But the poor person does not exist as an inescapable fact of destiny. His or her existence is not politically neutral, and it is not ethically innocent. The poor are a by-product of the system in which we live and for which we are responsible. They are marginalized by our social and cultural world. They are the oppressed, exploited proletariat, robbed of the fruit of their labor and despoiled of their humanity. Hence the poverty of the poor is not a call to generous relief action, but a demand that we go and build a different social order.
-- Gustavo Gutierrez
Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino, O.P., (born 8 June 1928 in Lima) is a Peruvian theologian and Dominican priest regarded as the founder of Liberation Theology.[1] He holds the John Cardinal O'Hara Professorship of Theology at the University of Notre Dame.[2] He has been professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and a visiting professor at many major universities in North America and Europe.
"When the church hears the cry of the oppressed it cannot but denounce the social structures that give rise to and perpetuate the misery from which the cry arises." (8/6/78). -- The Church: Called to Repentance, Called to Prophecy
"Brothers, you came from our own people. You are killing your own brothers. Any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God, which says, 'Thou shalt not kill'. No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you obeyed your consciences rather than sinful orders. The church cannot remain silent before such an abomination. ...In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cry rises to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you: stop the repression"
Ignacio
Martín-Baró was a scholar, social psychologist, philosopher and Jesuit priest. Martín-Baró was a close friend and colleague of the scholars Ignacio Ellacuría and Segundo Montes, all of whom were murdered by the Salvadoran Army, along with three other colleagues and two employees.
Father Camilo Torres Restrepo (born in Bogotá, Colombia on 3 February 1929 – died in Santander on 15 February 1966) was a Colombian socialist, Roman Catholic priest, a predecessor of liberation theology and a member of the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla organisation. During his life, he tried to reconcile revolutionary Marxism and Catholicism.
Samuel Ruiz García (born 3 November 1924 in Irapuato, Guanajuato) is a Mexican Roman Catholic prelate who served as bishop of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, from 1959 until 1999. This zone in Mexico is characterized by its poverty and its indigenous population.
"Our church is an impostor, because we no longer believe the gospel we proclaim. There is a credibility gap between what we say and what we do. While we may preach sermons that affirm the church's interests in the poor and the downtrodden, what we actually do shows that we are committed to the "American way of life," in which the rich are given privileged positions of power in shaping the life and activity of the church, and the poor are virtually ignored. As a rule, the church's behavior toward the poor is very similar to the society at large: The poor are charity cases...It is appalling to see some black churches adopting this condescending attitude toward the victims, because these churches were created in order to fight against slavery and injustice. For many slaves, the Black Church was God's visible instruments for freedom and justice. Therefore, to have contemporary middle-class black Christians treating the poor as second-class members of the church is a disgrace not only to the scripture but also to our black religious heritage."
Cone is telling us that injustice itself is violence, and that we can’t get rid of violence unless we transform the social structure that creates violence. He urges us to learn how to “unpack tricky language” and take on pulling the wool off so that the world can see violence as it is.
"being black in America has very little to do with skin color. To be black means that your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body are where the dispossessed are...[It] does not mean that one's skin is physically black.1"
"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."
Marcella Althaus-Reid, Argentina - Scotland (1952–2009)
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti (b. 1953)
Paulo Evaristo Arns, Brazil (b. 1921)
Naim Ateek, Palestine (b. 1937)
Phillip Berryman, USA (b. 1938)
Alan Boesak, South Africa (b. 1945) Leonardo Boff, Brazil (b. 1938)
Blase Bonpane, USA
Robert McAfee Brown, U.S. (1920–2001)
Hélder Câmara, Brazil (1909–1999), Archbishop of Olinda and Recife
Katie Geneva Cannon, U.S.
Ernesto Cardenal, Nicaragua (b. 1925)
Pedro Casaldáliga, Spain - Brazil (b. 1928)
Chung Hyun Kyung James Cone, U.S. (b. 1938)
Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann
Miguel A. De La Torre, U.S. Cuban
Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann (b. 1933)
Jean Marc Ela, Cameroon (b. 1936)
Virgilio Elizondo, U.S.
Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J., Spain - El Salvador (1930–1989)
Marc H. Ellis, U.S. (b. 1952)
Gaspar García Laviana (1941 — December 11, 1978)
Paul Gauthier, France (1914–2002)
Rutilio Grande, El Salvador (1925–1977)
Robert Goss Gustavo Gutiérrez, Peru (b. 1928)
Franz Hinkelammert, Germany (b. 1931)
François Houtart, Belgium (b. 1925)
Gérard Jean-Juste, Haiti (b. 1947)
Sebastian Kappen, India (1924–1993)
Hans Küng, Switzerland - Germany (b. 1928)
Aloisio Leo Arlindo Lorscheider, Brazil (1924–2007)
Martin Maier, S.J. Germany Ignacio Martín-Baró, S.J., Spain - El Salvador (1942–1989)
Herbert McCabe, O.P., UK (1926–2001)
Sergio Méndez Arceo, Mexico (b. Tlalpan 1907 - d. Morelos 1992)
Johann Baptist Metz, Germany (b. 1928)
Uriel Molina, Nicaragua
Jürgen Moltmann, Germany (b. 1926)
Segundo Montes, S.J., Spain - El Salvador (1933–1989)
Henri Nouwen, Netherlands (1932–1996)
Ivan Petrella, Argentina (b. 1969)
Rubin Phillip, South Africa (b. 1948)
Leonidas Proaño, Ecuador (b. 1910-1988)
Camilo Torres, Colombia (1929–1966) Samuel Ruiz, Mexico (b. 1924)
Edward Schillebeeckx, Belgium - Netherlands (b. 1914-2009) Juan Luis Segundo, S.J., Uruguay (1925–1996)
Stephen Sizer, England (b. 1953) Jon Sobrino, S.J., Spain - El Salvador (b. 1938)
Dorothee Sölle, Germany (1929–2003)
William Stringfellow, U.S. (1929–1985)
Jung Mo Sung, Brazil (b. 1957) Jeremiah Wright, U.S. (b. 1941)
Liberation Theologians mentioned in Boff article Link
Antecedents
Bartolomé de Las Casas,
Antonio de Montesinos,
Antonio Vieira,
Brother Caneca
Theological Development
Gustavo Gutiérrez,
Segundo Galilea,
Juan Luis Segundo,
Lucio Gera,
Emilio Castro,
Julio de Santa Ana,
Rubem Alves,
José Míguez Bonino
Leonardo Boff
Formulation
1.The Foundational Stage
Gustavo Gutiérrez,
Juan Luis Segundo:
Hugo Assmann:
Lucio Gera:
Bishop (later Cardinal) Eduardo Pironio
Segundo Galilea
Raimondo Caramuru
Emilio Castro
Julio de Santa Ana
Rubem Alves:
José Míguez Bonino:
Héctor Borrat,
Methol Ferré,
Luiz Alberto Gómez de Souza
François Houtart
G. Arroyo.
The Building Stage
Enrique Dussel,
Juan Carlos Scarmone,
Severino Croatto,
Aldo Büntig
João Batista Libânio,
Frei Betio,
Carlos Maintains,
José Comblin,
Eduardo Hoornaert,
José Oscar Beozzo,
Gilberto Gorgulho,
Carlos Palácio,
Leonardo Boff;
Ronaldo Muñoz,
Sergio Torres,
Pablo Richard;
Raúl Vidales,
Luis del Valle,
Arnaldo Zenteno,
Camilo Maccise,
Jesús Garcia;
Ignacio Ellacuría,
Jon Sobrino,
Juan H. Pico,
Uriel Molina;
Pedro Trigo
Otto Maduro
Luis Patiño
Cecilio de Llora.
The Settling-in Stage
António A. da Silva,
Rogério de Almeida Cunha,
Clodovis Boff,
Hugo d'Ans,
Francisco Taborda,
Marcelo de Barros,
Eliseu Lopes,
Elsa Tamez
Victorio Araya
D. Irarrazaval,
Carmen Lima,
Riolando Ames,
R. Antoncich,
Hugo Echegaray
Victor Codina
Virgilio Elizondo
J. L. Caravia
P. Läennec
The Formalization Stage
too many to list
Support and Opposition
Hélder Câmara,
Luis Proaño,
Samuel Ruiz,
Sergio Méndez Arceo,
Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns
Cardinal D. A. Lorscheider,
We do not make rational liberty, we find it. We do not create it. We allow it.--- response to Erik Weil.
Eric Weil, ‘‘What is a Breakthrough in
History?’’ Daedalus, Spring 1975;, pp. 21-36;.
1. James Cone, Black Theology and Black Power (Seabury Press, 1969), p. 151.
