Liberation Theology

When John Paul was elected to the papacy in 1978, he “became alarmed by what he said were similarities between some elements of liberation theology and Marxism. He saw links between the groups and the participation of some Latin American clergy” in anti-government insurgency. American policy makers found similar connections. In 1962, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff broadly defined insurgency as “illegal opposition to any existing government.” The definition was intentionally broad, so as to equate passive resistance, student strikes, general activism, trade unions, peasant organizations, religious catechists, guerilla operations or any other challenges to the status quo with Communism or “evil.” After 1978, “Vatican commissions visited Romero two times demanding that he explain his outspoken criticism of El Salvador’s military rulers.” After his murder, the pope appointed Fernando Saenz Lacalle as archbishop, a member of Opus Dei and a starch opponent of liberation theology. The appointment came as a slap in the face to hundreds of peasant church members and religious workers in Latin America. Progressive advancements were reversed and old inequalities were restored. The pope’s inability to distinguish between so-called militant Communism and an indigenous movement for justice produced deadly consequences.

Papal Shortcomings
by Igor Volsky
ZNet

Read also The Inquisition Pope, The Death of a Reactonary, War Criminals at St. Peter's Square and John Paul II