Digital Commons@DePaul

“Transformed by Hope”

Building a Catholic Social Theology for the Americas

September 6, 2008 marks the fortieth anniversary of the conclusion of the historic encounter in Medellín, Colombia in which the Latin American Bishops’ Conference (CELAM) announced:

We must sharpen the awareness of having to be in solidarity with the poor, a mandate that follows from charity. This solidarity entails making their problems and struggles our own and knowing how to speak for them. Practically speaking, this means focusing on the denunciation of injustice and oppression, on the Christian struggle against an intolerable situation that the poor person must often endure, on a readiness for dialogue with the groups responsible for this situation in order to make them understand their obligations (XIV.10).

These insights were the foundation for call at the 1979 CELAM meeting in Puebla for “a preferential option for the poor.” At Medellín the Church began with new vitality to address the spiritual and material needs of the poor. The meeting in 1968 also confirmed the decision of numerous religious communities in Europe and North America to rededicate their apostolate to the Latin American Church, a process that had already begun in the late 1940s under Pope Pius XII.

When Pope Benedict XVI traveled to Aparecida, Brazil in May of 2007 for the beginning of the Fifth General Conference of CELAM, he underscored the continuity of this gathering with the four that preceded it: Rio de Janeiro (1955), Medellín (1968), Puebla (1979), and Santo Domingo (1992). But Pope Benedict also acknowledged the newness of the situation to be analyzed at Aparecida and cited in that context the phenomenon of globalization as a potentially unifying but also risk-filled network of relationships extending over the whole planet.

The other changes that have taken place since 1968 include developments within the Latin American theology of liberation that Medellín helped to create as well as critical responses to certain currents of a theology of liberation from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and elsewhere. There is also a new awareness today of the tremendous impact of the globalization of markets on the daily life of the human family. Globalization presents both new opportunities and challenges, but the call of the Gospel to address the plight of the poor remains as urgent as it was in 1968. Moreover, in his post-synodal apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America Pope John Paul II affirmed that the borders of the Church on the American hemisphere are not national borders. He recalled he clear message of the Gospel to seek a social solidarity rooted in the Trinitarian communion. He enjoined Catholics on this hemisphere to build up ecclesial bonds—relationships of love and mutual support—between the members of the Church in North and South America. Many dioceses have heard this call—including the Archdiocese of Chicago—and have responded by establishing transcontinental ties between parishes and dioceses.

On this fortieth anniversary, Catholic Theological Union and DePaul University are sponsoring a conference on the theological and social transformation that began with the CELAM meeting in Medellín. It is fitting that these two institutions create a partnership for this purpose. CTU is the largest Roman Catholic graduate school of theology in the United States and has a long-standing commitment to preparing priests, religious, and laity to serve the global Church. DePaul is the largest Catholic University in the United States and was founded to promote the Vincentian apostolate of service to the poor. The conference will contribute to a renewed social theology for the Americas, a renewal that will draw upon the wellsprings of Catholic tradition, faith, and practice with an equal focus on the pastoral mission of the Church.

The conference will take place Wednesday, October 29 through Friday, October 31, 2008 at the campuses of both sponsoring institutions. The initial session on the evening of Wednesday, October 29 at CTU will feature presentations by Cardinal Francis George, O.M.I., Archbishop of Chicago and President of the United States Bishops’ Conference; Reverend Sidney Fones, Secretary General Adjunct of el Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano; and James Weisgerber, Archbishop of Winnipeg, Canada and President of the Canadian Bishops’ Conference. On Thursday, October 30 the conference will convene at DePaul and begin with a lecture by the father of the Latin American theology of liberation, Gustavo Gutiérrez, O.P. In separate concurrent sessions, the participants will be able to learn about Contemporary Liberation Theologies, Intercultural Thought, the Bible, the Social Theology of Pope Benedict XVI, Popular Catholicism, History and Spirituality of Liberation, Environmental Theologies, Migration, and the Caribbean Diaspora.

The final meeting of the conference on Friday, October 31 at the CTU will include an Enlace, a roundtable discussion with representatives from the North and South. The Enlace will bring together the themes discussed at the conference. Just as Pope John Paul II called for social solidarity rooted in the oneness of the Church on the American hemisphere, the participants in the Chicago conference will be able to project a vision of Christian hope and social solidarity for the global Church of the future.