On The Side Of The Poor

For many years the theology of liberation, which emerged from Latin America in the 1970s, was viewed with suspicion and even hostility in Rome. In this historic exchange, Father Gustavo Gutierrez, one of the original architects of liberation theology, and Cardinal Gerhard Muller, current Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, offer a new and positive chapter. Cardinal Muller, who as a student of Gutierrez spent many summers working in Peru, writes with deep feeling and conviction about the contributions of liberation theology to church teaching-particularly in its articulation of the preferential option for the poor.

In his own contribution here, Gutierrez lays out the essential ideas of liberation theology, its ecclesial location, and its fresh enunciation of the gospel for our time.