CELAM and the Alienation of the Church in Latin America: An Ex-Liberationist Speaks Out
Clodovis Boff, the brother of the famous liberation theologian Leonardo Boff, recently wrote an open letter to the Latin American Bishops’ Conference (known as CELAM) in which he criticized what he called the same old music: “social, social, social.” He said the bishops neglected the basic religious message of Jesus. His words were very pointed: “Can’t you see that people are tired of the same old story?”
His message was a real example of pastoral theology, of how to preach the true Gospel. He asked,
When will we give the Good News of God, of Christ and His Spirit? Of Grace and Salvation? Of conversion of heart and meditation of God’s Word? Of prayer and adoration, of pious love of the Mother of the Lord and other such themes? In short, when are we going to send a truly religious message, one that is spiritual?
I wonder what his brother Leonardo thinks. Despite his leaving the clerical state, Leonardo Boff is probably the most prominent liberation theologian, a man who studied and sparred with his former professor Joseph Ratzinger and was considered personally close to Pope Francis from the time the latter was archbishop of Buenos Aires. The letter is outspokenly open about seeing the failure of liberation theology to gain hold of the bulk of the faithful in Latin America.
This is not the first time that the friar of the Servants of Mary has taken a different tack from the school of theology that made his brother famous. In 2007, Clodovis (I cannot just put his last name for fear of confusing him with his brother) wrote an essay called “The Theology of Liberation and the Return to the F
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