A few nights ago, I watched a PBS program on the Inquisition and its effects on a small medieval town in Southern France (I know. What can I say? It’s a geek thing). Anyway, these were the effects: the entire town was wiped out. Everybody knows that there were actually three Inquisitions (ok, not everybody). The Papal Inquisition, begun in the thirteenth century in an effort to “educate” heretics, the Spanish Inquisition, when the “Catholic Monarchs” Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain were given jurisdiction over their own inquisition and the Papal Inquisition, which claimed Galileo as a victim and which eventually resulted in the famous (or infamous) Catholic Index of banned books.
Doire Tangent #1: The list of banned authors includes Victor Hugo, who almost single-handedly saved Notre Dame Cathedral from certain ruin in the 19th century, Jean-Paul Sartre, Voltaire, Kierkegaard, Daniel Defoe (why?), Nikos Kazantzakis (author of The Last Temptation of Christ. No surprise there.) and by the way, the movie of the same name is viewed in my Religion and Film class. Also on the list, Jonathan Swift, Emile Zola, Graham Greene (surely they jest), Gustave Flaubert (of The Parrot??), Immanuel Kant, Nietzsche (again, no surprise) and Alexandre Dumas (oh yes, The Three Musketeers is surely a threat to Catholic orthodoxy). In 1966, the faithful were officially released from doctrinal obligations against reading the banned books but not from its moral obligation. Never to be accused of falling behind modernity, the Church has now added movies to the list. End of tangent.
Doire Tangent #2: The Spanish Inquisition of the 15th century resulted in the expulsion of all Jews from Spain. They had a choice-- receive baptism, leave Spanish soil, or die. Of the estimated 500,000 Jews in Spain at the time, half of them underwent the mock baptism and half of them migrated to Portugal, which didn’t help them much because within a few short years Jews were expelled from Portugal too. The deadline year when Jews had to make this choice? 1492. There are historians who are working on the thesis that Christopher Columbus may have been Jewish and left Spain with his famous fleet just in time.
Ha! Wouldn’t THAT be rich? If “Christian America” had, in reality been “discovered” by a Jew! Only time and scholarship will tell. Of course, it seems to me that any historian attempting to definitively pinpoint Columbus' religious lineage need look no further than his first name. I've never met a Jew with that name. Unless... it's Columbus' mock baptismal name!! End of tangent.
Back to PBS…Before the program began, the director found it relevant to include screen text, which informed the audience that in 2004, Pope John Paul II issued an apology for the “wounds” inflicted by the Inquisition. Oh really? I didn’t know that it was over.
I have joked on occasion that it is my goal to be silenced by the Church. I am not important or influential enough for them to pay attention, but I take comfort in the fact that if they knew about me, I probably would be.
Many of the theologians I most admire have been. Very important to the development of my own theological voice, Dominican Father Matthew Fox (the“father of Creation-Centered spirituality”) who once wrote, "What is it about patriarchy that makes it so stupid?" Fox was “asked” not to teach or publish for a year while his work was examined for heresy by the Vatican. They never found any but in the meantime Fox, refusing to be silenced, left the Catholic priesthood and was welcomed into ordination by the Episcopal Church. Edward Schillebeeckx, whose book on Church was the first theological work I’d ever read. Then, there is Hans Kung, who took the Council of Vatican II seriously and fashioned a theology that was broad and open and well, just plain cool; Charlie Curran who lost his license to teach theology at Catholic University in 1986 for questioning the Church’s teaching on birth control in his classroom. Karl Rahner, the most brilliant modern, male (ha!) theologian I’ve ever read (certified by the fact that some of his sentences are three pages long) was silenced by Pope John XXIII (stick the knife in and twist). In 2004 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (headed by Joseph card. Ratzinger) declared his writings orthodox.
Doire Tangent #3: When the Office of the Inquisition was dissolved the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith took its place. For much of the latter half of the 20th century its Prefect was Joseph card. Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. A 2004 Pastoral Letter sent to Bishops around the world, written by Ratzinger and signed by Pope JPII, dealt with the role of women in the Church and the world. In it, Ratzinger called feminism “lethal to Church and society.” End of tangent.
And then, there are the Liberation theologians, Gustavo Gutierrez often called “the father of Liberation Theology,” was investigated and issued “complaints” but was never officially silenced; Leonardo Boff silenced both in 1985 and 1991. He left the priesthood in 1992, so is now free to say what he wills. Most recently Jon Sobrino, not officially silenced but as recently as October, 2006 was “admonished,” and denounced. When I teach my Religion and Film course and we watch “The Mission,” Liberation Theology is the focus of the study. Selections from Sobrino’s Christology at the Crossroads are required reading.
The Latin American Liberation theologians changed the world. I am not kidding. They are for me, the quintessential example of how the power of an idea can begin a revolution. A handful of Jesuit priests living and working amongst the poorest of the poor of Central America and informed (perhaps) by the work of Jurgen Moltmann and his suffering God, began to do theology from the ground up. Theology had classically been a project that speculated about the nature of God and then reflected upon humanity from God’s presumed point of view. The Liberation theologians turned traditional theology on its head. They reflected upon the human experience and then “did theology” in light of that experience. The result was a theology that placed God on the side of the poor and oppressed, rather than the privileged and triumphant. Suffering became the epistemological locus. Latin American Liberation Theology opened the door for all other theologies of liberation; feminist, African-American, Mujerista, womanist; all are the children of these Jesuit priests who had the radical notion that if theology is not concerned about justice, then theology has become absurd and obscene. Their theology began a movement that called for change in the unjust and corrupt political systems of Latin America. Bishop Oscar Romero, one of its spokesmen, was assassinated while at his altar celebrating Mass.
Doire Tangent #4: In the 1980s, Ratzinger led the Vatican's campaign to wipe out the movement, which he said replaced the church's spiritual role with misplaced social and economic activism. And now the Pope is visiting Latin America, a region of the world in which millions suffer relentlessly from poverty, violence, the spread of HIV and other diseases and unjust and corrupt governments. So, what is the Pope addressing in Latin America? Abortion, as he issues the threat of excommunication to all Catholics (especially U.S. politicians) who support a woman’s right to choose. What color is the freaking SKY in his world?
Wow. Have I written so much? I could write so much more. I cannot imagine that any of you have stayed with this blog post to the end, which mercifully will occur here and which will conclude with a quote from Jon Sobrino’s Christology at the Crossroads.
Christian hope is hope in the fulfillment of the universe, but it is
not naïve either. Rather than directing its gaze above and beyond
injustice and death, Christian hope takes a stand against injustice
and death; it is a hope against hope (emphasis mine).
May there be more theologians to come who are courageous enough to challenge a complacent Church and a dead theology. One of the truest signs that a voice must be heard is that the Church has attempted to silence it.
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