Word: latinate
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Until 1968 the Roman Catholic bishops of Latin America were seen by many as friends of the rich, supporters of the status quo and allies of oppressive regimes. Then, in a general conference convened that year in the Colombian city of Medellin, they declared their independence, denouncing "institutionalized violence" in Latin American society and vowing to campaign against "injustices and excesses of power." Medellin swiftly became a synonym for progressive action−and frequently radicalism−in the Latin American church. Under the banner of the "theology of liberation," many priests, nuns and lay people used an unusual synthesis...
Next October, for the first time in a decade, the Conference of Latin American Bishops (CELAM) will convene again, this time in Puebla, Mexico, and the encounter promises to be a heated one. Already a 214-page working paper for the Puebla conference, written by Latin Americans but backed by the Vatican to cool the enthusiasms of liberation theology, has touched off angry debate. The bishops of Panama had earlier denounced the working paper, and last week, meeting near São Paulo, 230 bishops of Brazil−by far the largest contingent headed for Puebla−added their...
Critics condemn the working paper as a retreat to old-fashioned churchly paternalism and complain that it plays down Latin America's social and economic ills. In one section, for instance, the poor are promised the consolations of faith, which will allow them "to live in fortitude and enjoy that happiness of the kingdom of which no human sorrow can deprive them." Another section, clearly aimed at clerical activists, declares that "priests, monks and nuns should not under normal circumstances participate in political struggle." The theme of the Puebla conference is how to evangelize an increasingly urbanized society...
...Trujillo and his allies in the hierarchy have the support of the Vatican, including Pope Paul, who fears repression of the church from Latin America's current regimes if Catholics too militantly press the case for a new social and economic order. In El Salvador, for example, two priests were killed and others were threatened with assassination by government-allied right-wing terrorists for espousing redistribution of property. According to Latin American experts in the Vatican, the Pontiff welcomed the zeal for social change that followed Medellin, but now feels that the emphasis has become too political. He wants...
...glaring social inequities" and "unjust division of land," and cited the enormous gap between rich and poor as "a social scandal in a continent thought to be Christian." At Puebla, the bishops' concluding statement urged, there must be "prophetic criticism of the socioeconomic and political systems reigning in Latin America." Medellin, obviously, will not be set aside, even on orders from Rome, without a struggle...