Pope Francis and the Poor

"How I would like a Church that is poor and for the poor," Pope Francis told a group of journalists the other day in Rome.  And, indeed, his apparent humility and sympathy for the poor has resonated with many.  Does it signal a new direction for the Catholic Church?

Probably not.  Care for the poor is not the same as the desire to eliminate poverty and create a more just society - a "kingdom of heaven" on earth, where all human beings can live with some modicum of dignity.  But that would mean addressing the root causes of poverty and social injustice. And brings us closer to Liberation Theology, which holds that Jesus was committed to making society address the needs of the poor, not just giving them charity. Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara, a Brazilian Roman Catholic priest and archbishop once said:

"When I give food to the hungry they call me a saint; when I ask why the poor are hungry they call me a communist."

It was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger who excommunicated or punished any priest who followed Liberation Theology teachings and tried to build social and political movements that could create lasting change.  His solution to the murderous, authoritarian regimes in Latin America?  Let the dictators repent before God: 

Sein einziger ernst gemeinter Vorschlag war, die Priester sollten die Diktatoren und die Auftragskiller dazu bringen, ihre Nächsten zu lieben und sich in Selbstkontrolle zu üben: „Soziale Veränderungen, die wirklich im Dienst des Menschen stehen, wird man nur erreichen, indem man an die Ethik der Person und an die beständige innere Umkehr appelliert.“ Ganz bestimmt bekamen es die Generäle und ihre Todesschwadronen bei solchen Worten mit der Angst zu tun.

(His (Ratzinger's) only serious suggestion was that the priests should instill love and self-control in the dictators and contract killers: "Social changes that genuinely serve people can only be achieved when one appeals to a person's ethics and inner conversion."  No doubt these words put fear into the hearts of the dictators and death squads)

And Pope Francis?  We don't yet have the complete story of his role during the brutal military junta that ruled in Argentia during the late 1970s, but we do know that he also condemned those priests who preached Liberation Theology in the slums of Beunos Aires:

Nun behauptet er, er wünsche sich „eine Kirche für die Armen“. Heißt das, dass er den Armen Brot geben will? Oder geht es ihm auch um die Ursachen der Armut? Die Diktaturen Lateinamerikas führten Kriege gegen die Armen. Vielerorts setzte sich die Unterdrückung auch nach dem Zusammenbruch der Diktaturen fort. Die verschiedenen Fraktionen der katholischen Kirche standen sich feindlich gegenüber. Was diejenigen, die die Befreiungstheologie unterdrückten, auch immer zu ihrer Verteidigung zu sagen haben: De facto waren sie Verbündete von Tyrannen, Landräubern, Sklavenhaltern und Todesschwadronen. Seiner demonstrativen Bescheidenheit zum Trotz – Papst Franziskus stand auf der falschen Seite.

(Now he maintains that he wants "a church for the poor."  Does that mean he wants to give bread to the poor? Or is he concerned about the root cause of poverty? The Latin American dictators waged war against the poor.  In many places the oppression persisted after the collapse of the dictatorships. The different factions of the Catholic Church stood in opposition to one another. Whatever those who suppressed Liberation Theology have to say in their self-defense: they were de facto allies of tyrants, land thieves, slaveholders and death squads.  His obvious modesty notwithstanding - Pope Francis stood on the wrong side.) 

Comments

[James]

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land. (Deut. 15:11)

http://bible.cc/deuteronomy/15-11.htm

[Hattie]

If the Catholic Church wants to save itself as an institution it must embrace liberation theology.

[Steve]

I don't know much about liberation theology, other than knowing the Church opposed it (under John Paul II especially) but the Gospels are clear enough on the matter, presumably one reason the Church resisted having them available in the vernacular with such vehemence, even resorting to burning of translators (the book itself being presumably too holy).