Beware of Ideology Trying to Influence Our Religion

When I was a boy our priests were representative of the congregation which was entirely working class. They spoke the same language – broad Scots – and came from similar backgrounds. They may have had left wing views but they were never openly political. If so they would have been preaching to the converted anyway as Glasgow and the west of Scotland were strongholds of the Labour Party at that time. Politics and religion were kept separate in Scotland and England although the situation was different in Northern Ireland where your religion usually shaped your political stance. Some other countries in Europe linked politics to religion through parties that openly declared themselves Christian or Catholic.

Religion and politics are intertwined in many parts of the world, particularly the Middle East and Asia, and they don´t mix well. Most parties linked to religion are generally conservative or right wing. The Catholic Church was generally seen as a conservative institution, a view that was confirmed by its historical alignment with reactionary governments in Italy, Spain and Latin American dictatorships. In return for its support, the Church had been given privileges, riches and respect. This led to resentment in countries like France and Mexico and eventually led to the separation of Church and state in many countries. The Church was savagely persecuted in France, Mexico and Spain. During the Spanish civil war almost 7,000 clerics, including 13 bishops, are estimated to have been murdered.

Perhaps if the Church had been quicker in identifying itself with workers´ movements to improve wages and conditions then it might have avoided much of the distrust and suspicion leftist parties and labor unions had for it. For example, it was not until 1955 that the Vatican declared the First of May the feast of St. Joseph the Worker in response to the Communist hijacking of May Day as an international celebration of workers´rights. Nevertheless, the Church has always been socially responsible, more so than many governments, and never neglected people´s welfare. It has always cared for the sick, educated the poor and called out against injustice. Although the Church´s duty has always been to care for people´s spiritual welfare it has paid as much, if not more, attention to their material welfare. Even today it runs more hospital and schools than any other organization in the world.

The Church maintained its traditional distance from politics and knew it had to compromise at times to ensure its continued existence. This is the case with China at this moment. In the 20th century Catholicism and Christianity had to endure fascism and Nazism in Italy and Germany and then Communism in Russia and China. It has had to coexist alongside both evils at the same time in Latin America. However, things changed in several parts of the world in the latter part of the 20th century when some priests and bishops began adopting a political stance and supporting a more left-wing agenda. Although the Church had always been on the side of the poor, in line with the teachings of Jesus, it had never espoused political ideologies like Socialism and Communism. These doctrines claimed to be on the side of the poor but their proponents were more interested in exploiting oppressive systems to obtain power for themselves. These ideologies were diametrically opposed to Church doctrine. They were driven by materialism and atheism and were against all forms of religion. It is hardly surprising the Church wanted to have nothing to do with them.

In the 1960s some American priests became active in the New Left movement which opposed the Vietnam War. Father Daniel Berrigan was the most famous (or infamous) example and even ended up on the FBI´s Most Wanted list. He was politically active – always on the side of the left - in the following decades until his death in 2016 at the age of 94. Despite his activism he was never excommunicated, the Church showing a tolerance that would probably would not have shown in earlier times.

Further south, Latin America was the birthplace of the so-called Liberation Theology movement which arose in the 1970s when many priests associated themselves with the opposition to the various dictatorships in the region. Many of the right-wing dictatorships were overthrown by guerrilla groups, notably in Nicaragua where the Sandinistas took over. Relations with the Church were so close at first that the Sandinistas even nominated some priests to their government, including their foreign minister at one point. Fortunately Pope John Paul, who had seen how Communists – and Nazis - worked at first hand in his homeland of Poland, acted quickly and suspended them from their priestly duties for violating canon law. As things turned out, the Sandinistas, who proved to be as corrupt and undemocratic as their predecessors, showed little gratitude to the priests and Catholic sympathizers who had helped them gain power. In recent years Nicaragua´s Marxist regime has imprisoned religious leaders, including a bishop, priests and other Catholics, expelled religious orders and seized Church assets. The Sandinistas were following the example of Cuba´s Communists who have persecuted the Church ever since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. El Salvador´s Archbishop Oscar Romero – now a saint - was shot dead as he said mass in 1980. In this case, his killers were right wing extremists but his murder shows that mixing religion with politics can have tragic results.

Despite these blatant attacks on the Catholic Church, the failed doctrine of “Liberation Theology” still has its adherents in Latin America. The leftist PT party in Brazil, where I live, uses the Church when it suits its purpose and many in the Church are happy to go along with it. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva exploited the Church in the most cynical way when he took part in a staged “mass” held in a labor union building just before surrendering to the federal police in 2018. The ceremony was supposedly in memory of his late wife who would have celebrated her 68th birthday that day. In fact it was mockery of a service, not remotely a mass, overseen by an emeritus bishop who had long been associated with leftist politics and was 89 years old at the time. Although the event was a stunt to delay Lula being taken into custody, there was no official reprimand by the Catholic hierarchy in Brazil. Perhaps this was because of the retired bishop´s age or role in opposing the military regime that ruled Brazil for two decades. However by keeping quiet, the Church was tolerating something that should never have been allowed in the first place.

Things could have developed differently if the late Pope Francis, an Argentinean, had been influenced by Liberation Theology. Fortunately he was not. He had experienced life under the military dictatorship that led to thousands of dead in the Dirty War. He headed the Jesuits during this period and was accused at one point of failing to stand up for two Jesuit priests who were kidnapped by the security forces and tortured over a period of five months. One of the priests later denied this and even celebrated mass with the Pope. Despite his constant appeals on behalf of the poor and oppressed – in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia - no one believed Pope Francis was aligned with any political view. The same is the case with Pope Leo who saw at first hand the effects of leftist extremists in Peru when the Maoist Shining Path movement led by a psychopath academic whose insane ideology led to thousands of innocent peasants being killed in order to liberate them.

Let us learn to keep political ideologies far from our Church and ensure that our material goals are always accompanied by spiritual ones.