Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez, Founder of Liberation Theology, to Speak at USD Gail Heriot

No one can accuse the University of San Diego (or perhaps any other Catholic university) of slavish adherence to papal authority.  Take its choice of speakers:   On October 30th, USD will be hosting Gustavo Gutierrez, the Dominican priest who is widely regarded as the founder of the liberation theology movement in Latin America.  Gutierrez will be delivering the first “Annual Lecture on Latino/a Religion.”

Both John Paul II and Benedict XVI have clashed with liberation theology and its proponents.  The former said in 1979 that “this conception of Christ as a political figure, a revolutionary, as the subversive of Nazareth, does not tally well with the Church’s catechesis.” As John Paul’s Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, then-Cardinal Ratzinger authored a two-part refutation of liberation theology–“Instruction on Certain Aspects of the ‘Theology of Liberation'” and “Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation.”  In those works, while he embraced the concept of liberation, he strongly criticized what he regarded as liberation theology’s inordinate emphasis on “liberation from servitude of an earthly and temporal kind” and contrasted it with Catholicism’s traditional emphasis on “liberation from the radical slavery of sin.” He further condemned liberation theology’s Marxist foundations with statements like this one:

“The warning of Paul VI remains fully valid today: Marxism as it is actually lived out poses many distinct aspects and questions for Christians to reflect upon and act on. However, it would be ‘illusory and dangerous to ignore the intimate bond which radically unites them, and to accept elements of the Marxist analysis without recognizing its connections with the ideology, or to enter into the practice of class-struggle and of its Marxist interpretation while failing to see the kind of totalitarian society to which this process slowly leads.'”

I won’t weigh in on the debate over the compatability of Roman Catholicism with Marxism.  What do I know?  I’m a Presbyterian.  Instead, I point out only that a little capitalism can work wonders at liberating the poor and unfortunate from earthly servitude.  And lately the Earth seems to be taking notice.

Today, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Bangladeshi economist Mohammed Yunus.  Thirty years ago, when liberation theology was in its hey day, Yunus quietly started a bank in Bangladesh that made “micro-loans” to struggling Bangladeshis, allowing them to start up micro-businesses that could lift them out of poverty.  As the New York TImes reports:

‘Microcredit has proved to be an important liberating force in societies where women in particular have to struggle against repressive social and economic conditions,’ the committee said in announcing the prize.

Mr. Yunus has long been an influential champion of the idea that even the most impoverished people have the drive and creativity to build small businesses with loans as small as $12, and Grameen Bank has dedicated itself to helping the poorest of the poor.

The borrowers used the money to buy milk-giving cows, or bamboo to craft stools, or yarn to weave into stoles, or incense to sell in stalls, among myriad other money-making schemes.”

Evidently, unlike Marxism, Yunus’s scheme appears to be working.  The Grameen Bank has quite a few success stories to tell, although obviously there’s a lot more to be done

Here’s to you, Mr. Yunus.  I hope that Catholic universities don’t wait another 30 years before they invite you for a campus visit.  Meanwhile, those who have more confidence in Mr. Yunus’ methods than those of liberation theology may enjoy attending USD School of Law’s Bowes Lecture by Clint Bolick, which will occur the same night as Fr. Gutierrez’s lecture.  Bolick is currently President and General Counsel of the Alliance for School Choice.  But he is equally well-known for his leadership of the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm that specializes in economic freedom and property rights.  His topic will be “The Conservative Case for an Activist Judiciary.”