Re-Creating Easter V: How did Easter Dawn? What was the Context?

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 22 October 2015 1 Comments
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Question

It may have been 1980 when the assassination of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero made headlines that I became interested in liberation theology only to see the concept crushed by Papal orders and brutal military suppression. I had a life to live, however, and a family to support so problems so far away did not occupy much of my thinking then and for the next twenty to thirty years. But during those years I was also dismayed at the retrenchment of the Vatican on so many social needs issues and was shocked that the attitude of the church had trumped piety over social action.

So now in 2015 under Pope Francis, we have the beatification of Oscar Romero (hopefully soon to be Saint Romero) and the appointment of Gerhard Ludwig Muller to Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the renewed interest in the writings of Gustavo Gutierrez. This is great news for not only Latin America, but for all of us, religious and secular, concerned with preferential treatment for the poor. Would you give us your blessings on this change (philosophy, attitude, imperative) knowing that we will continue to fight for justice regardless of attitudes around us, but we are interested in your opinions?

Answer

Dear John,

I remember so well the murder of Archbishop Romero. I recall the thrill of reading the writings of both Gustavo Gutierrez and Leonardo Boff. At that time in my life I was wrestling with the issue of the repression of people of color in the United States. Segregation had been declared by the Supreme Court as “inherently unequal.” Desegregation had been ordered with “all deliberate speed.” The mainline churches in the United States, Catholic and Protestant, were silent backers of the status quo. Massive resistance to the law of the land was the name of the official response in the state of Virginia. The “liberal” position was articulated by the Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina. It was called “gradualism,” which basically meant that justice for black people was to move at a pace slow enough so as not to offend white people! Archbishop Romero, Gustavo Gutierrez, Leonardo Boff and their Protestant American counterparts, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy and John Hines, called the church to look at the gospel of Jesus through the eyes of the poor, the victims of prejudice and the oppressed. The religious establishment struck back. Romero was murdered, Boff was “laicized,” King was murdered and Hines had financial support withdrawn and was ultimately rendered so ineffective that he had to resign. God was clearly seen as on the side of the establishment and against the poor. The people chosen to be Pope were more and more conservative and oppressive in thought and action. When John Hines was forced out of the leadership of the Episcopal Church, the Bishop of Mississippi, Hines’ ideological opposite, was chosen to succeed him. When the great progressive Pope John XXIII died prematurely in 1963 after only four years and seven months in the papal office, he was succeeded by ever increasingly retrogressive occupants of the See of Rome: Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Attempts were made by many of these Christian leaders to associate the members of the Civil Rights movement with communism. It was a dark time for Christianity in the world.

A witness to truth, however, is never futile and justice will finally prevail. Pope Francis is a sign of that. His conversations with Gutierrez have helped to fulfill his commitment to make the poor the center of his papacy. The change in the leadership in the Vatican position of the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine and Faith of the Church, once called the Office of the Inquisition, is another sign. The election of first, a brilliant woman, Katharine Jefferts-Schori and then a courageous African-American, Michael Curry, to be the presiding bishops of the Episcopal Church is yet another.

What all of these things say to me is not only that a new day is dawning, but also that one’s witness to truth, even at the cost of one’s life, is never in vain. Oppression of truth and justice will never finally succeed. One does not act in fear, but in faith. One puts one’s life on the line and lets the chips fall where they may. The arc of the universe finally tends toward justice.

Thank you for writing.
John Shelby Spong

 

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