Rob Kall:
Tell me more about Liberation Theology.
I want to hear about Opus Dei, and we're going to have a conversation
about that, but first tell me about the good stuff, about Liberation Theology.
Matthew Fox:
Well, it is, as the Latin American Bishops said in one of their big
conferences, Medellin Conference, years ago, they said "It's a preferential
option for the poor. The Gospel requires
that we put the poor out front and up front, and that we listen to them. So, the Liturgy is Base Community Theology is
about a circle, not about just one guy preaching, but about everybody
testifying to their experience trying to live out the Gospel. So it's a much more Horizontal approach to
worship and to Theology, and it is about the struggle for justice being one of
the important ways to incarnate the Jesus teaching, such as Matthew 25: "When
you do it to the least, you do it to me."
Love your neighbor is not an abstraction. Of course you remember, Latin America back
then had horrible disparate divisions between the very rich, and the many,
many, many poor. But since then, you'll
notice that the Middle Class is building up in many of these countries,
especially in Brazil, Argentina, and so forth; and so there has been real
progress, but it's not been -- what can I say?
It's not from the top down, it's from the bottom up, and that's how
Liberation Theology operates. The Holy
Spirit works through the poor, and not exclusively through the [Church]. It's not trickle-down grace - or trickle-down
economics.
Rob Kall:
One thing I've wondered: is it possible for there to be a Catholic
Church, a Catholic Religion, that is bottom up as compared to the
ultra-hierarchical system that begins with the Pope?
Matthew Fox:
That's a great question, and that's really what I concluded in my book
on the Pope. It's that I think the Holy Spirit has been at work destroying the
Catholic Church as we know it. That is
to say, exactly how you're identifying the top down thing. It's just lost all credibility. This horrible revelation of, not just the
Priestly Pedophilia, but the coverup of the priestly pedophilia by hierarchy;
like Cardinal Law, like the Pope, and like Cardinal Mahony now. All this coverup, that's the real crime. To think people at the top, the CEOs so to
speak, would act on this this out of moral necessity, but they didn't. They swept [it] under the rug to protect the
institution.
Look at Penn
State, look what happened at Penn State.
Within two years they fired everyone, they took down the statue of this
icon, this hero football coach, and they got moving. But here, it's been thirty [30] years since
the horrible news abut Father Maciel, this Priest that Pope John Paul II was so
close to that he took him on his plane with him when he went places. This Father Maciel had abused twenty [20] of
the seminarians, sexually abused them.
He had two wives and four children, and he sexually abused them, all of
the rest of it. And Ratzinger knew about
this and did nothing. After he was Pope
he finally did something, but he knew about it well beforehand. That's absolute fact. And it was his job as head of the
congregation, doctrine, and faith, to do something, and the Pope knew about it
and did nothing.
And, you know,
what's more horrible than abuse of Children?
Jesus talks about that, doesn't he, in the Gospels? You put a millstone around your neck and
throw yourself in the water, he said.
Tough language! And so, I think
it's impossible to bring the structure back.
It's lost all credibility. It has
nothing to do with Jesus anyway. By that
I mean: Jesus was on the side of the poor, he took on the Empire. This whole idea of "The Church is here to
organize Empires and give it religious legitimacy" is contrary the Gospels, and
contrary to History.
So, I think the
Holy Spirit is at work deconstructing the Church as we know it, and that's why
the last third of my book on the Pope is "Where do we go from here?" Hey, it's wide open! Since the Vatican is in Schism, we're free to
ordain women, ordain gays, bring back married Priests; just start things over
again, keep it simple. Don't travel with
basilicas on your back, a backpack is enough; the Gospels, the Prophets, the
martyrs, the mystics, we are all part of that story, and we can move forward
now, much, much, much, much lighter. And
I think that's what the younger generation is looking for: a much lighter version. As I say: spirituality? Yes.
Religion? I don't think we need
so much of that.
Rob Kall:
This is the Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show, WNJC 1360 AM, reaching South
Jersey and metro Philly out of Washington Township, sponsored by Opednews.com . If you want Liberal news, Progressive
opinion, Opednews.com is the place to go. Don't ask me.
Check with Google. Put in the
search terms "Liberal news" or "Progressive opinion," you don't even need to remember
the name Opednews.com .
If you Google those terms, Opednews.com will come up at the top.
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