IN 1968, the [Latin American Catholic] bishops met in Medellín, Colombia, to examine the church’s role in social and political transformation in Latin America. Here the vision of a “preferential option for the poor,” which had been rising up from the base for several years, was first clarified.
“The Lord’s distinct commandment to evangelize the poor,” wrote the bishops at Medellín, “ought to bring us to a distribution of resources and apostolic personnel that effectively gives preference to the poorest and most needy sectors.”
The Medellín documents dealt with economic justice and development, anti-violence and peace, families, shifting social demographics, and the wealth and poverty of the church. They called for a social order where a person is not treated as an object, but as an agent of his or her own history. At Puebla, in 1979, the Latin American bishops renewed their commitment. ...
“We must remember Puebla, when 25 years ago the bishops’ conference of Latin American and the Catholic Church expressed the option for the poor,” [President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela] said when he addressed the leaders of 34 democracies at the January 2004 Summit of the Americas in Monterrey, Mexico. “This past must guide our vision of the future. It must inform our discussions on economic growth with equality and justice for all.”
Rose Marie Berger, a Catholic peace activist and poet, is senior editor of Sojourners magazine. She is author ofBending the Arch: Poems.
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