Option for the poor
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The option for the poor, or the preferential option for the poor, is a principle of
.Theological significance
The "preferential option for the poor" refers to a trend throughout the
According to said doctrine, through one's words, prayers and deeds one must show solidarity with, and compassion for, the poor. Therefore, when instituting public policy one must always keep the "preferential option for the poor" at the forefront of one's mind. Accordingly, this doctrine implies that the moral test of any society is "how it treats its most vulnerable members. The poor have the most urgent moral claim on the conscience of the nation. We are called to look at public policy decisions in terms of how they affect the poor".[5]
Pope Benedict XVI has taught that "love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and needy of every kind, is as essential as the ministry of the sacraments and preaching of the Gospel".[6] This preferential option for the poor and vulnerable includes all who are marginalized in society, including unborn children, persons with disabilities, the elderly and terminally ill, and victims of injustice and oppression.
Origin and usage
The phrase "option for the poor" was used by Fr. Pedro Arrupe, Superior General of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1968 in a letter to the Jesuits of Latin America, although its principle existed before Arrupe coined the term.[7] The Option for the Poor, according to theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez, "involves a commitment that implies leaving the road one is on" in order to enter the world of an "insignificant" person; selflessness is the goal of this lifestyle.[8] The option for the poor "goes through all of modern Catholic social teaching" according to theologian Daniel Groody.[9] The phrase rose to prominence during the 1960s for its connection to Liberation Theology, along with its simplicity in capturing doctrinal thought in a turbulent period for the Catholic church.
The principle was articulated by the
The Puebla conference held many of the same principles, but with some caveats. Conservative members of the Church saw the meeting as an opening to reverse social claims made by the Medellin conference, while liberation theologians desired to re-affirm the progress made in 1968. López Trujillo, the secretary general of CELAM made sure that "[c]onservative bishops were strategically placed to control committees" while "conservative staff members wrote the preparatory documents."[12] The Washington Post reported that the conservative presence "will be felt in the direction of the conference, in the preparatory documents that will form the basis of discussion, and in the selection of bishops and others participating both as voting delegates and as advisers and official observers."[13] However, as reported by The New York Times, the meeting ultimately struck a middle-ground, criticizing both capitalism and Marxism while calling on local communities to support the common person.[14]
But the principle behind the phrase was articulated earlier by the Catholic Bishops at the Second Vatican Council, when in their Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes they spoke of the poor from the very first line, repeating the word nine times and concluding: "The council, considering the immensity of the hardships which still afflict the greater part of mankind today, regards it as most opportune that an organism of the universal Church be set up in order that both the justice and love of Christ toward the poor might be developed everywhere."[15]
The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, published by the Roman Curia in 2004, summarizes the principle:
This love of preference for the poor, and the decisions which it inspires in us, cannot but embrace the immense multitudes of the hungry, the needy, the homeless, those without health care and, above all, those without hope of a better future.[16]
Pope Francis's apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium includes a long section on "The inclusion of the poor in society" (186-216) in which he noted that "Without the preferential option for the poor, 'the proclamation of the Gospel ... risks being misunderstood or submerged'."[17]
Liberation theology debate
In its origins, the concept was connected with the
In the mid-1980s, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, led the effort by the Holy See to stop liberation theology, which he viewed as a form of Marxism. In August 1984, shortly before the release of the official view of the Holy See, he strongly criticized several arguments of liberation theology in a private document to theologians leaked to the press.[18] Ratzinger believed that liberation theologians contend that Christians must engage in a
The
The Instruction implied that some liberation theologians supported methods similar to the deprivation of people's freedoms by totalitarian regimes in the name of liberation. It charged that these supporters "betray the very poor they mean to help."[20]
Jesuit theologian Enrique Nardoni has argued at length in his exhaustive study, Rise Up, O Judge, that the Bible as a whole and its cultural context support a preferential option for the poor.[21]
Several representatives of
References
- ISBN 9781630878320.
- ISBN 9780804745987.
- ^ Matthew 25:40.
- ^ 1983 CIC, canon 222 §2.
- ^ Option for the Poor, Major themes from Catholic Social Teaching, Office for Social Justice, Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
- ^ Deus Caritas Est §22.
- ^ "The Portal to Jesuit Studies". Retrieved 2022-05-31.
- ^ Gutiérrez, Gustavo (2009). "The Option for the Poor Arises From Faith in Christ". Theological Studies (70): 318 – via EBSCOhost.
- ^ Groody, Daniel (2007). Globalization, Spirituality, and Justice. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. p. 110.
- ^ Yee, David (2021). "Shantytown Mexico: the Democratic Opening in Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, 1969–1976". The Americas. 78 (1): 125.
- ^ "Medellin 1968 (excerpts) – Gerald W. Schlabach". Retrieved 2022-05-09.
- ^ ISBN 0-226-76409-5.
- ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2022-05-09.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-05-09.
- ^ "Gaudium et Spes, 90". Retrieved 1 April 2017.
- ^ Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (2004), Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Paragraphs 182-184.
- ^ Evangelii gaudium, Paragraph 199.
- ^ a b The Ratzinger Report, by Vittorio Messori, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1985
- ISSN 0001-5199. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
- ^ Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Prefect) (6 Aug 1984). "By the same token, the overthrow by means of revolutionary violence of structures which generate violence is not ipso facto the beginning of a just regime. A major fact of our time ought to evoke the reflection of all those who would sincerely work for the true liberation of their brothers: millions of our own contemporaries legitimately yearn to recover those basic freedoms of which they were deprived by totalitarian and atheistic regimes which came to power by violent and revolutionary means, precisely in the name of the liberation of the people. This shame of our time cannot be ignored: while claiming to bring them freedom, these regimes keep whole nations in conditions of servitude which are unworthy of mankind. Those who, perhaps inadvertently, make themselves accomplices of similar enslavements betray the very poor they mean to help."
- ^ Enrique Nardoni, translated by Sean Martin (2004). Rise Up, O Judge: A Study of Justice in the Biblical World. Baker Books.
- ISBN 978-1570751363
- ISBN 978-3865811776, p. 183-185.