Franciscan Studies

CATHOLICITY, INCULTURATION, AND LIBERATION THEOLOGY: DO THEY MK?* During Pope John Paul's visit to the East Indies two years ago, the television broadcast of people dressed in their traditional style and dancing before the pope caused quite a stir in one Toronto clerical household. The housekeeper, a devout lady who had come to Toronto from Spain, after watching the ceremonies on her TV set, rushed in and exclaimed to the pastor in a shocked voice: "Father, did you see those people dancing before the pope? Why, they were half naked! And they even went and received Holy Communion dressed that way!" Dancing in the liturgy the Spanish lady might have understood since in Toledo in her native country the ancient Mozarabic liturgy incorporates dance into celebration of the Eucharist . But, perhaps because she had seen women barred from Spanish churches on account of bare arms, she found it difficult to understand or accept an expression of welcome, reverence and worship so culturally different from her own. This little happening illustrates the tension between unity in faith and diversity in cultures that I should like to speak about by looking first at the closely-related notions of Catholicity and inculturation , and then by examining that tension in relation especially to liberation theology. First, the notions of Catholicity and inculturation will be briefly reviewed. Then I should like to suggest a few points about liberation theology. I have neither the time nor the competence to deal with the whole of liberation theology. The aspect of it I should like to consider especially is its link with cultures different from the European setting in which so much Catholic theology has developed. Then I would like to try to answer the question I asked in my title: Do Catholicity, inculturation, and liberation theology mix? That is, is liberation theology compatible with Catholicity? * Given as a public lecture in the Summer 1986 Session at St. Bonaventure University, St. Bonaventure, N.Y., 7 July 1986. Catholicity, Inculturation and Liberation Theology25 Is it an authentic example of inculturation of theology? This question, I think, raises some interesting problems for the contemporary Church, for theology and culture within the Church, and indeed for the world today. (The fact that The New York Times, for instance, closely follows and sometimes front-pages issues involving liberation theology or theologians indicates its importance not only for Church life but for international politics as well. It is obvious, for one thing, that United States foreign policy-makers are deeply interested in and often in reaction against views espoused by liberation theology.) CATHOLICITY First of all, we should distinguish between "Catholicism" or "Roman Catholicism" on the one hand and "Catholicity" on the other. "Catholicism" or "Roman Catholicism" generally refers to the concrete historical and cultural expression of the faith, system, and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, including its great achievements but also its sins and failures: the Church, if you will, living its way through history, bumping along at times while heading towards the parousia. "Catholicity," on the other hand, refers to a quality, a characteristic, or a "note" of the Church, as when we profess belief by saying in the Apostles' Creed: "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church" or in the Nicene-Constantinople Creed: "I also believe in the Holy Spirit... and One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church."1 The term "Catholic" comes not from the Greek bible (Septuagint or Christian scriptures) but from secular Greek, and means "on the whole" or "in general" or "according to the whole." Shortly after the year 100 Ignatius of Antioch first applied the term "Catholic" to the Church, and it came into more and more frequent use among the Fathers and entered many creeds, including the two I have 1 We should note in passing that we ought not to separate the Church from the Holy Spirit in professing our faith. It is the Spirit, as Pope John Paul recently insisted in his encyclical on the Holy Spirit, who is sent by the Father and Son to achieve the communion that is the reality of the Church; in saying this, he is simply echoing the long tradition of the...