CARDINAL ALFONSO LÓPEZ TRUJILLO
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?
xml=/news/2008/04/24/db2401.xml

Last Updated: 2:42am BST 24/04/2008

[SAN ROMERO POSTER'S NOTE:  I post this story because of its
relevance to the canonization cause.  It is rumored that Cardinal
López Trujillo was one of the key Vatican officials historically
opposed to Archbishop Romero's canonization cause, who had repeatedly
raised obstacles and/or objections.  As the article notes: "Trujillo
used his influence at the Vatican to block the canonisation of Oscar
Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador who was gunned down at his
altar in 1980 during the country's civil war. When Pope Benedict
recently indicated his approval for the process of canonisation to
proceed, it was interpreted in some quarters as a sign that
Trujillo's influence had begun to wane."  -- Carlos]

Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, who died on April 19 aged 72, was
the conservative president of the Pontifical Council for the Family,
and one of the most outspoken and controversial figures in the
Catholic Church.

For many liberal Catholics Trujillo's uncompromising stance on sexual
ethics was an embarrassment. "When they label Pope Benedict as
Cardinal Rottweiler, his critics miss his subtlety and do him a
disservice," one unnamed theologian remarked recently.

"It is López Trujillo who is the real Rottweiler at the Vatican." Yet
even though Trujillo's uncompromising language served to highlight
divisions between the Church's conservative and liberal wings, at the
same time he won respect for the strength and clarity of his
convictions.

In 2003 Trujillo stirred controversy when, in a BBC documentary, he
compared the use of condoms to prevent the spread of Aids to "playing
Russian roulette", since the virus that causes the disease, HIV,
could "easily pass through".

This prompted ridicule from scientists at the World Health
Organisation, who pointed out that when condoms failed it was usually
because they had been misused.

Trujillo's opposition to the use of condoms within marriage where one
partner is infected was challenged by, among others, the Belgian
Cardinal Godfried Danneels, who argued that if someone with HIV had
unprotected sex they would be breaking the Sixth Commandment: Thou
Shalt Not Kill.

Trujillo defined homosexuality (in a Lexicon On Ambiguous and
Colloquial Terms About Family Life and Ethical Questions, published
in 2003) as an "unresolved psychological conflict".

When, in 2004, the Spanish parliament legislated to allow same-sex
marriage he accused it of "dismantling the family, brick by brick",
and called on civil officials to refuse to perform such ceremonies
even if it meant losing their jobs.

In 2006 Trujillo argued that scientists involved in medical research
with stem cells should be excommunicated (on the ground that the
creation of stem cells involved abortion).

As a close confidant of Pope John Paul II, Trujillo was sometimes
mentioned as a possible successor to the pontiff; but his intemperate
language and the controversy that always followed in his wake meant
that he was never really papabile.

After the election of Pope Benedict XVI, Trujillo reportedly hoped to
inherit the Pope's old job as Prefect of the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith. There was relief among many Catholics when the
Pope appointed the more emollient American archbishop William Levada.

Alfonso López Trujillo was born on November 8 1935 at Villahermosa,
Colombia, and raised in Bogota, where he was educated at the
university and the seminary.

He was ordained in 1960 and, after studying at the Pontifical
University of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome for two years, began his
ministry teaching Philosophy.

In the late 1960s he emerged as an implacable opponent of the
new "liberation theology" that was being promoted by radical clergy
in Latin America, and he caught the eye of influential figures at the
Vatican concerned at the implications of the "option for the poor"
that the bishops had adopted at a gathering in Medellin in 1968.

In 1971, aged only 36, he was appointed auxiliary bishop in Bogota,
and two years later he became secretary-general of Celam, the Latin
American bishops' conference, with an unofficial brief to work to
overturn the decisions taken at Medellin.

In 1975 he published Liberation or Revolution, in which he accused
liberation theologians of practising a "clericalism of Savonarola"
which started with good intentions but would end in
terror "comparable to the manner in which an octopus imprisons its
victim with its tentacles softly and flexibly and finally in a
vicelike grip".

In a draft working paper for the 1979 Puebla meeting of Celam he
argued that the Latin American military regimes "came into existence
as a response to social and economic chaos", observing: "Faced with
tensions and disorders, an appeal to force is inevitable."

When it came to the Puebla meeting, however, Trujillo's drafts were
set aside by Celam's then president, the Brazilian Cardinal Aloisio
Lorscheider.

But Trujillo, who was appointed Archbishop of Medellin that year,
assumed the presidency of Celam and set about a purge of Left-
wingers. In 1985 he was behind the "Andes Statement", which denounced
liberation theology as "a fundamental danger for the faith of the
people of God".

Trujillo first met the future Pope John Paul II, then Cardinal
Wojtyla, in Rome in 1978, when they were caught in a sudden shower
and found shelter under the same umbrella.

Trujillo had come to Rome hoping to persuade Pope John Paul I to call
a world conference on the family. Later the same year the new Pope
sent Trujillo to a new department of the family. He entered the
College of Cardinals in 1983, at 48, and became president of his new
department in 1990.

Among other things, Trujillo used his influence at the Vatican to
block the canonisation of Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of San
Salvador who was gunned down at his altar in 1980 during the
country's civil war.

When Pope Benedict recently indicated his approval for the process of
canonisation to proceed, it was interpreted in some quarters as a
sign that Trujillo's influence had begun to wane.

EL ARZOBISPO SALVADOR, QUE REQUIERE EL SALVADOR AGONIZANTE
http://www.diariocolatino.com/es/20080425/opiniones/54397/

Wilfredo Mármol

"Ojos que no ven, corazón que no siente", pareciera ser el horizonte
que ilumina al señor Arzobispo metropolitano Fernando Sáenz Lacalle.
Da la impresión que el Arzobispo padece de  un cruel daltonismo
social que le impide ver la realidad en todos sus colores. Qué
diferencia a la de aquel pastor Romero, que al igual que Jesús
caminaba en medio del pueblo de Dios, que se mostraba como tal frente
a los samaritanos -despreciados por cierto por la sociedad vigente-
el Pastor que iba "al otro lado del lago" y era reconocido incluso
por quienes no lo conocían, es el caso del endemoniado de
Gadareno, "un ser humano muerto en vida, que vivía en los sepulcros,
a oscuras, marginado, encadenado", en pocas palabras un excluido, por
la sociedad  del reino de Dios. Más bien el jerarca Lacalle sólo
logra apreciar, desde sus homilías y  las conferencias que concede,
el bienestar y los intereses de los privilegiados, es decir,  el
poderoso sector económico-financiero y a sus representantes en el
gobierno.

"Díganle a ese nido de víboras", se refería Jesús cuando le
preguntaban del gobierno y de los representantes de la tradición
religiosa de la época; al igual que Monseñor Romero
exclamaba "quítense los anillos antes que les corten lo dedos" cuando
abogaba por detener el conflicto armado, que llenó de luto a la
población salvadoreña. Los salvadoreños y salvadoreñas no pasan al
olvido las palabras de "bendición" del jerarca católico al envío de
la tropa a la guerra de invasión de Irak, el silencio ante la
impunidad del asesinato de la niña Katya Miranda, que si no se ha
dado cuenta fenecerá legalmente el próximo año, tras transcurrir 10
largos y dolorosos aniversarios de su muerte.

Pareciera que aquel llamado de Romero "en nombre de este pueblo,
cuyos lamentos llegan hasta el cielo" no fue  escuchado por el
Arzobispo español Sáenz Lacalle, mucho menos los lamentos de la madre
de Katya, las muertes en las fronteras del norte, los miles
deportados que a diario engrosan las filas de los "tristes mas
tristes del mundo" con el aliciente que en el mejor de los casos
regresan pobres y además endeudados.

El Arzobispo, quien  nunca en su gestión se le apreció visitando
barrios pobres, cantones, hospitales, unidades de salud, cárceles,
mucho menos hablar con los excluidos del Reino en El Salvador de hoy,
léase los jóvenes de las pandillas, vendedores, los enfermos de SIDA,
en la cárcel de La Esperanza, o escuchando el grito de las mujeres
frente a sus problemas más sentidos (incluyendo escapularios en sus
ovarios) en que se encuentra en estos momentos, al final de su
partida más alejado que nunca de la realidad de este sufrido El
Salvador.

De esta realidad, que no debe estar al margen del liderazgo
eclesial,  se refiere Eduardo Galeano, en Espejos, cuando enlaza lo
cotidiano, lo poderoso y la denuncia, cuando escribe:

Los espejos están llenos de gente.
Los invisibles nos ven.
Los olvidados nos recuerdan.
Cuando nos vemos, los vemos.
Cuando nos vamos, se van
De deseo somos
La vida, sin nombre, sin memoria, estaba sola. Tenía manos, pero no
tenía a quién tocar. Tenía boca, pero no tenía con quién hablar. La
vida era una, y siendo una era ninguna.

Ya las voces privilegiadas se adelantan a pujar por un Arzobispo ad-
hoc a los intereses poderosos que garanticen el continuismo de un
jerarca alejado de la verdad, que sólo promulgue el reino de Dios
como una meta alcanzable una vez terminemos nuestra existencia acá en
la tierra, en pocas palabras distante del mandamiento de Jesús de
tocar el reino en el semejante, cifrado en el amor al prójimo. Un
jerarca que no cuestione las causas de la pobreza, de la inflación,
del incremento de la violencia, y de la violencia institucionalizada.
De manera llana, que justifique desde la palabra el pecado
estructural.

El pueblo de Dios debe manifestarse por el tipo de Pastor que desea
para ser dirigido, ya lo dice la palabra "el buen pastor escucha a
sus ovejas y sus ovejas le reconocen, porque les llama por su nombre,
es más da la vida por sus ovejas...".

Héctor Endara Hill de Colectivo Panamá Profundo, Afirma "que la vida,
la muerte y la resurrección de Jesús son en la actualidad el modelo
en la formación de curas y obispos".

O sencillamente toman y tratan como cuento o catecismo infantil la
coherencia de vida, el testimonio y el compromiso con los pobres que
llevó a Jesús a sacar a latigazos a los mercaderes del templo. Cuando
se observa y escucha al jerarca Lacalle en  sus  declaraciones, es
difícil ver al modelo de Jesús, pidiendo que se hable con la verdad.
Jesús, con su vida, es quien nos enseña y señala los requisitos para
entrar al Reino de los Cielos. El actual jerarca no solo ha cambiado
y flexibilizado todos los requisitos anunciados y vividos por Jesús,
si no que lo vivido en estos años de su liderazgo los ha invertido y
adaptado a su actual condición de aliada del poder, como lo señala
Héctor Endara Hill  en Colectivo Panamá Profundo , "la iglesia de
arriba camina con el país de arriba. Arriba, ambos se alaban y se
benefician –mutuamente- del sufrimiento y la miseria en que viven
sometidas las mayorías nacionales en el país."

Al fin y al cabo, qué ha dicho el jerarca respecto a la cultura
patriarcal que tanto daño hace a hombres y mujeres, normalizando con
su discurso la normalización de las relaciones de poder del hombre
sobre las mujeres que genera violencia cotidiana. NADA, NADA HA
DICHO. Ya lo dice Endara "el machismo imperante en la institución no
tiene nada que ver con el cristianismo, ni encuentra asidero en
ninguna parte de la buena nueva o evangelio de Jesús."

Seria conveniente que el señor jerarca antes de despedirse
oficialmente, realizara un curso intensivo con la sociedad
salvadoreña y con el sanedrín salvadoreño centrado en Gálatas 3:28;
otro horizonte iluminaría al nuevo Arzobispo metropolitano y que para
el bien de este pueblo, no traiga bajo la sotana un uniforme militar
de fatiga.

DEATH THREAT AGAINST GUATEMALAN BISHOP
http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=58060

[POSTER'S NOTE: Bishop Ramazzini is a model of a post-conciliar
bishop like Oscar Romero, committed with the poor.  In fact, Bishop
Ramazzini was the main homilist at the Romero celebrations in San
Salvador.]

Guatemala, Apr. 25, 2008 (CWNews.com) - A Guatemalan bishop has
received a death threat, apparently because of his work on behalf of
indigenous native tribes, Vatican Radio reports.

Bishop Alvaro Leonel Ramazzini Imeri of San Marcos, a former
president of the Guatemalan bishops' conference was the object of the
threat. He is well known for his work with Indians in the diocese.

The threat to Bishop Ramazzini comes as Guatemalans face the 10th
anniversary of the murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedra-- a case
that also involved a Catholic bishop who drew violent criticism
because of his human-rights work.

Bishop Gerardi, an auxiliary bishop in Guatemala City, was beaten to
death just days after releasing a report on human-rights violations
by the country's military during Guatemala's 36-year civil war.

Remembering Oscar Romero
March 24 Podcast Now Online

March 24 marks the 28th anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop
Oscar Romero of El Salvador. Michael E. Lee, a professor of theology at
Latin American studies at Fordham University, discusses the life of
Archbishop Romero, and the status of his cause for canonization. Among
the issues addressed is whether Romero in fact experienced
a "conversion" shortly after his appointment as archbishop. Listen to
this episode
podcast-30.mp3

http://www.americamagazine.org/content/podcast/podcast-index.cfm?
id=1064&series_id=1044

The Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin hosts
"Inside El Salvador," a photography exhibition of more than 100
black-and-white images concerning the country's civil war and its aftermath.

The exhibition runs from April 17 through Aug. 3.

(Photos available online for those who can't visit.)

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/2008/elsalvador/

--- You wrote:
The Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin hosts
"Inside El Salvador," a photography exhibition of more than 100
black-and-white images concerning the country's civil war and its aftermath.

The exhibition runs from April 17 through Aug. 3.

(Photos available online for those who can't visit.)

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/2008/elsalvador/
--- end of quote ---

Hi Sean --

This sounds great and i'd love to see it.  Unfortunately I couldn't find much on
line -- there's prose about the exhibition and conference, but not much that one
can see.  Or did I miss something?

Best, John

--- You wrote:
The Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin hosts
"Inside El Salvador," a photography exhibition of more than 100
black-and-white images concerning the country's civil war and its aftermath.

The exhibition runs from April 17 through Aug. 3.

(Photos available online for those who can't visit.)

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/2008/elsalvador/
--- end of quote ---

Hi Sean --

This sounds great and i'd love to see it. Unfortunately I couldn't find much on line -- there's prose about the exhibition and conference, but not much that one can see. Or did I miss something?

Best, John

ROMERO AWARD RECIPIENTS SPEAK ON HIS LEGACY: Nun says assassinated
archbishop would want us to do more
Houston Chronicle
April 12, 2008

BARBARA KARKABI
barbara.karkabi@...

The late Houston philanthropist Dominique de Menil established the
Rothko Chapel's Oscar Romero Award in 1986 in response to violence
and civil wars ravaging Latin America. It is named for the Roman
Catholic archbishop who spoke up for human rights and was
assassinated in 1980.

Two former award winners - Lutheran Bishop Medardo Gomez of El
Salvador and Sister Dianna Ortiz - will speak about Romero's legacy
at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the chapel, 1409 Sul Ross.

Sister Ortiz, co-founder and director of Torture Abolition and
Survivors Support Coalition International, is an Ursuline nun from
the United States who went to Guatemala in 1987 as a missionary
teacher to Mayan children. While there, she received death threats
and was abducted and tortured in a Guatemala City prison.

Speaking out against torture and the victims of torture - a promise
she made in prison - "has become the ruling principle of my life,"
she says.

Sister Ortiz answered questions this week from Chronicle reporter
Barbara Karkabi, responding by e-mail because she was recovering from
laryngitis. Excerpts from the interview follow.

Q: Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador was assassinated in 1980.
For those who have never heard of him, can you explain who he was and
why we should remember him?

A: I did not know Monsignor Romero personally, but I have read about
him and I have talked with those who did know him. For me, he is a
man who was able to look at the world around him, to see it for what
it was and to change his approach to that world.

It is my understanding that he certainly was not chosen archbishop of
El Salvador because of his tendency to speak loudly about the
importance of justice and human rights. However, he came to see and
understand the situation in his country, especially the danger for
those who did speak for human rights. He added his powerful voice to
theirs, demonstrating courage in the face of hatred showered upon him
by power-ful persons. Monsignor Romero should be remembered for this
and for his willingness to speak the truth regardless of cost.

He remains a disturbing presence for anyone who believes in justice,
for he calls to us to always do more than we are doing. Those of us
who work for justice must face the fact that if you speak truth to
power, power may well retaliate. That certainly was true for
Monsignor Romero, as he knew it might be. He said that if he was
killed he would rise again in the Salvadoran people. I believe he
has, certainly among those Salvadorans I know.

Q: What will you be saying about him on Wednesday?

A: I hope to say that as he accepted a moral responsibility to speak
out against injustice, we must do the same. As Monsignor Romero would
not be bound by fear, neither must we.

I hope to emphasize that in thinking of this man, we must center not
only on what he said in El Salvador at that time, but what he would
say to us today and what he would insist is the role of the church
and its leaders in this time.

Listen to Romero, "When the church hears the cry of the oppressed, it
cannot but denounce the social structures that give rise to and
perpetuate the misery from which the cry arises." What does this mean
to us today? How should we respond? For me, Romero's work is not
simply of historical interest, it is a signpost which should point
the way to our own action. I believe that if he were alive today, he
would ask us: "What has (been) our response to the practice of
torture by our own govern-ment?" He would say, "Don't look to me and
what I did. Look to yourselves and act against this terrible
injustice, this crime against humanity, against God's people."

Q: What does Romero's life and death mean to you personally? Was it
his example that started your work in human rights?

A: No. My work started in response to my own torture in Guatemala and
the torture of so many others, certainly including survivors in El
Salvador. I hope in what I do I reflect at least some of monsignor's
own commitment to justice and human rights.

Q: What effect did the award have on your life?

A: For many of us who are torture survivors, we died in those
clandestine prisons. That may be difficult for others to grasp, but
we did die there and were forced back to life. We have tried to shape
that life in a way so that with our voices we rise among the people
with our message that torture must be abolished - that this crime
against humanity must be wiped from the face of the earth.

I wish you could have seen the faces of survivors when I told them of
the Oscar Romero Award, an award which was given not only to me but
to all who had been tortured. We who are survivors so often feel
alone, so often feel that no one cares. I told them about the award
and the fact that, indeed, there are those who do care.

Q: Tell us about the work you are doing today.

A: We are an organization of torture survivors. We come from
countries around the world. We are women, men, and yes, children -
different colors, different religions, different cultures, different
sexual orientations and different political ideologies. But we share
two things in common: We are united by one terrible fact and one
powerful commitment: We each have been tortured and we are committed
to trying to make certain that what happened to us will not happen to
you, your children or your children's children. In addition, we are
committed to supporting survivors and their families on the road to
healing and we provide for such needs as housing, food, legal, psycho-
logical and medical services.

We advocate for the repeal of the U.S. Military Commissions Act of
2006, which we regard as legalizing torture and giving immunity to
those who ordered it.

Each June, we bring survivors from around the world to Washington for
meetings with government officials. We hold a 24-hour vigil across
from the White House in memory of those who did not survive their
torture and those being tortured in 150 countries around the world.

===

Q&A: BRAZILIAN THEOLOGIAN PAYS HOMAGE TO SALVADORAN MARTYR
Inter Press Service (English)
March 26, 2008

Ra£l Guti rrez

SAN SALVADOR , El Salvador , Mar. 26, 2008 (IPS/GIN) -- Brazilian
theologian Leonardo Boff arrived in El Salvador on Easter Sunday, the
eve of the 28th anniversary of the assassination of Monsignor Oscar
Romero .

Boff participated in events held to commemorate the murder of Romero,
known to Roman Catholics in El Salvador as "the voice of the
voiceless." Romero was killed by a sniper on March 24, 1980, while he
was celebrating mass.

A former Franciscan priest born in 1938, Boff said his visit to San
Salvador was "a debt I owed to Monsignor Romero," who was archbishop
of this diocese.

The U.N.-sponsored Truth Commission concluded in 1993 that the late
Major Roberto d'Aubuisson, the founder of the right-wing Nationalist
Republican Alliance, ordered Romero's killing. The Nationalist
Republican Alliance has governed El Salvador since 1989.

The Vatican has initiated a process of beatification for the late
Salvadoran archbishop.

In 2000, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights blamed the
Salvadoran state for violating Romero's right to life and failing to
investigate his murder.

Last October the government rejected responsibility for the crime and
refused to follow the commission's recommendations.

One of the founders of Liberation Theology and the author of 60
books, Boff summed up his views in "Church: Charisma and Power --
Liberation Theology and the Institutional Church." These views were
frowned on by the Vatican, which exercised disciplinary measures
against him in the 1980s and 1990s.

Joseph Ratzinger, who was then head of the Vatican's Sacred
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and is now Pope Benedict
XVI, imposed several of these sanctions on him, including periods of
enforced silence, during which he could not celebrate mass or speak
publicly about doctrinal questions.

Boff finally left the Franciscan order in 1992 and devoted himself to
teaching and writing.

In his view, Romero has become "an icon, not only for the church, but
for another kind of humanism that seeks dialogue, sides with the most
vulnerable, and involves salvaging the dignity of human beings and
demanding changes to guarantee that dignity," Boff said. "That was
seen as subversive, and therefore he was sacrificed."

Boff spoke to IPS in San Salvador about human rights and religious
affairs in Latin America.

IPS: What do you think is the main obstacle to clearing up the
assassination of Monsignor Romero?

LEONARDO BOFF: Society has to cleanse its memory. That's the only way
that justice can be done. Human relations cannot be based on lies and
impunity.

It is essential for society itself to demand that the perpetrators be
identified and that the law be enforced. Unless that happens, there
will always be an open wound, and people will continue to demand that
the spilt blood be atoned for.

IPS: Those in power say that this would reopen the wounds of the
past.

LB: That's a profoundly selfish view, because those who died continue
to belong to humankind. Human history is made up of the dead, their
dignity and their actions.

The memory of the victims must be preserved, because without it,
society loses the human beings who have gone before. The dead have
another kind of life and presence. They are on the other side of
life.

IPS: Monsignor Romero was a bishop who was appreciated and loved all
over the world. In several European cathedrals, statues have been
erected in his memory. Why is it that here, in El Salvador, those
guilty of his murder cannot be brought to justice?

LB: Oscar Romero is a unique martyr. He died for justice and for his
love of the poor. He is a kind of saint that is uncommon in the
history of the church. He initiated a kind of martyrdom for the sake
of justice, arising from a deeply committed faith. Basically, he
imitated the deeds of Christ. That is why I understand that the
religious powers-that-be have difficulty reading this new sign; they
don't know how to interpret it.

IPS: In decades past, the ties between the Catholic Church and the
people of Latin American were considered to be intense, close and
strong. How do you view them now?

LB: Almost half of the world's Catholics live in Latin America. That,
in itself, is a strength. But the Latin American church's capacity
for recreating a new liturgical face, better adapted to people's
cultures, is also the Catholic Church: a church that cherishes the
memory of the wisdom of indigenous and Afro-descendant cultures. This
church is still in the process of being born.

So far it has been an appendage, a reflection of the European church.
Now it is increasingly a strong church that is consolidating its own
identity.

IPS: Protestant churches have been gaining ground in Latin America,
and the Catholic Church has lost members. What do you think is the
reason?

LB: It's the church's own fault that it's losing members, through
being too authoritarian and centralized. It hasn't got enough priests
because they are not allowed to marry, and this is a growing cause of
permanent internal crisis.

This church is not open to change, as others are. Even Judaism has
opened its doors to women's ministry. If the Catholic Church does not
open itself up, its flock will continue to shrink.

In spite of that, the Catholic Church is illuminated from its base,
from Bible study groups, social pastorates for land, and Afro-
descendants' and indigenous people's organizations, which is where
its vitality lies.

IPS: Is there any connection between the loss of members and the
[weakening of the] Catholic liberation theology movement, which was
very strong three decades ago but lost momentum and saw its leaders
removed?

LB: Studies show that the church is growing where liberation theology
is alive. Where it is absent, charismatic churches and sects gain
ground. This has been statistically demonstrated.

Nor is it true that liberation theology has driven people out of the
Catholic Church. I think there have been attempts to demoralize
adherents of liberation theology and to deny the movement legitimacy,
and therefore many Christians who do not understand how the pope and
the bishops can be on the side of the oppressors and the rich, and
not on the side of the poor, have become discouraged.

IPS: What are the challenges that liberation theology faces in order
to reawaken its dampened spirit?

LB: At the recent World Forum on Theology and Liberation in Nairobi,
which attracted representatives from Asia, Africa, Latin America,
Europe and the United States, we saw its immense vitality and growth.
But it is not as visible, nor as controversial, as it used to be.
Liberation theology is present wherever the churches take poverty and
justice seriously.

The movement began with the experience of listening to marginalized
people: the poor, indigenous people, Afro-descendants and women, and
it is still as relevant as it was decades ago, because the poor are
still crying out to God to hear them. A gospel that does not lead to
liberation is no gospel at all.

I don't care about criticism from the powerful of the world and from
the church. What I care about is that there are Christians who take
the issue of justice seriously.

Liberation theology has not made poor people an object of reflection.
It has walked with them, and shared the same persecutions, slanders,
tortures and murders that they suffer. A theologian has one foot in
extreme poverty and the other foot in reflection, and by walking on
both, arrives at liberation.

And now we must pay attention to the cry of the gang members and
young people who have no place in society, the unwanted ones, who are
neglected by public policies: drug addicts, those caught up in
violence, the wretched of the earth.

But we must also heed the cry of the earth, the water, the forests
and the animals, threatened by an insensitive and merciless culture,
which may bring about a crisis in the web of life and cause hundreds
of species to disappear.

SOME LATIN AMERICAN POLITICIANS GROUNDED IN CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0802471.htm

By Barbara J. Fraser
Catholic News Service

LIMA, Peru (CNS) -- After Latin America's bishops established
their "preferential option for the poor" in a conference in Medellin,
Colombia, in 1968, the church became a training ground for active
Catholics throughout the region.

Although some were involved with leftist movements that fought
rightist governments in the 1970s and 1980s, more and more Catholics
are gaining political clout at the ballot box.

The rise of presidents who are controversial in some circles but who
campaigned on platforms of fighting poverty and social inequality --
such as Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, and most
recently retired Bishop Fernando Lugo in Paraguay -- is putting
Catholic activists in many government offices.

"The liberation movement had a tremendous impact on the Catholic left
in Latin America and was very influential," said Jesuit Father Thomas
Reese, a senior research fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock
Theological Center in Washington.

"Catholic social teaching has always been pro-poor," Father Reese
said. Many people who are now involved in politics "got their feet
wet in the Catholic Church. They learned political skills there."

In Paraguay Bishop Lugo, who became known as the "bishop of the
poor," won the April presidential election after campaigning against
corruption and for greater equality for the country's indigenous
people and poor peasant farmers.

The Vatican initially opposed his campaign, and the day after the
election Bishop Lugo asked forgiveness of the church "if my attitude
and my disobedience caused pain."

"That was a real olive branch from him to the Vatican," Father Reese
said.

Three days later, Archbishop Orlando Antonini, the papal nuncio to
Paraguay, visited the president-elect to congratulate him and present
him with a pen that was a gift from Pope Benedict XVI. Vatican
officials have said they will analyze the case "calmly"; clergy are
not supposed to serve in political office.

The apparent detente could allow the Vatican to laicize Bishop Lugo
or "just ignore him" until his term is over, Father Reese said.

In neighboring Bolivia, newspaper headlines have sometimes reported
sharp words between Morales and church officials over issues such as
religious education in the schools and, more recently, the church's
role in facilitating dialogue to break the political stalemate
between the government and opposition leaders.

Nevertheless, the country's bishops have been supportive of
government efforts to ensure greater equality for the country's
indigenous people.

Some lower-level Bolivian officials say their experience in church
ministry prepared them for public life. In the chilly, wind-swept
mining town of Oruro, more than two miles above sea level, regional
government leader Alberto Luis Aguilar, a former seminarian who spent
17 years in the church's social ministry office, says that work
helped him understand the needs of the region's poor miners and
peasant farmers.

Because church ministry "brings you very close to the people, it has
been a training ground for leaders," he said.

And while Morales does not have a strong link to the Catholic Church,
his vice minister of foreign relations, Hugo Fernandez, is a former
Jesuit priest.

"I think (Morales) relies on people like that not just because of
ideology, but because they are reliable, idealistic and honest" and
not "the typical pure technocrat," said Jesuit Father Jeffrey
Klaiber, a historian who has written extensively about the church in
Latin America and who studied with Fernandez.

Another former Jesuit, Eduardo Stein, ended a four-year term as vice
president of Guatemala in January.

In Central America, base communities were a training ground for many
Catholics during years when leftist groups were trying to break the
political grip of small landholding elites. The blurring of lines
between some armed leftist groups and base communities led to a
backlash against liberation theology, although "very few" people in
that movement "favored the use of violence," Father Reese said.

Since the Central American civil wars ended, Catholic activists in
the region have had a mixed relationship with politics, said U.S.
Jesuit Father Dean Brackley, who teaches theology at the University
of Central America in San Salvador.

In El Salvador, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, which
laid down arms and became a political party, has been gaining
political ground.

"There are a lot of Catholics and Christians in that party, and they
were influenced by the church of the poor" in a country where the
legacy of murdered Archbishop Oscar Romero still "looms large,"
Father Brackley said.

In Nicaragua, the Sandinistas also had strong ties to Catholic
activists, but many supporters became disenchanted after the party
came to power and became entangled in corruption scandals.

Nicaragua has recently been campaigning behind the scenes to take
over in June the rotating role of chairing the U.N. General Assembly.
The person the government is suggesting for the task is Maryknoll
Father Miguel D'Escoto, who served as Nicaraguan foreign minister,
1979-1990.

The Sandinista president from that era, Daniel Ortega, was elected
again in 2006, but because of the charges of corruption and political
cronyism from his earlier administration "there is grave discontent"
with him, Father Brackley said.

Splits between activists and the political leaders they once
supported are not surprising, he said, because idealistic politicians
who campaign on platforms of reducing poverty and inequality often
find that they have little maneuvering room once they are in office.

"The constraints on a government that would like to change things are
very great," he said.

In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. a few months
after he took office, Bolivia's Morales said he felt "padlocked" in
the presidential palace because he could not make the changes he felt
were needed as quickly as he had expected.

Critics say that newer Latin American leaders like Morales or
Ecuador's Correa, who also makes no secret of his progressive
Catholic past, want to turn back the clock on policies that have led
to record economic growth rates in the region.

But Catholics like Bishop Lugo and Aguilar, the Bolivian regional
government leader, say the benefits still have not reached the poor.
They have sought public office in an effort to create more equal
societies.

***REVISED*** From the Beatification Blog
http://polycarpi.blogspot.com

===

ÓSCAR ROMERO and ST. PAUL
http://polycarpi.blogspot.com/2008/05/scar-romero-and-st.html

In anticipation of the Pauline Year jubilee (from June 28, 2008 to
June 29, 2009) to mark the bimillennium celebrations of the birth of
the Apostle Paul, Pope Benedict has authorized a special plenary
indulgence to those participating in Pauline commemorations. Because
of St. Paul's unparalleled status as as Christian writer and
spiritual guide, it seems almost pointless to say that Archbishop
Romero was influenced by Paul. It is clear that Romero was a great
admirer and follower of St. Paul. More than any other Christian
writer, St. Paul was the authority that Romero most often cited to
confirm his message of the Gospel. Romero called St. Paul "the model
of the messengers of the Church" and "a marvelous witness to the
Resurrection." Beyond theology and dogma, in St. Paul, Romero found
the human story that illuminated Romero's own struggle, and that of
his people.

There was -- let us say it -- a correspondence between the Man of
Tarsus and the Archbishop of San Salvador. By many interpretations,
both men underwent a profound "conversion" that put them on a
collision course with earthly power, and on a divine mission to
reveal prophetic truth to the followers of Christ. In his modest way,
Romero sometimes cast aside the comparisons. "Paul was a bishop like
the one that is speaking to you now," Romero preached in an October
1977 sermon pointing to the timeless authority of the Church through
its bishops: "naturally, with the enormous difference between his
saintliness and my mediocrity." But, at other times, Romero admitted
that Paul's greatest strength came from his weakness, as when he
called Paul "the valiant Christian who experiences, as a man, human
weakness, but who feels within the strength of the faith, the hope
that God gives those who trust in Him." (Dec. 1977). Of course, we
see that same strength in Romero and, at times, Romero took refuge in
the shadow of St. Paul, likening his trips to Rome to bring an
accounting to the Pope, the successor of Peter, to St. Paul's trips
to Rome to answer to St. Peter himself. Thus, just as St. Paul became
the Apostle to the Gentiles, destined to bring the Gospel of Christ
to a special audience, so Romero became the prophet of the social
doctrine, bringing the Gospel to a special arena of the Church. Nor
was it lost on Romero that he was an apostle to formerly pagan
lands: "You too, indians of America, are called to participate in the
inheritance of Christ." (Jan. 1980.)

Above all, St. Paul gave Romero an object lesson in conversion and
reconciliation -- the lesson he was trying to impart upon a country
spiraling downward toward civil war. "He who is today a criminal can
be tomorrow an apostle." (September 1979.) Romero also realized that
the criminal, the persecutor, can be effective as an apostle in ways
that only a rehabilitated sinner can be: "St. Paul is a marvelous
witness of the Resurrection because, if there ever was aman who would
not have wanted to believe in Jesus or the resurrection, it was Saul
the persecutor." (Feb. 1980.) This was the secret to reconciliation,
because in Romero's Pauline world, "There is room for everyone --
even for the persecutors who, like Saul, are converted to being true
apostles of the Gospel." (July 1977.) This Pauline apostleship was
for Romero, founded in community, in harmony, and therefore in
justice. Christian fellowship required rich and poor to treat each
other alike, seeing beyond the economic castes of this world to the
ranks of a celestial country beyond this earth (July 1979.) This is
ultimately the strength of St. Paul, who can persevere in jail as
well as in freedom, because he places his trust and his faith in a
greater ground of being, and he can stare down sickness and suffering
and death with serenity and courage. (Oct. 1978.)

At Fr. Alfonso Navarro's funeral, Romero invoked the words of St.
Paul, "inviting us to be brave, not to be cowards, to live the
novelty of the Christian who has seen amongst the evils of the earth,
the beauty of God's truth, which it is very dangerous to announce and
to proclaim, and from that truth to denounce the injustices, the
upheavals, the abuses, which are so dangerous, and which, if he had
not spoken, Alfonso Navarro would still be alive. But he is the
testimony of what he took from the Gospel and announced: 'Only the
truth will set you free'." (May 1979.)

VALUE PEOPLE OVER PROFITS, BISHOP URGES
http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/806

By MICHAEL HUMPHREY Kansas City, Mo.
Publication date: May 2, 2008
Section: G. News & Features

Salvadoran Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chávez came to Kansas City recently
with an all-American message. No, it wasn't about college sports. It
was about the need for solidarity across borders to combat a new
breed of violence through which the North afflicts the South.

Solidarity with Latin American countries is more vital than ever,
said Rosa Chávez, auxiliary bishop of San Salvador, speaking to a
crowd of several dozen leaders in the Kansas City-El Salvador sister-
parish movement. "There is only one America. There is no North
America and South America. What hurts the people of El Salvador,
hurts all of the Americas."

And so El Salvador's great challenges in economy, environment and
human rights, like the challenges of every other country in Latin
America, must become more relevant to North Americans, he said.
Engaged citizens must prove to be the counterbalance to large
corporations and government entities from the United States and
Canada, whose involvement often brings disastrous results.

"There is still great violence in El Salvador," said Teresa Aley,
volunteer director of the Salvadoran Faith Accompaniment Committee in
Kansas City. "Only now the violence is primarily economic. In some
ways, it is more dangerous than ever and our solidarity is more
important."

Kansas City parishes and community-service groups have one of the
most active sistering programs in El Salvador, reaching back to the
mid-1980s, during the country's brutal civil war. It was that
commitment, as well as the opportunity to commemorate the life and
martyrdom of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, that brought Rosa
Chávez to Kansas City for a three-day visit. Romero -- who was shot
and killed while saying Mass in El Salvador March 24, 1980 -- was a
friend and mentor to Rosa Chávez.

Since the assassination, Romero has become a symbol of resurrection
and prophecy in El Salvador and beyond. Rosa Chávez would like to see
Romero's voice travel to all corners of the Catholic world and has
been an advocate for his beatification.

Mining trouble

A perfect example of the economic violence that victimizes El
Salvador is mining -- the burgeoning gold and silver mines primarily
operated by Canadian companies and subject to only light regulation,
Rosa Chávez said, often addressing his guests in English rather than
using a translator. The mines have the potential to destroy El
Salvador's ecological system.

"You know our country is very small," he said. "Twenty-thousand
kilometers [12,400 miles] square. Very crowded, 6 million people, or
300 people on each kilometer square. The mines are situated in the
north of the country and the drinking water comes from the north. If
the water was poisoned, everybody would be."

The argument that such mining operations help the Salvadoran economy
and provide good jobs is fallacious, he said.

"How much money remains in the country?" Rosa Chávez asked. "Two
percent. There is no proportion between the profits and the damages."

But still, the mines are there. Why? "Mining leaders now are buying
votes, but the people are against [it]. In the logic of the economy
now, people are not important. Money is important."

Rosa Chávez distributed to reporters and others attending events here
a short and clear bishops' letter titled: "Let us Care for Everyone's
Home." The gist: "Since human life is in danger, even though some
economic benefits could be had, precious metal mining should not be
permitted in El Salvador. No material benefit can compare to the
value of human life."

Getting this message out is one key way in which citizen
participation could make a fundamental difference, says Elly Jordan,
a Washington-based grassroots coordinator for SHARE-El Salvador,
which sponsored Rosa Chávez's trip. "You may not be able to sponsor
boycotts with silver and gold the way we can with coffee or apparel,"
she said, "but we can be informed about ways our government is
encouraging this kind of exploitation and get our representatives to
demand better environmental and working conditions in our trade
agreements."

The bishop roots his hope of solidarity in such cross-cultural
concern. "I will never forget when I realized that the American
people are not the American government," he said. "Government
policies exploited the poor, but American people came to be in
solidarity with them."

Remembering Romero

During his visit, Rosa Chávez was informed of a long article about
Romero in the Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, considered a
good sign that his cause for sainthood is moving forward in Rome.

Rosa Chávez noted in response that the groundwork for Romero's
beatification was, in fact, laid by Pope John Paul II, belying a
common belief that the pontiff had put up obstacles. At a prayer
service in Romero's honor that drew several hundred to Visitation
Parish in Kansas City, Rosa Chávez told the story of how Romero came
to be mentioned at the Jubilee of the Martyrs, held at the Vatican in
May 2000.

A list of names to be mentioned at the ceremony was published in the
newspaper days before, with Romero's nowhere to be found. When asked
about this, organizers insisted that El Salvador's list had not been
submitted. But during a meeting between Salvadoran bishops and the
pope, the pontiff corrected the matter himself.

"He said, `Bring me the file for the Jubilee of the Martyrs,' " Rosa
Chávez said. "With his own hand he wrote, in the section for Latin
America, `We pray for all martyrs, like the unforgettable Monsignor
Romero, who gave his life on the altar.' He took a pen, and he wrote
that line."

So, Rosa Chávez optimistically concluded, Romero will see his
time. "As you know, they now celebrate the beatification wherever the
saint was from. So we'll see you in El Salvador."

The night before the Romero service, Rosa Chávez visited a parish in
a southern suburb of Kansas City to meet with immigrants from El
Salvador. More than 300 people attended, mostly Salvadorans, for a
Mass celebrated in Spanish.

Many economists estimate that more than 15 percent of the gross
domestic product in El Salvador is created by money sent back from
the United States. The economy would teeter on collapse without those
remittances.

But Chávez believes the argument for compassionate and rational
immigration policies goes beyond mere statistics. "We are one world,
one family in the body of Christ," he said. "That is why we welcome
the guest to our home."

Michael Humphrey is a Kansas City, Mo., freelance writer.

Enot Rubio
Presidente Ejecutivo
Comite Salvadoreño El Piche
3115 West 69th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90043
(323)758-6227
www.elpiche.com


Hay sueños que provienen del corazón de Dios y hay sueños nuestros. Los sueños
nuestros pueden ser alcanzados a través de nuestra capacidad humana, a través de
nuestros recursos e influencia.  Abramos nuestro corazón al amor, a DIOS.

Cambiemos, aun estamos a tiempo.





________________________________________________________________
Sent via the WebMail system at elpiche.com

Me parece muy bueno que se lleve un poco de alivio a los mas necesitados
en nuestro país.

Lo que no me parece bien, es que se haga en estos momentos de propaganda
electorera y bajo la sombra del partido en el poder, es decir, me parece
que es una amañana y burda acción por parte de este grupo de fachada del
partido arena, del cual Enot Rubio es el mas visible en el área de Los
Angeles.

De todos es conocido que este grupo es totalmente fiel y servidor de los
areneros y, este grupo, siempre sale a la defensa y/o ayuda de aquellos
cuando aquellos están en apuros -tal como en estos días-.

Conociendo el proceder de los areneros, estoy totalmente convencido y
seguro que esta ayuda, la van a repartir con resguardos, es decir, la van
a acompañar de ganchos y condicionarla a que la gente se vea obligada a
votar por arena. Se que ellos la van a presentar (la ayuda) como
proveniente del gobierno/partido e indicarla como las muchas cosas buenas
que arena ofrece y que se podrían "perder" si no logran seguir en el
poder...

Por último, ya me parece demasiada osadía y abuso que Enot venga a poner
propaganda de su grupo (por supuesto que pienso que el busca un "huesito"
allá en nuesto país) en este grupo adonde se busca honrar al mártir que
fue asesinado precisamente por el partido que Enot representa (arena).

¡¿Hasta cuando?!

Y ya me voy, a despintar los postes que los areneros han manchado en mi
pueblo con su abusiva propaganda.

Salú,
El Monsiour.




--- Enot Rubio <enotrubio@...> wrote:

>
>
> Enot Rubio
> Presidente Ejecutivo
> Comite Salvadoreño El Piche
> 3115 West 69th Street
> Los Angeles, CA 90043
> (323)758-6227
> www.elpiche.com
>
>
> Hay sueños que provienen del corazón de Dios y hay sueños nuestros. Los
> sueños nuestros pueden ser alcanzados a través de nuestra capacidad
> humana, a través de nuestros recursos e influencia.  Abramos nuestro
> corazón al amor, a DIOS.
>
> Cambiemos, aun estamos a tiempo.
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________
> Sent via the WebMail system at elpiche.com
>
>
>
>
>
>