Liberation Theology,
Community Organizing,
and the Jesuit Pedagogy
and the Jesuit Pedagogy
WAKE UP, CATHOLICS, Part 4
Part 1: Wake up, Catholics
Part 2: Cookie Cutter Common Core & Private Education
Part 1: Wake up, Catholics
Part 2: Cookie Cutter Common Core & Private Education
A 3D Research Report by Betsy Kraus
The
book, A Theology of Community Organizing, broke new
ground by beginning to articulate a cross-cultural and inter-faith ‘Theology
for Community Organizing’ that arises from fresh readings of Liberation
Theology. This blending of radicalism was demonstrated by the Filipino community organizers who combined
Marxist Saul Alinsky’s ideals with liberation theology for a “theology of the
poor” movement. This Filipino group added educator Paulo Freire’s leftist
philosophy to the mix. From there the movement became popular in South Africa.
It would appear that the concepts of community organizing
imbued with liberation theology have now filtered into many national and
international organizations as a way of promoting participation of communities
in social, economic and political change in both developed and developing
countries. The civil rights movement, anti-war movements, Chicano movement, feminist movement, and gay rights movement all influenced and were influenced by ideas of
neighborhood organizing. Many
organizations operate as “Faith Based Community Organizations” (FBOC) and are
linked to national organizations such as the Industrial Areas Foundation, Gamaliel Foundation, PICO National Network,
and Direct Action and Research Training Center (DART). The
Industrial Areas Foundation was established by Saul Alinsky and was based on
his Marxist ideas expressed in his books, Rules for Radicals and Revile
for Radicals.
Included in the ranks of
Community Organizers are Barack Obama and Cesar Chavez.
Marshall Ganz, community organizer and former
lieutenant of César Chávez, adapted techniques from community organizing for Obama's
2008 presidential election. Obama was the lead
organizer in Chicago for the Alinskyian Developing Communities. “The Developing Communities Project”, which hired Obama as
lead organizer, was an offshoot of the Calumet Community Religious Conference
of Alinsky-trained Jerry Kellman. The network of community organizations
Alinsky founded, known as the Industrial Areas Foundation, also received CCHD
grants. [Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Ed.] The grants are being used,
however, not just to seize power, but to change the minds of traditional
Catholics. Indeed, this is a necessary prerequisite for taking power.” (1) The Developing Community Project operated
under the Gamaliel Foundation, which received CCHD Grants and whose lead
organizer was ex-Jesuit, Greg Galuzzo.
The Faith Based Community
Organization, Gamaliel, has been
concerned with issues arising from the recent demonstrations and riots in
Ferguson, Missouri. They will be holding a national leaders’ retreat in nearby
Florissant, Mo in early December, 2014. Their
affiliate in St. Louis is called the Metropolitan
Congregations United and this group’s interfaith membership includes a fair
number of Catholic groups or parishes in the St. Louis area. “The same
separatist, anti-American theology of liberation that was so boldly and
bitterly proclaimed by Obama’s pastor is shared, if more quietly, by Obama’s
Gamaliel colleagues. The operative word here is ‘quietly.’ Gamaliel specializes
in ideological stealth.”(2)
Gamaliel offers Continuing Education
credits for participation in their national training programs. Credit is made available through their
partner, the Jesuit’s St. Louis University. Such credit is
usable in 50 states. They say their method is Socratic. (Or dialectical consensus?)
They say their style is “agitational”, which is hardly a Christian attitude for
an organization that claims to be ‘faith based’. They also offer a
three day training program for Clergy.(3) Are the Clergy to be counted in the
ranks of agitators?
Has
Liberation Theology’s ideology combined with community organizing been applied
to promote changes in immigration procedures and policies here in America? Judi
McLeod has a lot to say on that subject in her article entitled “Executive Amnesty’s
Alinsky Inspired ‘Bishop Gate”. The top caption says: “The Obama
administration was bankrolling America's churches
as far back as 2010 in preparation for the November 2014 invasion of American
sovereignty”.(4)
Remember that Obama is a Community Organizer “par excellence” and he was well
trained in Alinsky tactics.
Liberation
Theology has in some or perhaps even most instances been sanitized of its
militant aspects but since it still focuses on redistribution of wealth,
doesn’t it remain socialistic? The question is how great are the inroads of Marxist-inspired
Liberation Theology and Community Organization into classroom catechesis and
other classroom subjects in order to accommodate erroneous concepts of
preferential treatment of the poor, globalism, Agenda 21 Environmentalism, and
redistribution of wealth? Liberation theology has been discouraged and
criticized by the Magisterium and Popes, yet how much of this Marxist model has
been incorporated into Catholic Peace and Social Justice Programs in both
schools and the Church? (See “Social
Justice in the Schools”).(5)
THE JESUITS AND LIBERATION
THEOLOGY: Up
until Vatican II the Jesuits had been called the “Pope’s Men”. In 1965, at
approximately the time of Vatican II, Fr. Pedro Arrupe was elected Father
General of the Jesuits. “Under Arrupe’s leadership, and in the heady
expectation of change sparked by the Council itself, the new outlook- antipapal
and socio-political in nature – that had been flourishing in a covert fashion
for over a century was espoused by the Society as a corporate body.”(6) The
Jesuits have always been highly regarded for their superior teaching skills and
have excelled in the field of education. However, what now motivates Jesuit
education? “The Society of Jesus –once known for rigorous orthodoxy and loyalty
to the Pope –became a hotbed of theological dissidence, on issues ranging from
the nature of the priesthood through the necessity of the Catholic Church to
the acceptance of homosexuality”.(7)
Under the Jesuit leadership of Fr. Arrupe, liberation theology found a new and
powerful advocate. “Farther Arrupe, the superior general 1965 to 1983, presided
over a dramatic transformation of the Jesuit order…consider the judgment of Time magazine, which recalls that
Arrupe’s leadership ‘saw the rise of radical Jesuit participation in politics,
from the anti-war movement in the US in the 1960s to the liberation theology
that swept Latin America’.”(8)
Thus began a long and protracted battle
between the leader of the Jesuits, Fr. Arrupe, and the Papacy.
Pope
John Paul denounced the People’s Church as absurd and perilous including its
strange ideological concoctions and political radicalization.
Piet-Hans
Kolvenbach succeeded Fr. Arrupe in 1981. “Kovenbach’s Generalate would be a
continuation of the ‘Arrupe spirit’ at the helm of the Order…The Jesuits…had no
intention of changing their course on neo-modernism”.(9)
The
current leader of the Jesuits, Father Adolfo Nicolas, is said to combine the
discretion of former superior general, Fr. Kolvenbach, with the spirit of
Arrupe. Nicholas, like Arrupe has been influenced by Asian religions. Fr.
Nicholas’ quest has been: how to get to the core of Ignatian spirituality
without speaking in Christian terms. Goals perhaps such as these prompted
Benedict XVI to warn over and over about the dangers of religious
indifferentism.
The Jesuit Pedagogy: Did these radical changes in
the Society of Jesus prompt the earlier Jesuit teaching formulas of “Ratio
Studiorum” to be replaced by the Ignatian Pedagogy, A Practical Approach,
formulated by the International Commission on the Apostolate of Jesuit
Education?(10) The theology of Ratio Studiorum included dogmatic and moral
theology, and all theology was under the guiding light of St. Thomas Aquinas. The
Ignatian Pedagogy report was released following studies of publications of the Characteristics
of Jesuit Education in 1986. Anyone who has a student in a Catholic school
should read the Ignatian Pedagogy document to understand the “progressive and
scientific education” methodologies of this paradigm. For an even more explicit
example of the “progressive mentors” who have influenced the Jesuit Pedagogy (Benjamin
Bloom, Robert Marzano, Fr. Arrupe, and Jerome Bruner, etc.) read A Privileged
Moment- Teachers and Learners Walking the Way of Ignatius.(11) As
Neo-Scholasticism was extremely diminished by Nouvelle Theology at Vatican II, is
anything of St. Thomas left in the revamped Jesuit paradigm?
One could question if this Pedagogy is not the
model for all schools, with Lorraine Ozar, of Catholic Common
Core fame, employed by the Jesuit’s
Loyola University in Chicago, endeavoring to insert the Ignatian Paradigm
Project (IPP) into Catholic education? Further, is this Ignatian Paradigm Project
truly based on the Spiritual Exercises and educational teachings of St.
Ignatius or is it just “Contemplation, Reflection, and Action” programed on
values clarification, Outcome Based Education (OBE), and Transformational
Teaching? Consider that St. Louis University’s website regarding information on
the Ignatian Pedagogy is found on their “Reinert Center for Transformational
Teaching and Learning”. OBE and Transformational Learning were embraced by
highly influential people like Lee Shulman, President Emeritus of The Carnegie
Foundation for Learning and Teaching. It
was he and Tony Byrk, current head of the Foundation, who met in 2007 with
Catholic educators, including Dr. Ozar, to assist in the restructuring of
Catholic education.
Although,
by 1984, the Nicaraguan bishops” blasted” The People’s Church, the Jesuit
Provincial of all Central American countries along with the Nicaraguan Jesuits
proclaimed that the Peoples Church was Christ’s Church and rejected all
episcopal claims to control that Church. By 1985, under the leadership Father
John Vaughn, the Franciscan Order had succumbed to Liberation Theology,
anti-consumerism, anti-capitalism, and a ‘non-hierarchic’ church structure.
Regarding all the above, is the Jesuit
reputation for excellent education and doctrinal correctness perhaps questionable?
To see the leading role prominent Jesuit educators and Universities played in
bringing Common Core to Catholic schools. (See Sources: “Catholic Education in America:
To Deceive the Elec,t” below.)
How much Liberation Theology and
Community Organization is being taught to students in the classroom and in
their mandatory service projects today? And with regard to Liberation Theology
and Community Service, how are Scripture readings being presented from the
pulpit? What is being promoted among
community parish groups which are quite possibly being subjected to sensitivity
training through strategic restructuring of the Church? (See Sources: Wake up, Catholics Part I and Cookie Cutter Common Core & Private Education, Part II.)
Currently
Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez, father of Liberation Theology, is an Endowed Professor
of the John Cardinal Professor O’Hara Department
of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. Professor John C. Cavadini, who chaired the
Theology Department of Notre Dame at the time of Gutierrez’s appointment, said
he recruited Gutierrez because he’s the leading Catholic libertarian
theologian, indeed the founder of the field. Professor Cavadini further stated
that the theology of Gutierrez grew out of the “resourcement” movement of the
mid-20th century theology. Ressourcement
is none other than the European Nouvelle
Theologie or Nouvelle Theology which brought about a subtle but seismic
shift within the Church at Vatican II. It has provided much of the rationale
for all the above.
Next: Nouvelle Theology and
Modernism
Footnotes:
1.
“Targeting American Catholics”. Gloria.tv, 6/18/2014. https://gloria.tv/media/55HG4XtDCRv
2. Malkin, Michelle, ”Creepy O-Cult Video of the
Day:’ Deliver us Obama!’ Updated”, 9/29/2009. http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/29/creepy-o-cult-video-of-the-day-deliver-us-obama/
3. Gamaliel,
http://www.gamaliel.org/ Main page with links to training,
immigration. County policing oversight. Ferguson activities, etc.
4. McLeod, Judi, “Executive Amnesty’s Alinksy-Like
‘Bishop-Gate’”. Canada Free Press,
November 23, 2014. http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/67784#.VHOOw_H9tYI.gmail
5. Kraus, Betsy, “Social
Justice in the Schools”. ABCs of Dumbdown, August 1, 2014. http://abcsofdumbdown.blogspot.com/2014/08/social-justice-in-schools.html
6. Martin,
Father Malachi, The Jesuits-The
Society of Jesus and the Betrayal of the Roman Catholic Church, A Touchstone Book published by Simon &
Schuster, 1987, Pages 35.
7. Ibid.
8. “The new ‘Black Pope’ promises more
Jesuit Turmoil”, Catholic Culture, January 21, 2008. http://www.catholicculture.org/news/features/index.cfm?recnum=56084
9. Martin, Father Malachi, The Jesuits-The Society of Jesus and the
Betrayal of the Roman Catholic Church,
A Touchstone Book published by Simon & Schuster, 1987, Pages 127.
10.” Ignatian Pedagogy, A Practical
Approach”, The International Commission of the Apostolate of Jesuit
Education (ICAJE), https://www.rockhurst.edu/media/filer_private/uploads/ignatian_pedagogy_a_practical_approach.pdf
11.
Lausch, Carolyn E., A Privileged Moment-
Teachers and Learners Walking the Way of Ignatius, Copyright Jesuit
Secondary Education Association. 2002. http://eduignaciana.tripod.com/docum/CELReflections.pdf
SOURCES
1. “Liberation
Theology”, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Last modified 10/20/14
http://en.wikipIgnatian
Pedagogyedia.org/wiki/Liberation_theology
2.
“Black Liberation Theology, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Last modified
11/24/2014.
3.
Kincaid, Cliff, “The Biggest Scandal: Catholic Church Funding of Acorn”, Accuracy
in Media. 9/22/2009. http://www.aim.org/aim-column/the-bigger-scandal-catholic-church-funding-of-acorn/
4.
“Community Organizing”, Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, last modified
11/20/14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_organizing
5. “Deliver us from Liberation
Theology” The Catholic Citizen, 2012.
6. Wake Up, Catholics.,http://abcsofdumbdown.blogspot.com/2014/09/wake-up-catholics.html
7. Wake Up, Catholics; Part II. http://abcsofdumbdown.blogspot.com/2014/09/cookie-cutter-common-core-private.html
8. “The new ‘Black Pope’ promises more Jesuit
Turmoil”, Catholic Culture, January 21, 2008. http://www.catholicculture.org/news/features/index.cfm?recnum=56084
9.
“Catholic Education in America: To Deceive the
Elect.” http://www.scribd.com/doc/179787173/Catholic-Education-in-America-To-Deceive-the-Elect. How
10.
Johnson, Charles, “The Vetting – Obamas’ war on Catholic Church Began At His
First Job”, Breitbart, April 12, 2012. http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/04/04/The-Vetting-Obamas-War-on-Catholic-Church-Began-at-First-Job
11. “Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching and
Learning”, St. Louis University.
