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Liberating Without Being Liberationist: The U.S. Catholic Bishops' Pastoral Letter on the Economy
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14638 |
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MODERN THOUGHT
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5 / 1988 |
6,792 Words |
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Dennis P. McCann
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It may seem out of place to include a discussion of the American Catholic bishops' letter, Justice for All: Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy, in a series of articles devoted to the political significance of Latin American liberation theology. Though the process of drafting the letter did involve a consultation between members of the Weakland committee and a group of Latin American bishops, and does address in passing an issue of grave concern to Latin Americans today--namely, the debt crisis--the letter cannot be said to have been inspired by Latin American liberation theology. I say this despite the central importance of the American bishops' call for a "preferential option for the poor," a term that clearly does have its roots in Latin American liberation theology and the Catholic Church's response to it worldwide.
My point in so arguing, however, is not simply to dissociate Justice for All from Latin American liberation theology, though that in itself may be useful if concerned citizens and U.S. policy makers are to understand what is and is not the political significance of liberation theology within the American Catholic community. It is an especially useful point to make in relation to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' (NCCB) various statements on Latin America in general and Central America in particular. If these statements are read not as the bishops intended them--that is, as an exercise in solidarity with their fellow Catholic bishops in Latin America--but as essentially a view in sympathy with the more radical perspectives among the liberation theologians, a needless and essentially counterproductive distortion will have been injected into the U.S. public policy discussion. The best way to minimize the risk of this distortion, I contend, is to understand the bishops' recent thinking not about Latin America, but about the political economy of the United States itself.
Stated in more positive terms, my burden here is to show that the American Catholic bishops' reflections on "Catholic social teaching and the U.S. economy" can provide a model for a practical or public theology that is liberating without being liberationist. This model is useful simply for understanding the American church's religious and moral claims upon the political economy of this nation. In addition, it promises to be a crucial contribution to the church's universal understanding of the relationship between Christianity and democracy, between a moral commitment to human rights and the political institutions of representative government. Seen in this light, the American bishops' call for a "new experiment in democracy" provides not only a timely corrective to Catholic social teaching but, by the same token, an alternative to liberation theology. Once the alternative is fully appreciated, not only may the NCCB's statements on Latin America make more sense, but certain fears over the influence of liberation theology should be minimized.
A New American Experiment
Let us begin at the point where the ideological link between Latin American liberation theology and the NCCB's pastoral letter may seem strongest, namely, the American Catholic bishops' advocacy of a "preferential option for the poor." Though the terminology may have been inspired by their desire to express solidarity with the work of the Latin American bishops assembled at Puebla, Mexico, in 1979, the pastoral letter's use of it intends not the overthrow of the institutions of political democracy, but their expansion to meet the challenges of
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