Gustavo Gutierrez and the preferential option for the poor

It saddens me that Liberation Theology has been so maligned over the years and is now considered to be dead. That John Paul II only saw the alleged Marxism tells me that he didn't real Gutierrez. Reading your article about Gutierrez reminds me just how pivotal his concept of the "preferential option for the poor" is the essential cornerstone of the Gospel Message of Jesus especially for our time. I remember a statement being made that the center of the Catholic church/faith had moved to Latin America with the meetings at Medelin. I think this will most certainly come true, because the message of Jesus, his Word will not go unfullfilled. Gutierrez along with so many Liberation Theologians (Sobrino, Ellacuria, Boff to name just a few) understand the Word for our time. Gutierrez is powerful reading for any follower of Jesus.

Fr. Dear, as usual, gives us much to think about. My problem with the Occupy Wall Street folks in particular, and liberals/Democrats/progressives in general is that their concern for 'the least of these' seldom extends past having strong opinions about other people's money. While I share OWS's concerns about the poor (among many other issues), I can't get past the reality that those who self-describe as liberal are less likely to give of their own money or time to help the needy. In other words, yes, rail against the structures of oppression and unfairness, but understand that Jesus calls us to, personally, give of ourselves, and to love the poor, to be with the poor, to know and care for the poor. Simply demanding that some federal bureaucrat doles out tax dollars as a solution to poverty while we continue to live our lives personally untroubled by those who are suffering is not the message I take from the Gospel.

(My problem with the other side is that they worship Mammon...but that's a tale for another day!)

Charity is not sufficient, but it is necessary to be a Christian, in my opinion. We must not only reform the structures of sin, but we, personally, must give of ourselves to 'the least of these.' That's where the true social revolution will take place: in our hearts. I have largely given up eating meat, not because I don't enjoy it (I do!) but because I feel more solidarity with those who can't afford it, I am spending less money on my expensive Western diet (and can therefore give more of my money away) and because my impact on the environment is dramatically decreased (it is the poor who will suffer the most in this coming age of climate disruptions). My action is hardly the equivalent of a nationalized health care system, but I have been changed by this change in behavior. I feel a much greater sense of solidarity and discomfort with comfort.

My final point: Jesus does not tell us what kind of society we need to create. He tells us that we will by judged by how we treat the least of these. We, individually, need to show mercy and compassion toward the suffering of this world. That is far more important, and transformative, than any government program.

Peace, friends.

They are the real young ones.

Leonardo Boff: Officially Old

Theologian - Earthcharter Commissioner

This December I turn 70 years old. By Brazilian standards, I am now officially an old man. That does not mean that I am closer to death, for death can happen from the first moment of life. But it is another period of life, the last one. It has a biological dimension, because, inevitably, the vital capital is exhausted, we become debilitated, lose the vigor of the senses and slowly say farewell to everything. In fact, we also are more forgetful, perhaps, more impatient and sensitive to gestures of kindness that easily bring us to tears.

But there is another aspect, a more interesting one. Old age is the last stage of human growth. We are born whole, but we are never completed. We must finish our birth, creating our existence, opening up paths, overcoming difficulties; molding our destiny. We are always in genesis. We start being born, we continue being born, by stages throughout life until we finish our birth. Then, we enter the silence. And we die.

Old age is the last opportunity life gives us to finish our birth, to mature and finally, to end our birth. In this context Saint Paul's words are illuminating: «To the same extent that the outer man perishes, the inner man is renewed.» (2 Corinthians 4,16). Old age is a demand by the inner person. What is the inner person? It is our deepest self, our singular way of being and behaving, our trade mark, our most radical identity. We must confront this identity, face to face.

It is intensively personal, and hides behind the many masks that life imposes on us. For life is a big stage on which we play many roles. I, for example, was a Franciscan, a priest, now a layman, theologian, philosopher, teacher, lecturer, writer, editor, contributor to some magazines, who has been investigated by the doctrinal authorities of the Vatican, and subjected to «obliged silence»... plus some other roles. But there is a moment when all that becomes relative and turns to pure nothing. Then we leave the stage, take off the masks and ask ourselves: in the end, who am I? What dreams move me? Which angels inhabit me? What demons torment me? What is my place in the design of the Mystery? To the degree that we try, trembling with dread, to answer these questions, the interior person emerges. The answer is never conclusive; it gets lost within in the Ineffable...

That is the challenge of old age. We then realize that we would need many years of old age to find the essential word to define us. We are surprised to discover that we do not live simply because we do not die, but that we live to think, to meditate, to pierce new horizons and create meaning for life. It is especially to attempt to make a final synthesis, to integrate the shadows, feeding again the dreams that sustained us throughout our whole life, reconciling with our failures and seeking wisdom. It is illusory to think that wisdom comes with old age... It comes with the spirit with which we live out our old age, as the final stage of our growth and of our true Nativity.

Lastly, it is important to prepare for the great Encounter. Life is not structured to end in death, but to be transformed through death. We die to live more and better, to submerge ourselves in eternity and find the Ultimate Reality, made of love and mercy. Then we will finally know who we are and what is our real name. I treasure the sentiment of the wise man of the Old Testament: «I contemplate the days already gone and turn my eyes towards eternity.»

Finally, I nurture two dreams, dreams of a young old man: the first is to write, if possible, with my own blood, a book just for God to read; and the second, which is impossible, but well expressed by Herzer, little street girl and poet: «I wanted only to be born again, to teach myself how to live.» But since that is unattainable, I only want to learn in the school of God. Paraphrasing Camões, I end: «I would live more if it were not, for such a great ideal, so short a life.»

Fr. John, I would like to add a couple of comments to your article. When you state “Real poverty means inadequate access to education”…, I suggest that you do not go far enough. Poverty is being denied an equal access to education, being denied an equal access to health care etc. etc.

I live and work with the marginalised indigenous communities of the Central Sepik of Papua New Guinea. A few years ago now, my wife was asked what she meant by poverty? Her response was simple: “being denied the opportunity to achieve one’s full potential.” The key word is “being denied’. In PNG, our government has neither the will nor the resources (in that order) to deliver “public services” to her marginalised communities. There are many reasons; one results from the male dominated institutions (of government) where their arrogance and selfish greed blinds them to the cry of their own poor.

Being denied an education (and services) means being denied the knowledge of how to achieve their own development. Unless these communities are enabled to be the masters of their own development using their own hands and under their own control, they will continue to be dependent and exploited by those with money and power. I must add though that the indigenous poor of Papua New Guinea are materially “rich”, having retained customary ownership of their own land, compared to many indigenous communities elsewhere around the world. One of our tasks is to ensure their land is not stolen from them because of their poverty and those injustices that subjugate them. I can only reinforce your comments: - “Poverty is due to structural injustices that privilege some while marginalizing others."

I need to think more about your reference to “voluntary poverty”. There is nothing “voluntary” about poverty. I may choose to be with the poor and be in solidarity with them; but to use the term “poverty” to explain my choice is being unfair to those who have no choice. You note “the point is not to love poverty but to love the poor”; but to me the term ‘voluntary poverty” seems to imply a love of poverty; I will have to give this much more thought. As I noted above, it is not a term I would have used.

BTW; has NCR completed their investigation of your article on “The Assassination of Fr. Jose Reynal Restrepo”? It would be nice to see it back again.

A “preferential option for the poor” should be maintained in our Catholic
Schools. If we find that we cannot afford to keep our schools open to the
poor, the schools should be closed and the resources used for something else
which can be kept open to the poor. We cannot allow our Church to become a
church primarily for the middle-class and rich while throwing a bone to the
poor. The priority should be given to the poor even if we have to let the
middle-class and rich fend for themselves.
Practically speaking, the Catholic Schools must close and the resources
used for “Confraternity of Christian Doctrine” and other programs which can
be kept open to the poor. Remember, the Church managed without Catholic
Schools for centuries. We can get along without them today. The essential
factor is to cultivate enough Faith to act in the Gospel Tradition, namely,
THE POOR GET PRIORITY. The rich and middle-class are welcome too. But the
poor come first. (William Horan — w.horan@comcast.net.)

I think it bears pointing out that the "preferential option for the poor" is not an historical piece of Church teaching, but a relatively recent innovation in response to the spread of the sickness of communism and socialism. The Acts of the Apostles reminds us that God "shows no partiality".

Having said that, the answer to poverty is freedom. The answer is expanding opportunities for individuals and groups, globally, to participate in the market and to engage in economic innovation. The answer is to engage in truly free and open markets, markets that do not impose tariffs on imports as some form of domestic protectionism, that do not engage in currency manipulation (like China), that does not subsidize domestic production of goods and services while imposing taxes and fees on imported goods.

It's about getting government out of people's lives and allowing people to govern themselves. It's about deposing dictators who misappropriate funds that their people need and use them for their own purposes. It's about incentivizing people to be responsible for their own actions, for their own state in life, and making opportunities for them to better themselves available to them.

Poverty is solved, not by government intervention or by some twisted form of "Robin Hood Thinking" -- stealing from the rich and then giving to the poor. Poverty is solved by advancing freedom and liberty.