John Donnangelo II

Yearning to Be Free: Liberation Theology in Latin America and the Vatican,1962-2004 John Donnangelo II

Don't separate your faith from your politicsPope John Paul II exhorted Polish Catholics inKrakow, Poland during his August 2002 pilgrimage. ThePope urged the Polish faithful to continue along thepath of democracy which they had laid in the wake ofcommunism. The message from both Pope Paul VI andPope John Paul II, as well as now Pope Benedict XVIto Catholics worldwide, since the end of the SecondVatican Council in 1965, has been that a person'sfaith must inform his or her political views andactivities. In this manuscript, the historical relationshipbetween the Catholic Church and the peoples of LatinAmerica on the formation, development, and politicalimplications of liberation theology is examined. Thismanuscript focuses, in particular, upon events anddevelopments taking place since 1965 when theCatholic Church concluded its institutionalmodernization via the Second Vatican Council.