The Spirituality of Social Concern

 One of my classes this term has been The Spirituality of Social Concern. It overlaps with other courses on Catholic social teaching which I've done previously, but it goes further, in that it looks at the spirituality which underpins and animates the rich heritage of the Church's social justice teaching.

The Church is more known for its teaching against abortion and divorce, but for more than 120 years there have been official statements by popes, councils and conferences of bishops on economic, political, social, racial and environmental issues. The Second Vatican Council reinvigorated the Church's sense of its place in the world, being an agent of the Kingdom of God, to be used by God for the transformation of the world, not as a refuge from the world.

Fr Rutilio Grande SJ
In the 1960s the bishops of Latin America got together and made a bold statement that the majority of the peoples of Latin America were poor and oppressed, and that from now on the Church would be on the side of the poor, as Jesus was in his time. The majority of people in Latin America were peasants labouring on farm land which they did not own.The Church stood with the peasants as they strove for justice, not charity, and as the military & government clamped down and started killing people to silence them, the people, including clergy and religious continued to stand  strong.

Most people know of Bishop Oscar Romero of  El Salvador who was martyred in 1980 for his stance against the violence of the government. In this course though we learned the less well known story of Fr Rutilio Grande who inspired Romero, and whose martyrdom made Romero, who was trying to hold a moderate line at the time. Grande's death drew Romero completely to the side of the poor. In the years that followed dozens more priests, and thousands of people would be killed. When 6 Jesuit priests at the university were killed, 300 Jesuits in the US volunteered to take their place.

It's an extraordinary story of faith and courage.


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