Lima, Peru, Apr 23, 2007 / 08:32 am

Some of the world’s most controversial promoters of liberation theology have announced their participation in a “Latin American Theology Seminar” that will serve as a counter event to the 5th General Conference of the Latin American Bishops’ Council (CELAM) in Brazil in May.

The gathering of liberation theologians will take place May 18-20 at the Institute of the Eucharistic Heart in the town of Pindamonhangaba, near Aparecida, Brazil, in an attempt “to impact the meeting of the bishops from the perspective of liberation theology.”

Among those speaking at the seminar will be Peruvian priest Father Gustavo Gutierrez, whose book “Liberation Theology—Perspectives” was condemned by the Vatican, suspended Chilean priest Pablo Richard, Agenor Brighenti of Brazil, a member of the Marxist group “Amerindia,” and others.

On the last day of the meeting, two members of the National Council of Laity of Brazil will address participants on “secularism in a Latin American Church committed to the building of justice.”

Recently the National Council of Laity in Brazil published a document on the upcoming CELAM meeting.  The document, centered on political, ideological and economic issues, began by pointing out that “in Latin America and the Caribbean there is an expectation that unjust structures, aggravated currently by the neo-liberal system, will be overcome…the abyss between the rich and the poor continues to be an offense to God the Father-Mother of humanity.”

The document calls on the bishops participating in the CELAM meeting to become social and political agents of economic change in the region, and it concludes by underscoring that the Christian communities of Latin America and the Caribbean “feel committed to the defense of the environment and the preservation of human, animal and plant life and of bodies of water.  Without a new comprehensive spirituality of struggling for ecological liberation, there will be no future and we run the risk of destroying the place of God’s covenant with human beings and with all of creation.”