Priest’s Book on ‘Theology for Liberation’ : Vatican-Ordered Silence Is Broken

Leonardo Boff, a Franciscan monk under orders from the Vatican to maintain “penitential silence,” has published a new manual on how to promote a Christian social revolution in the Third World.

Boff is a leading theorist of the Roman Catholic “theology of liberation,” which calls for combining religious action with social change by developing the political power of Latin America’s poor.

In May, his prolific writings were strongly criticized by the Vatican’s Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, which ordered him to keep silent until further notice.

Pope’s Criticisms

Subsequently, Pope John Paul II has not missed an opportunity to condemn the “deviations” of left-wing “theologians of liberation,” like Boff, who finds roots in the Gospels and Christ’s life for revolutionary action by the “poor and oppressed.” John Paul voiced these criticisms again at the latest Synod of Bishops in Rome.

Boff, a Brazilian widely known abroad for his writings, which have been translated, retired to a monastery in Petropolis, in the mountains behind this city, after the order came from the Vatican. He suspended public lectures and press interviews.

However, Boff made a visit in September to Nicaragua, where he delivered a homily at a Mass for Sandinista casualties in the conflict with the U.S.-backed contras .

This week, a paperback authored by Boff and his brother, Clovis, entitled “How to Do Liberation Theology,” was released here by the Vozes publishing firm, which specializes in progressive religious materials.

The 132-page book says this theological current has become “indestructible” in Latin America because it is “vitally rooted” in the “struggles of the poor” and in the “pastoral action” of the Roman Catholic clergy.

Imprimatur of Cardinal

The new book, in an initial edition of 20,000 copies, carried the imprimatur or formal authorization for publication of Cardinal Paulo Arns, archbishop of Sao Paulo, a progressive leader in the Brazilian hierarchy. That means Boff has the support of the Brazilian church, but so far there has been no reaction from church authorities at the Vatican.

The book is a sort of how-to-do-it for clergy and laymen who want to put liberation theology into practice. The book includes examples of how liberation theology can be put into practice, most of them drawn from Brazil’s experience with the so-called “church of the poor.”

Organized peasants are invading and staking their claims to land in many parts of Brazil, in an effort to pressure the authorities to carry out an agrarian reform program that has been announced but not implemented.

The book outlines the steps by which a “liberation theologian” becomes identified with a peasant community, helps motivate their social action, and organizes an “agrarian reform carried out by the workers.”

Groups linked to the progressive sectors of the Roman Catholic Church have stepped up their political action. They were partly responsible for the election in November of Maria Luiza Fontenelle as mayor of Fortaleza, capital of Ceara state. She was the candidate of the Workers Party, which is closely tied to church-inspired community groups.

Warning to Vatican

The book by Boff and his brother carries a clear warning to the conservative sectors of the Vatican that silencing the spokesmen for liberation theology will not halt its development.

The authors said their theology grows out of conditions of poverty and “oppression” in developing countries that require a new reading of the Gospels by Roman Catholics concerned about social justice.

“This theology is intimately linked to the existence of our people, to their faith and their struggle. It has entered into social practices and has become practically indestructible,” the book argues.

The Boff brothers attribute Latin American poverty to “the capitalist system that seeks to maintain a cheap labor force and prevents necessary human development.” But the left-wing theologians also maintain that this new theology means that “Marxism no longer has a monopoly on historic transformation because we Christians, invoking our own faith, have taken over that cause.”

“Christianity can no longer be called the opiate of the poor,” wrote the Boff brothers, in an allusion to Karl Marx’s comment on religious belief as an obstacle to revolution.

‘Liberation Church’ Film

Coinciding with the launching of the book, a film was released here by a Brazilian film maker that includes a shot of a silent Boff. The 46-year-old Franciscan, with gray hair and spectacles, is shown in his brown cassock, white waist cord and sandals at the monastery.

Although Boff does not speak, the text of the film, “Liberation Church,” contains 59 minutes of scenes of “popular movements.”