What was the Medellin Conference?
The Medellin Conference in 1968 opened the way for the development of liberation theology, and endorsed the formation of base communities under lay leaders approved by the pastor. As base communities greatly multiplied, critics would complain of Marxist ideology and propensity toward violent confrontation. In 1978 Pope John Paul II, ...
What is the Latin American Episcopal Council?
The Latin American Episcopal Council (Spanish: Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano), also known as CELAM, organized the conference in Medellin in order to give direction to the Church in Latin America. In an introductory statement the bishops wrote:
What was the Pope's plan for the labor unions?
In 1931, Pope Pius XI had put forward a vague plan for a sort of moderate corporatism. However, he also pushed for both Catholic and secular labor unions. Though these unions were likely more akin to medieval guilds in the Pope's vision, unions at this time were beginning to be associated with workers' rights and class struggles. By the 1950s and 1960s, Christian Democratic parties and Catholic labor associations were on the rise. Members were tasked with bringing Christian values and principles into public life. Papal teachings emphasized the “re-Christianizing” of society based on cooperation for the common good. While the Christian Democratic Parties began advertising their “Third Way” as an alternative to both capitalism and socialism, a divide formed within the Christian Democratic Parties between the “ liberationists ” and the moderate conservatives who were in control. The Latin American Episcopal Council (Spanish: Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano), also known as CELAM, organized the conference in Medellin in order to give direction to the Church in Latin America. In an introductory statement the bishops wrote:
Where was the second Episcopal Conference held?
The Second Episcopal Conference of Latin America was a bishops' conference held in 1968 in Medellín, Colombia, as a follow-up to the Second Vatican Council which it adapted in a creative way to the Latin American context. It took as the theme for its 16 documents “The Church in the Present Transformation of Latin America in the Light ...
Who was the Pope in 1978?
In 1978 Pope John Paul II, a staunch opponent of Communism in his native Poland, diminished the influence of liberation theology by appointing in Latin America only conservative bishops. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was in charge of enforcing doctrine which largely ...
Who wrote the Theology of Liberation?
Gustavo Gutiérrez, the author of A Theology of Liberation (1973), sees the tension in the documents of Medellin as arising in the bishops' attempt to reach all Latin American communities, no matter where they stood, and begin introducing more liberationist views.
What is socialization in Latin America?
13. Socialization understood and as a socio-cultural process of personalization and communal growth, leads us to think that all of the sectors of society, but in this case, principally the social-economic sphere, should, because of justice and brotherhood, transcend antagonisms in order to become agents of national and continental development. Without this unity, Latin America will not be able to succeed in liberating itself from the neo-colonialism to which it is bound, nor will Latin America be able to realize itself in freedom, with its own cultural, socio-political and economic characteristics.
Why can't the Latin American bishops remain indifferent?
1. The Latin American bishops cannot remain indifferent in the face of the tremendous social injustices existent in Latin America, which keep the majority of our peoples in dismal poverty, which in many cases becomes inhuman wretchedness.
What is the second Episcopal Conference?
14. The Second Episcopal Conference wishes to voice its pastoral concern for the extensive peasant class, which, although included in the above remarks, deserves urgent attention because of its special characteristics. If it is true that one ought to consider the diversity of circumstances and resources in the different countries, there is no doubt that there is a common denominator in all of them: the need for the human promotion of the peasants and Indians. This uplifting will not be viable without an authentic and urgent reform of agrarian structures and policies. This structural change and its political implications go beyond a simple distribution of land. It is indispensable to make and adjudication of such lands, under detailed conditions which legitimize their occupation and insure their productivity for the benefit of the families and the national economy. This will entail, aside from juridical and technical aspects not within our competence, the organization of the peasants into effective intermediate structures, principally in the form of cooperatives; and motivation towards the creation of urban centers in rural areas, which would afford the peasant population the benefits of culture, health, recreation, spiritual growth, participation in local decisions and in those which have to do with the economy and national politics. This uplifting of the rural areas will contribute to the necessary process of industrialization and to participation in the advantages of urban civilization.
What is the Latin American business enterprise?
10. In today’s world, production finds its concrete expression in business enterprises, the industrial as well as the rural; they constitute the dynamic and fundamental base of the integral economic process. The system of Latin American business enterprises, and through it the current economy, responds to an erroneous conception concerning the right of ownership of the means of production and the very goals of the economy. A business, in an authentically human economy, does not identify itself with the owners of capital, because it is fundamentally a community of persons and a unit of work, which is in need of capital to produce goods. A person or group of persons cannot be the properties of an individual, of a society, or of the state.
What does the Latin American Church believe?
3. The Latin American church has a message for all people on this continent who “hunger and thirst after justice.” The very God who creates us in his image and likeness, creates the “earth and all that is in it for the use of all people and all nations, in such a way that created goods can reach all in a more just manner,” [3] and gives them power to transform and perfect the world in solidarity. [4] It is the same God who, in the fullness of time, sends his Son in the flesh, so that he might come to liberate everyone from the slavery to which sin has subjected them [5] : hunger, misery, all oppression and ignorance, in a word, that injustice and hatred which have their origin in human selfishness.