User:Unknownusername2000/History of the Catholic Church in Mexico

Liberation Theology in Mexico

The passage above mentions the different bishops that played the role of liberationists in Mexico. Though this is important, Liberation Theology in Mexico is much deeper and will be explained in the following information. Liberation Theology as one could put it is a call to action. This call to action would lead to a huge change for the Catholic church and the indigenous people, especially the poor, living in Latin America. Liberation Theology established progressive ideologies with Catholic teachings. One bishop described liberation theology as a “progressive prototype of Catholic faith-an enlightened Christianity that is organic to people's way of life and empowers them to work for social justice for themselves and for others in their community.” Liberation Theology is said to have two different strategies: one using interpreting catholic the gospel to contemporary problems and how the faithful should take action on these problems.

Christian Base Communities

One of the bigger actions that were taken was the establishment of Christian Base Communities (CEB). CEBs were initially encouraged by the Catholic Church in Mexico, due to reasons such as the deficiency of priests and nuns in Mexico particularly in the rural areas. As well as the church was worried about the growing number of protestants.

CEBs provided an opportunity for aid for many of the Mexican communities. In addition to rural areas, CEBs flourished in places with high places of poverty, extremely low unemployment rates, alarming overall malnutrition, and more. For example, in communities in a CEB in Santa Cecilia, Guadalajara, and San Juanito, Oaxaca, In the 1970s in San Juanito, the CEB in Santa Cecilia was led by hundreds of working-class women in the community. They provided aid to the community in a variety of different ways from improving water infrastructure to creating a night school for adults. It wasn't just aid that was provided but the education of progressive ideologies such as gender equality. For example, the community had weekly group discussions and sometimes workshops that reflected on sexism and relationships between men and women. Another CEB that played an important role in its community was in San Juanito, Oaxaca, Mexico.

The first establishment in San Juanito was in 1980 but started to see growth with the arrival of Maryknoll nuns in 1982. The CEB in San Juanito did a number of great things to improve daily life for the community. For example, they set up agriculture practices such as planting crops, setting up health nutrition classes, and weekly meetings discussing peoples' daily problems. The CEBs were not the only contribution to come out of Liberation Theology in Mexico, but also the emergence of radical progressive movements.

Radical Clerical Organizations

Another idea that came out Liberation Theology was the idea for The Preferential Option for the Poor. The idea would be incorporated with Catholic women's organizations and a foundation to help the strugglers of the workers, peasants, farmers, railroad workers and more. Priests involved with this concept, would also reached out to wealthy catholics and people with the power of influence to reconsider their belief in Catholicism and look to help their fellow Catholics who suffer. Based off the idea of the theological idea of the option for the people emerged two progressive movements political popular and priest for the people.

Before explaining the different radical movements, it is important to mention one Jesuit Priest Rodolfo Escamilla García. Escamilla García was one of the prominent radical priests or the "rebellious priests." Such as movements such priests for the people Garcia joined Mexican Social Secretariat in 1952 and was the founder of the Juventud Obrera Católica (Catholic Workers’Youth, JOC). He advocated the radical “See, Judge, Act” form of socio-religious activism method for public action. Such as priests like García were radical thinkers that would have a large role in the lives of people in Mexican communities educating them on issues such as social justice. Although, some paid the cost by imprisonment, torture, and at worst death. As for García, he was seen as a threat to the Mexican Government that was a PRI (Institutionalized Revolutionary Party), which sided with a very conservative Church and Escamilla García was violently murdered by the Mexican Government in Mexico City in 1977. That same year, Mexico saw another killing of another priest, Rodolfo Aguilar Álvarez. Aguilar Alvarez was from Chihuahua and who offered his support to a group of forcibly displaced Campesinos.

As mentioned above, some radical priests prided themselves on educating people on the leftist ideologies. Such ideologies include Maoism and Marxism. In 1971, it was the priests in Torreón who brought in the Política Popular (PP) Maoists, and together they had a large influence on the people primarily the students in La Laguna. Throughout 1971-1974, students would be influenced by Maoist activists who would in infiltrate their schools by even becoming their teachers. Their influence would lead to a long string of student protests. The range of ages of students were from high school to college where they protested by marching in the streets to even the suspension of classes. The priests and the maoists combined the new Catholic teachings post-Vatican II and the political beliefs of the Maoism all circulating back to the belief of helping the people and poor. Many of the protests were fighting for better conditions for the working class and especially the poor as well. Even the Bishop of Torreon, Fernando Romo declared that “We have to understand that, in case of doubt, Christians should always act on behalf of those in need because that was the position of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Along with Política Popular, Sacerdotes para el Pueblo (Priest for the People, SPP) was also another prominent radical clerical movement in Mexico. SPP was founded in 1972, by a group of theologians who very embraced the Preferential Option for the Poor and socialism. Headed by Dominican Alex Morell, and the movement was centralized around four main goals: The strengthening ties with the popular sectors of society; helping them succeed at economic and political independence from caciques and political parties; educating them the foundations of liberation theology as useful tools to improve their everyday lives; and calling for a socialist alternative to capitalism. The movement ultimately folded in 1975 due to pressure from higher ecclesiastical authority and the violence that priests were facing.

Liberation Theology in Seminary Training

From 1969 to 1990, the Bishops of Southern Mexico (including Bishop Samuel Ruiz) worked together to operate the Regional Seminary of the Southeast (el Seminario Regional del Sureste, SERESURE). Located in the town of Tehuacán, Puebla, Mexico, SERESURE intended to train priests to be active participants in solving the problems pervasive in the indigenous countryside of southern Mexico such as "economic and political marginalization, caciquismo, land loss, and environmental degradation." They set up the seminary to work with the indigenous people. Scholars argue that SERESURE work on pastoral training separated themselves from other seminaries. This was due to SERESURE’s consistent emphasis on socially aware pastoral work along with hosting annual conferences on indigenous pastoral work. The training in SERESURE focused on three pillars: theological training, intellectual training, and pastoral formation. They believed instead of them teaching the indigenous people about god in their life, the indigenous should be the ones to figure out themselves with the help of the seminary, to be "agents of their own liberation."

Liberation Theology was making progress in Mexico improving the lives of the indigenous people’s and their societies as different Church workers and scholars would come and go. In the 1980s, there would be shift in the Catholic church and the Vatican would eventually lean away from Liberation theology which led to a clampdown on Liberation Theology.