Ratzinger, Gutierrez, & the bishops of Peru

...Prior to that, many of the Peruvian bishops 8 February 1985: 77 had simply not realized that Gutierrez commanded such respect as a theologian...

...Nor are these objections assumed to cover all contemporary Marxists...

...Few of the principals are speaking publicly...

...Rumor in the Peruvian church has it that Ratzinger sent word that the local church was not capable CHRISTINE E. GUDORF, who teaches in the theology department of Xavier University in Cincinnati, spent a recent sabbatical in Latin America researching base communities...

...They are concerned that the church's action on the social scene be a force for peaceful, constructive change without exacerbating tensions that could lead to greater violence and injustice...

...For two weeks, the bishops met with Ratzinger and also with John Paul II in groups, and occasionally individually...

...It is certain that controversy will continue to surround both liberation theology and Gutierrez...

...The major difference is that the positions the bishops find objectionable — which are largely the same ones Ratzinger found — are not presented as reflective of liberation theology...

...John Paul has not to this point taken a consistent position on liberation theology as it exists in the Latin American church...

...Why is this so unexpected...

...The February visit of John Paul II to Peru will constitute yet another act in the contemporary drama of the Peruvian church...

...This cannot be done without conflict, but perhaps the Spirit is telling us from Peru that it can be done with some degree of humility, compassion, and respect...

...Perhaps even more disturbing had been the threat to the work of thousands of church leaders — bishops, priests, religious, and laypeople — who have drawn a great deal of their spiritual sustenance from Gutierrez's annunciation of the Good News in the context of human oppression...

...The Peruvian bishops held out in face of strong Vatican pressure, held out for a local decision...

...They are not in agreement about the use of Marxist social analysis...

...the very unusual presence of a nearly complete national bishops' conference in Rome was unsuccessfully explained to the press as a matter of coincidence...

...The bishops better realize both the variations within liberation theology on the issue of Marxism, and the nuanced approach most often taken by liberation theologians...

...Does he recognize the consequences a judgment of his on liberation theology — in either direction — may have for the local church and for the Peruvian socio-political reality...

...Cardinal Ratzinger apparently had hoped for a single unequivocal stance from the bishops which would not only discredit liberation theology in Peru but damage it throughout Latin America...

...So how did it happen that the bishops went back to Peru and wrote a single document which failed to censure either Gutierrez or liberation theology...

...The pressure from Ratzinger was strongly in favor of a single document censuring Gutierrez...

...The investigation process had begun in February 1983 with a series of very critical "observations" about Gutierrez's writings, observations sent by the Vatican to the Peruvian bishops' conference along with a request for consideration and decision...

...Rumor has it that Rome overplayed its hand...

...John Paul was reportedly more difficult to read...

...Will John Paul respect the decision of the Peruvian bishops...

...Forty-five were able to attend...

...The third section of the bishops' document, "The Necessity of Discernment," deals with "basic criteria" to be used in discerning action within commitment to the project of liberation...

...Rather they are currents in historical Marxist thought which the bishops, in their role as teachers, point out are to be avoided by those persons committed to liberation of the poor because they are incompatible with Christian faith...

...This last group wavered, tending to join the supporters to defeat motions to condemn, and to join the opponents to defeat motions to acquit...

...THE CHALLENGE REMAINS: LIBERATION THEOLOGY '85-1 Ratzinger, Gutierrez, & the bishops of Peru CHRISTINE E. GUDORF THE LONG investigation of liberation theology in the person of priest-theologian Gustavo Gutierrez of Peru has come to an end in a way few observers expected...

...Gutierrez, when asked to explain the unexpected result, responded: "You mean why, besides the work of the Spirit...

...These investigations were not expeditiously resolved because the bishops were divided: approximately one-third were supporters, one-third were opponents, and one-third did not want to commit themselves to either side...

...Ratzinger's next move after aborting the local investigation was to have all fifty-two bishops of Peru summoned to Rome for two weeks in September...

...Commonweal: 78 Yet the controversy over liberation theology in Peru has important implications beyond the future of liberation theology in the church, and beyond the church in Peru...

...While the bishops acknowledge that Ratzinger's "Instructions on Certain Aspects of the Theology of Liberation" treats these same themes, they do not indicate the radical differences in treatment between their document and Ratzinger's...

...He has expressed support for the Christian preferential option for the poor and for the organization of the poor, but rejection of Marxist social analysis, of the blurring of distinctions between clergy and laity, and of clergy participating in political activity — which in Latin America can include any attempt to improve the condition of the poor through organization...

...Moreover, it must be done if the church is to have a meaningful role in the social task of transforming the world in the direction of the Kingdom of God...

...My own suspicion is that the decades of respect for and solidarity with the bishops that liberationists have demonstrated — a respect and solidarity which amazes and intrigues Americans and Europeans — evoked from the bishops a similar respect and a desire to accept responsibility for the liberation movement as a legitimate expression of Christian faith and of the church in Peru...

...Surely it must feel like the work of the Spirit for Gutierrez after having lived for almost two years on the edge of an international controversy which threatened a life's work of commitment to the liberation of the poor and to the formation of liberation theology...

...How the Peruvian bishops will deal with the very real issues that confront them — ever greater social misery, worsening social violence, political repression, continuing polarization of conservative and liberation forces within the church in response to the social situation — remains to be seen...

...Furthermore, Rome did not acknowledge the overwhelming support for Gutierrez that the bishops received in letters from other bishops and theologians of international repute and from public figures in Peru...

...This is only the end of an act, not the end of the drama...

...It was a surprise because only one-third of the bishops supported Gutierrez and liberation theology throughout the many stages of the investigation into the orthodoxy of Gutierrez's writings on liberation theology...

...These are burning questions in a nation where the division among bishops merely mirrors the unstable political and economic situation...

...In summer 1984 what had looked like the end of the investigation process — the composition of two documents: a majority report of censure and a minority report defending Gutierrez — was aborted by order of Cardinal Ratzinger, the head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who had ordered the investigation...

...his comments to groups of bishops indicated he had read some of Gutierrez's work and did not share all of Ratzinger's views...

...While it is doubtful that some of these-points are treated in the same way liberation theologians would treat them (especially the separation of spiritual and material), the bishops come closer than Ratzinger to presenting the real issues in the debate over Marxism within liberation theology...

...The bishops of Peru completed a document in October, released in November, which treats liberation theology without censuring any part or any theologian, while claiming credit for it as a Peruvian gift to Latin America...

...If our church is to be truly universal, if the Gospel is to be fully enculturated in each region and nation, if the church is to truly become the People of God rather than an institutional structure, then the relationship between Vatican and bishops, the responsibility of bishops for the local church, the role of theologians in the church, and the ability of the laity to participate fully in the definition of what faith is in the midst of real human life must all be painstakingly worked out...

...Insiders close to the liberationist bishops' camp reported that after the theological criticism Ratzinger received for his own recent writings on liberation theology, he was reluctant to have the faction he supported, opponents of liberation theology, produce what looked to be a theologically weak document which would suffer by comparison with the minority report, on which some first-rate theologians, including Gutierrez himself, had collaborated...

...The accuracy of these speculations is open to debate...

...of handling this matter...

...But the drama has been irrevocably changed by the events of this act...

...Ratzinger failed to recognize the concern that even the more conservative bishops have for the very real oppression their people suffer — a concern that supporters of liberation theology make central to their lives and their faith...

...Last — but not negligible — was the national pride that the bishops came to feel for liberation theology as a product of Peruvian life and faith, and for Gutierrez as a Peruvian theologian...

...Those criteria emerge from a critical discussion of Marxist concepts within the general themes of history and society, praxis and truth, and the kingdom of God and human action...