Libertatis Nuntius: Instruction on Certain Aspects of the “Theology of Liberation”
The first of two instructions on liberation theology from the Vatican’s doctrinal office, signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and approved by John Paul II in 1984. It warns against forms of that theology which borrow uncritically from Marxist thought.
The instruction opens by calling the Gospel a message of freedom and a force for liberation, and says that the phrase “theology of liberation” is in itself a valid one (III, 4). It states a limited purpose: to draw attention to deviations, and risks of deviation, in “certain forms” of liberation theology that use concepts borrowed from Marxist thought without enough criticism. It adds that the warning is not a disavowal of those who respond to the preferential option for the poor, and is no excuse for indifference to injustice.
Its criticism is concentrated in chapters VII to X: that the theory of class struggle is taken as the fundamental law of history, that salvation history and secular history are run together, and that the poor of Scripture are confused with the proletariat of Marx. The instruction names no theologian and no book. The instruction of 1986 says that this one had stated the intention to publish a second document on the positive doctrine (see Libertatis Conscientia: Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation). See Medellín and Liberation Theology.
Cited in
- 24 August 1968, firm date