On Twenty Wasted Years!

A Brazilian friend has just asked the question, “Are you a man or a mouse?” In the context of my first world credentials, it is a hurtful question, and it needs to be. Whatever happened to my commitment to the third world, to my study of Liberation Theology in the 1980s? Liberation can never be study; it is always action, in this case, action by the poor in light of the gospels. So where did I go wrong? History, politics and salvation are in the soul of most people, where we came from, what we hope for, and our current ambition and commitment. The West has no ambition, simply platitudes, conservatism and a wish to retain the present state at all costs. 

So what of my history, my politics and my salvation? My family originated in poor agricultural and then mining stock; I was one of the first in my family to go to university. Did I turn my back on their poverty? … on their history of oppression in Ireland and in the Welsh mines? Do I still value their principles and what they worked and stood for, or am I just another catholic capitalist paying lip-service to justice and peace? The enslavement of generations of Latin Americans in sinful structures supported by the Church and state challenges not the existence of God, but the identity of God. It is clear from Old and New Testaments that to know God is to do justice; the Church (both the institution and individuals) is failing the people. Scripture cannot support a political ideology of oppression and exploitation which is anti-Christian. The gospels renounce any identification with rich and authoritarian societies and their compromise with capitalism and imperialism. Didn’t Christ reject the coin and the head of Caesar … if we accept the coin, we accept all that goes with it … this is prophecy! 

The witness of the Church is the process of liberation, liberation from sin and oppression. Structural factors, economic rationalism and development theory perpetuate the same neo-colonialist existence that they pretend to challenge. They deny Latin America the opportunity to value its Indian and Iberian cultures and traditions, and to integrate its hopes into regional solutions. It is time to renew the relationship between political activity and Christian faith. When will the Church give witness to community rather than to communities? A clinic in a Peruvian village is no response to oppressive employment practices and the need for agrarian reform. It is a sop to the conscience of the West. Transformation of society is required with Christians opting for political action rather than personal prayer! 

From Puebla onwards, the tension between these two views has been marked. We have a choice, a “popular church” united in a struggle for liberation, or a “magisterium” trapped in its own theological bureaucracy, a choice between an egalitarian distribution of wealth and the need for cheap labour, a choice between participation and shared decision-making and the doctrine of national security. God’s people are, like Christ, free, redeemed, but we need to be evangelised in the gospel of Christ, not that of Mammon. 

Christ gave us humans freedom in our relationship with the world (we are trustees), freedom in our relationships with each other, and freedom in our relationship with God. Our world is typified by the sinfulness of ambition and envy, and these produce injustice, domination, violence and conflict at all levels of society. It is significant that the false evangelisation of centuries has made a virtue out of poverty, but theology is written by the rich and powerful. Is it “blessed are the poor” or “blessed are the poor in spirit”? True evangelization will enable us, not to ape the sins of our oppressors, but to proclaim the gospel of liberation. It is ideology and idolatry to associate God with domination and exploitation. The Church has failed! It is time for me to choose. Am I a man or a mouse?