Liberation Theology Essay Example

led the church to be turned against. (V. C. 1) Therefore, the Catholic Church did not support this movement. However, there were many faults within the Catholic Church in Latin America which led to liberation theology.

Another reason it was destructive, was because liberation theology tended to promote or advocate in violence in order to obtain social justice. Millions would be killed due to violence. (V. C. 2)Due to the threat of Marxism, Pope John Paul II was against liberation theology. He described liberation as “liberation from everything that oppresses human beings, but especially liberation from sin and the evil one, in the joy of knowing god and being known by him.

” The Pope however did acknowledge that the church had failed in protecting the poor people. (V. D. 1)Liberation theology helped to fight to protect the poor. It relied on the analysis of Marxism though, so the Catholic Church challenged it by issuing two documents from the Vatican.

It warned of the Marxist influences, and stated “true liberation is more than freedom from poverty and oppression; ultimately, humans must be liberated from sin and death by the grace of God. ”(V. D. 2) Liberation theology didn’t take a stronghold of any country except for Nicaragua where the Sandinistas took over for a brief period.

Gutierrez said, “While there are poor people, there will be Liberation Theology. ” The economy of Latin America has been in poverty for generations now. Although some of the ideas have changed since the creation of liberation theology, it still depended on the poor in order to survive. (V. E.

1)