly Protestant mainline churches�to articulate the
gospel message in such a way as to make that liberating gospel
relevant to the perceived needs of their indigenous flocks. As a rule,
this articulation involves a condemnation of the State of Israel, a
theological underpinning of Palestinian resistance to Israel as well
as Palestinian national aspirations, and an intense valorization of
Palestinian ethnic and cultural identity as guarantors of a truer
grasp of the gospel by virtue of the fact that they are inhabitants of
the land of Jesus and the Bible. The principal figure in Palestinian
liberation theology is the Anglican cleric Naim Ateek, founder of the
Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem.

Related movements
======================================================================
* Abahlali baseMjondolo in South Africa
* Dalit theology in India
* Landless Workers' Movement in Brazil
* Lavalas in Haiti
** Jean-Bertrand Aristide
* FSLN in Nicaragua (see The Catholic Church and the Nicaraguan
Revolution)
* FMLN in El Salvador
* Christians for Socialism (Cristianos por el socialismo)

People
========
*Paulo Freire
*�scar Romero

Further reading
======================================================================
* Lernoux, Penny, 'Cry of the people: United States involvement in the
rise of fascism, torture, and murder and the persecution of the
Catholic Church in Latin America.' Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1980.
* Alves, Rubem, 'Towards a Theology of Liberation' (1968).
*De La Torre, Miguel A., 'Handbook on U.S. Theologies of Liberation'
(Chalice Press, 2004).
* Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal, "Liberation Theology" (preliminary
notes to 1984 Instruction)
* Gutiérrez, Gustavo, 'A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics and
Salvation', Orbis Books, 1988.
* Kirylo, James D. 'Paulo Freire: The Man from Recife'. New York:
Peter Lang, 2011.
* Nash, Ronald, ed. 'Liberation Theology'. First ed. Milford, Mich.:
Mott Media, 1984.
* Smith, Christian, 'The Emergence of Liberation Theology: Radical
Religion and the Social Movement Theory', University of Chicago Press,
1991.
* 'Marxism and Missions / Missions et Marxisme', special issue of the
journal
[http://www2.unil.ch/lefaitmissionnaire/pages/tables_publi/lfm22_2%20tbl.html
Social Sciences and Missions], Volume 22/2, 2009

Pacepa, I. M. and Rychlak, R. J, "Disinformation," Washington, DC: WND
Books, Inc., 2013.

External links
======================================================================
*[http://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552613
Liberation Theology Video] from the
[https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552494/browse?type=title
Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives].
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/beliefs/liberationtheolog
y.shtml
BBC Religion and Ethics theological obituary of Pope John Paul II: his
views on liberation theology]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20010427011718/http://www.theo.kuleuven.ac.be/clt/
index.htm
Centre for Liberation Theologies, Faculty of Theology, Katholieke
Universiteit Leuven, Belgium]
*[http://lagunadeapoyo.blogspot.com/2014/08/papal-suspension-against-miguel-desc
oto.html
Papal suspension against Miguel d'Escoto is lifted]
*[http://www.thepeopleofthebook.org/summary-of-the-basic-teachings-of-liberation
-theology/
Key Concepts of Revolution Theology]

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=========
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