--Previous Message--
:
: The Maike Hickson article, Liberation
: Theologian Boff: “Francis is One of Us” of
: December 26, 2016 makes disturbing reading.
: It commences: On 25 December 2016 the
: Brazilian Leonardo Boff, one of the most
: prominent theorists and operatives of Latin
: American Liberation Theology, gave a
: candidly revealing and manifoldly
: informative interview to the German regional
: newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. Due to his
: confident, if not presumptuous, openness,
: the 78-year-old Boff (b. 14 December 1938)
: speaks about several matters of moment which
: we otherwise would not so easily hear about.
:
: For example, he reveals the following:
: How and why Pope Francis did not meet Boff
: in Rome, as planned, on the day before the
: second Synod on the Family in 2015 – because
: the pope was angry at the Thirteen
: Cardinals’ Letter and was trying to quiet
: the situation (and himself?) ahead of the
: Synod;
: How Cardinal Walter Kasper recently told
: Boff that Pope Francis has some “big
: surprises” planned;
: How Pope Francis intends to allow the
: Catholic Church in Brazil to permit married
: priests, as his friend Cardinal Claudio
: Hummes has been requesting now for some
: time;
: How Pope Francis had requested from Boff
: material for the writing of his own
: encyclical Laudato Si and how the pope
: thanked him afterwards;
: How Boff considers Pope Francis to be “one
: of us,” meaning one of the supportive
: sympathizers with liberation theology.
:
: In the following, therefore, I shall
: translate parts of this important interview.
: The words of Leonardo Boff will speak for
: themselves.
:
: Important to note in this context, however,
: is that Boff himself was publicly criticized
: and silenced in 1985 by Cardinal Joseph
: Ratzinger – then the Prefect of the
: Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
: (CDF) – for his unorthodox writings that
: boldly go quite far against Church doctrine.
: Thus, in 1992, he both formally left the
: Franciscan Order to which he had belonged
: and he also then publicly left the Catholic
: priesthood.
: ________________________________________
: Q: Liberation Theology of Latin America –
: one of whose most prominent representatives
: you certainly are – has now received new
: honors [and encouraging support] from and
: through Pope Francis. [Is there now to be] A
: rehabilitation also for you personally,
: after your years-long struggles with Pope
: John Paul II himself and with his highest
: defender of Doctrine, Joseph Ratzinger, who
: later became Pope Benedict XVI?
:
: Francis is one of us. He has turned
: Liberation Theology into a common property
: of the Church. And he has widened it.
: Whoever speaks today of the poor, also has
: to speak of the earth, because it, too, is
: now being plundered and abused. “To hear the
: cry of the poor,” that means to hear the cry
: of the animals, the forests, of the whole
: tortured creation. The whole earth cries.
: Also, says the pope – and he thus quotes one
: of the titles of one of my books – we have
: to hear simultaneously the cry of the poor
: and the cry of the earth. And, for sure,
: both need to be liberated. I myself have
: dealt in the recent past with this widening
: of the Liberation Theology. And that [this
: environmental dimension] is also the
: fundamentally new aspect in Laudato Si.
:
: Q: ….which is now in the “ecological
: encyclical” of the pope promulgated in the
: year 2015. How much Leonardo Boff is in
: Jorge Mario Bergoglio?
:
: The encyclical belongs to the pope. But he
: has consulted with many experts.
:
: Q: Has he read your books?
:
: More than that. He asked me for material for
: the sake of Laudato Si. I have given him my
: counsel and sent to him some of what I have
: written. Which he has also used. Some people
: told me they were thinking while reading:
: “Wait, that is Boff!” By the way, Pope
: Francis directly told me: “Boff, don’t send
: the papers directly to me.”
:
: Q: Why not?
:
: He said: “Otherwise, the Sottosegretari (the
: employees of the Vatican administration,
: editors [of the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger]) will
: intercept them and I will not receive them.
: Rather, send the things right to the
: Argentine Ambassador [at the Holy See] with
: whom I have a good connection, then they
: will safely land into my hands.” For that,
: one needs to know that the current
: Ambassador at the Holy See is an old friend
: of the pope from his time in Buenos Aires.
: They have often drunk together mate [a
: special drink from Argentina, a sort of
: tea]. Then, one day before the publication
: of the encyclical, the pope had someone call
: me in order to thank me for my help. See
: what I mean?
:
:
:
Responses « Back to index | View thread »