01-03-2007 - Traces, n. 3 INSIDE america No Liberation Without Communion The Church’s doctrines about Christ and how He is present to us are all expressions of what is needed for a saving encounter with Him to take place. The slightest distortions in those doctrines immediately separate Christ from the human heart and render Him an abstraction that has no power to change lives, to generate a culture that corresponds to the truth of the human vocation and dignity By Lorenzo Albacete Those who thought that the controversy about the so-called Liberation Theology had ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the apparent setback to Marxist thought were surprised by the “Notification on the works of Father Jon Sobrino, SJ,” made public recently by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Fr. Sobrino is well known throughout the theological world, especially in Latin America, where his theological writings exercise influence on the training of seminarians, catechists, social activists, and other pastoral agents. The situation that Liberation Theology sought to address—the inhuman levels of life of millions lacking the resources for subsistence—has not disappeared in Latin America, creating a situation that urgently demands the contribution of the Church in the struggle for justice and freedom. The Notification recognizes this clearly, and praises the efforts of the “preoccupation with the poor and the oppressed” to which Fr. Sobrino appeals. Indeed, the Congregation’s statement is motivated by the same concern. The Notification position is clearly stated in the words of Pope Benedict XVI cited at the very beginning of the “explanatory note” accompanying the document: “The first poverty among people is not to know Christ.” Again and again, the Notification demonstrates that Fr. Sobrino’s theological methodology and point of departure for judgment and action forces him to “adjust” the Church’s teachings about the identity and mission of Christ in such a way as to render Him an abstraction, and thus, paradoxically, neutralize all efforts of the Catholic faith to generate a true culture of liberation. In past declarations, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had rejected the theological conclusions that came from “reductive sociological and ideological categories” characteristic of much of the “Theology of Liberation.” The emphasis in this document is, in my opinion, more dramatic and powerful. The Notification is a moving, powerful, and joyful profession of faith in Jesus Christ. The path to the truth about Jesus Christ is an experience, but it is not the experience of particular human needs. It is the experience of an encounter with the exceptional presence of Someone who awakens and corresponds to the needs that make me human, the defining needs of my heart, starting with the need to know the truth of my human condition. Christian theology begins with the rational analysis of this experience, not with a sociological analysis of particular social circumstances. In order for this encounter to take place, Jesus Christ must become present in the circumstances that affect my life. The Church’s doctrines about Christ and how He is present to us are all expressions of what is needed for a saving encounter with Him to take place. The slightest distortions in those doctrines immediately separate Christ from the human heart and render Him an abstraction that has no power to change lives, to generate a culture that corresponds to the truth of the human vocation and dignity. This is the concern of the Congregation for Doctrine’s criticism of his theological views on the Divinity of Christ, the Incarnation, the relation between Christ and the Kingdom of God, the self-consciousness of Jesus, and the salvific value of His death. The smallest distortion in those doctrines separates Christ from the true experience of our humanity and creates the dualism that reduces theology to ideology. Orthodoxy by itself, however, is not sufficient to prevent theology from becoming ideology. The response to the ideology behind some of the assertions of Liberation Theology is not only the orthodox formulation of doctrines separated from experience. Liberation theologians correctly decried the cultural impotence, so to speak, of orthodoxy alone to move the faithful to change those social structures that sustained the inhuman conditions in which the poor live. Their mistake lies in adjusting the meaning of the doctrines to pre-conceived ideologies of social change. This can happen both on the left and the right of the political spectrum. Instead, the path to follow is fidelity to the dynamics of the encounter with Christ that incorporates us into the Church. “Theological reflection,” the Notification concludes, “cannot have a foundation other than the faith of the Church.” There can be no Liberation without this Communion.