Other Voices in the Mexican Catholic Church Tanius Karam* E V A / a v a N o i v a t c O TRENDS IN MEXICO ’S Juan Bautista Libanio says that the es four ten dencies in the post-Council CATHOLIC CHURCH model of “Catholic identity” —that is, church: institutional doctrine, practice and struc - a) The postmodern position consid - The Catholic Church is no uniform tures with a firm, coherent, stable le - ers the current situation irreversible monolith. Its view of itself and under - gal basis— appeared in the sixteenth and favors the disappearance of a standing of its mission and presence in century with the Council of Trent and com mon identity, leaving the task of history varies from one time, country re mained almost unquestioned and with - perpetuating the message of Christ or region to another. This article takes a out significant fissures until Vatican to the free will and spontaneous look at one of the faces of the manifold Council II (1963-1965). After that date, choice of small groups. complex that is the Mexican Catholic the eccle siastic zeitgeist can be ex - b) The conservative position does not Church. To do that, we need to estab - plain ed by the attempts at restoration recognize the irreversibility of the lish minimum criteria. or destruction of that identity, by the collapse of the identity inherited from different reactions it has caused and, the Council of Trent and diligently con sequently, by the different pas - attempts to maintain and rebuild it. * Professor of communications at the Ma - rista University of Mexico City. toral pro jects that have grown out of c) The moderate, neo-fundamental - tanius @yahoo.com.mx it. In this context, Li banio distin guish - ist tendency proposes creating an 19 Voices of Mexico • 56 identity that would be the true cod - Because the other voices in Mex - experience of the poor. It attempts to ification of Vatican II. This tenden - ico’s Catholic Church are a minority help them see their own faith in a cy is based on two suppositions: the and because they receive scant if any new light so that the reading of the irreversibility of the dissolution of media coverage, I think it is useful to Scrip tures will give them the suste - the identity established by the Coun - present some of the characteristics of nance for affirming their dignity and cil of Trent and the need for a clear this other face, the critical “other” with - worth, as well as their right to fight common identity for all. Their stra - in the church that falls into the cate - together for a better life. Poverty is con - tegy is to proceed with the reforms gory of Libanio’s pluralist-commit - sidered the product of a social struc - of Vatican II in the fashion of the ment tendency. ture, and there fore this theology is Council of Trent; that is, to develop critical of that struc ture which makes a compact, simple message and re - it possible for a few to have so much sort to ecclesiastical authority as the LIBERATION THEOLOGY while millions and millions live in des - main unifying factor. titution. Liberation theologians have d) The tendency of pluralism and In 1971, Peruvian theologian Gustavo criticized those ideologies that justify commitment strives for a more dia - Gutiérrez published his Teología de la this inequality, in cluding the use of religious symbols . Berryman describes this theology With the exception of a minimal start ing from three points: the inter - opening between 1969 and 1971, motivated pretation of Christian faith through suffering, the struggle and the hope of by the cruel events of October 1968, Mexico’s Catholic the poor; a critique of society and the hierarchy has been a faithful follower ideologies that support it; and a cri - of the Vatican line. ti que of Church activity and that of Chris tians from the point of view of the poor. At the same time it is a new in - ter pretation of the meaning of Chris - lectical, historical and dynamic Liberación (Liberation Theology) in tianity and the recovery of a prophetic Ca tholic identity that would be which he summarized the tendencies tradition found in the Bible. 3 built through commitment and and orientations derived from the sec - pluralism in today’s Latin America, ond and third Latin American Bis hops’ in the spirit of the Latin American Conferences ( CELAM ). They ori ginated ECCLESIASTIC BASE COMMUNITIES Bishops Conferences of Medellín, in documents that came out of the Co lom bia (1968) and Puebla, Mex - Va tican Council II, such as Lumen One of the main movements inspired ico (1979). 1 Gen tium and the pastoral constitution in this conception of faith and of the Gau dium et Spes , which redefine the church is that of the ecclesiastic base In general, the Mexican Catholic church as the “people of God” and pro - communities ( CEB ), which arose inside Church continues to be vertical, cen - mote the active participation of lay the Catholic Church in the late 1960s tralized, hierarchical and conservative. peo ple in the world. The Latin Amer - in the turbulent context of that time: With the exception of a minimal open - ica bishops effected their own reading stagnation and crisis of national eco no - ing between 1969 and 1971, motivated of Vatican II from the point of view of mies, emergence and consolidation of by the cruel events of October 1968, 2 the Latin American situation, leading authoritarian and military regimes, par - Mexico’s Catholic hierarchy has been to the second Latin American Bishops’ ticularly in the Southern Cone of the a faithful follower of the Vatican line. Con ference in Medellín, Colombia Americas, and the emergence of new This can be ex plained by relations be - in 1968. social theories like dependency theo - tween church and state in the last two Liberation theology interprets Chris - ry. The CEB s’ novelty consisted in their centuries in Mexico. tian faith from the point of view of the ability to mobilize and their redefini - 20 Politics tion of religious faith from the pers pec - and idealistic; sometimes, they were a In January 1979, in the framework tive of poor people when surrounded mere inventory of proposals. They did of CELAM III in Puebla, attended by by an ethos that for decades had sought not integrate fully into the popular mov e - Pope John Paul II on his first visit to to reproduce and maintain the estab - ment and action was centered main - Mexico, the CEB s analyzed the road they lished order. ly on thinking about council documents had travelled since 1968 and took advan - The CEB s define themselves as com - and on courses and workshops about tage of the opportunity to meet and munities because of their lifestyle. the lay people’s apostolate, the church dialogue with theologians and bishops Usually, each CEB is made up of 10 to as missionary and the situation of the from other parts of the hemisphere. The 15 people who meet once or twice a church in today’s world. Document of Puebla that came out of week to discuss their problems and solve In 1973 the working method changed the meeting took on board and fol - them according to the Gospel. Each to using the needs of the grassroots com - lowed the general orientation of what has a coordinator whose function is to munity as its starting point, begin ning had been said in Medellín, confirming preside over celebrations, moderate group a liberating Biblical reflection and af - the CEB s in their work. A year later, in member participation and foster dis - firming that faith should lead to a cri - March 1980, some members of the cussion. Their conception of religion tique of social reality. The groups were Mex ican communities participated in is not divorced from the transformation of the world and for that, they use a me th odology known as “see-judge-act”: One of the main movements inspired in “see” the people’s situation and identi - Liberation Theology is that of the ecclesiastic fy both social and ecclesiastic projects base communities, which arose inside the and practices; “judge” and think about the kind of society the members want Catholic Church in the late 1960s in the in both socio-political and Biblical-theo - turbulent context of that time. logical terms; and, finally, “act,” that is, implement stra tegies for organized action in the construction of a more just order of things. 4 better organized and the communities the hemisphere-wide meeting of CEB s Mexico’s first CEB appeared in 1967 began to grow, particularly in those in Redonda, Brazil. in Cuernavaca with Fathers Rolland dioceses in which they had support and Genoel, and the Mov ement for a from the bishops. CEB members stud - Better World ( MUMM ), led by Father ied the relationship of faith to political GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION Orozco, promoted them. In 1968, the commitment, critically read the Mex - OF THE CEB s MUMM coordinated different meetings ican bishops’ letter called El cristiano to turn the parish into a true Christian ante las opciones sociales y políticas (The CEB s are not evenly distributed in all of community. The following year saw the Social and Political Options Facing Chris - Mexico. The states with the largest first national meeting of CEB s. Many tians) and discussed attitudes contrary number of these groups have dioceses of these communities were born linked to the Gospel in society and politics. whose pastoral activity is different from to the Biblical movement and other From the methodological point of view, most, dioceses, with a critical perspec - kinds of groups that did not have the they advanced somewhat by discover - tive, more open to social issues.