THE PREDAWN OF LIBERATION THEOLOGY (CONTINUED)

Pope Paul VI built upon the foundation laid by his predecessors, as his encyclical Populorum Progressio (1967) indicates.  He notes how trips to Latin America and Africa in the 1960's gave him a firsthand look at the plight of the poor and points out why he had established a pontifical commission "to further the progress of poor peoples, to encourage social justice among nations, to offer less developed nations the means whereby they can further their own progress (Populorum Progressio, Gremillion, the Gospel, p. 88)." 

In this encyclical the Pope writes of "the scandal of glaring inequalities" in both possession and power, and points out how the Vatican Council insisted on the imperative of expropriating landed estates that were poorly utilized and brought harm to the people (Ibid., p. 390).

He denounces those who make a profit the key motive for economic progress and deplores the fact that "a type of capitalism has been the source of excessive suffering, injustices, and fratricidal conflicts (Ibid., p. 395). 

The Pope recognizes the urgency of the situation: "We must make haste, too many people are suffering, and the distance is growing that separates progress of some and the stagnation,  not to say the regression of others (Ibid., p. 396).

He goes on to say: There are certainly situations where injustice cries to heaven.  When whole populations destitute of necessities live in a state of dependence barring them from all initiative and responsibility, all opportunity to advance culturally and share in social and political life, recourse to violence, as a means to right these wrongs to human dignity, is a grave temptation (Ibid.).

Paul VI insists that "the superfluous wealth of rich countries should be placed at the service of poor nations"; otherwise their continued greed will bring down the wrath of the poor (Ibid., p. 402).  

In short, the world, exclaims the Pontiff, is sick-sick of luxury and waste in the midst of poverty, and sick of horrendous economic and social inequalities.  It is imperative for lay persons to take the initiative in making necessary changes in the customs, laws, and structures of their communities.  He ends by declaring: All of you who have heard the appeal of suffering people, all of you who are working to answer their cries, you are the apostles of a development which is good and genuine, which is not wealth that is self-centered and sought for its own sake, but rather an economy which is put at the service of humankind; the bread which is daily distributed to all, as a source of siblinghood and a sign of Providence...Yes, we ask you, all of you, to hear our cry of anguish in the name of the Lord (Ibid., p. 413).

From the publication of Rerum Novarum in 1891 to the late 1960's, Catholic social teaching in the form of papal encyclicals and conciliar documents had undergone a steady transformation.  There was increasing concern shown for the poor, suffering, and oppressed; for the rights of workers; for the responsibilities that the wealthy nations have for the impoverished; for the defects of capitalism based exclusively on the profit motive; for the role of both church and state in liberating the oppressed. And in what area of the world needed to hear this social message more than in Latin America, where political power makes the small number of rich even richer, and the vast number of poor even poorer (Ferm, op. cit. p. 9)?

A major cause of poverty and oppression in Latin America has been and remains the economic policies of the United States government and of multinational corporations-policies that buttress repressive governments.  As one observer puts it:  The basic difference between American imperialism and today and American imperialism a century ago is that it is more violent, more far-reaching, and more carefully planned today (In Irving  Louis Horowitz, et.al, eds., Latin American Radicalism: A Documentary Report on Left and Right Nationalist Movements.  New York: Random House, 1969, p. 194)

To be Continued.