There have been quite a few newspaper articles in the last few days about the expected show down between Pope Benedict and the reigning liberation theology of Latin America. The pope is coming to Brazil, in part to confront the issues of the declining membership in the Roman Catholic Church there, but also just to make an appearance as the new pastor of the almost half billion members of his flock who reside there.
It is possible that all this chatter is much ado about nothing. Honestly, there is nothing the press likes more than blood and conflict. What they loved second best is the anticipation of blood and conflict, even if there is no chance it will come. It sells copy and newspapers are businesses.
Benedict had a run in back in the 1980s with leaders of the liberation approach to Christianity in Latin America. He criticized their quasi-Marxist reading of Christianity. However, that was some time ago and he has been quite on this issue for some time. Furthermore, he became very much the protege of John Paul II, and his predecessor became increasingly supportive of many causes of liberation theology while still remaining an opponent on some very central issues.
Benedict might not care when he is there. He might think that liberation theology is old news. Or, he may very well believe that there are more important issues to be dealt with. I hope it is the latter, but I will settle for the former.
The truth is, Benedict will loose all credibility with myself and many other Christians if he goes after the liberationists in Latin America during his trip there. Firstly, he will look like the school bully. It is one thing when a highly placed cardinal goes pushing around people in base communities and working among the poorest of the poor. But is becomes down right sinister when the pope comes to town and makes the little people littler.
If Benedict goes after the liberation theology folks in Brazil and the rest of Latin America, his holiness will have don nothing but picked on a bunch of people who spent their whole working life following the poor Christ of Galilee, given themselves to those the Lord called “least of these”, engaged their world to make it better and more livable for all people, have spread a message of the humanity of Jesus and his concern for all people, have lived the divinity of the Son of God in his allegiance to those people that no one has allegiance to, have lived with the poorest of the poor (some of them in spite of their doctorates and high profile connections with the rich and powerful), and encourage all good Catholics to do likewise.
Benedict better not go after these people. They are WAAAAYYY out of his league.
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I would include Rorty as one of the most influential philosophers in my life. After my college days and the “reshuffling of my mind” that occurred around that time, I bought just about everything that Rorty published. The content of my shelves has changed a lot since then, but I have always kept Rorty on them. He seems to make the cut every time I trim down in order to restock.
