No, the Vatican does not support true liberation theology or anything like it.

Bishops doubling down

I think the striking aspects of Leo's style comes down to a few points. Francis represented another version that focused on arguably less radical popular culture as the vehicle for liberation, rather than Marxist influenced proletarian politics. 🧵

These two impulses found a synthesis at the Aparecida conference (2007). The split was also shaped by concerns about Marxism as a colonising force, but was never absolute re economic justice.

Either way the cultural turn represented by Francis still can't be separated out from what classic liberation theologians would describe as a more conservative impulse - which may be reflected in the differences between Francis' and Leo's more forthright approaches.

I'm going to have to explain the whole history of liberation theology as political force (and not-force) in the Catholic Church sometime soon aren't I www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

I actually find liberation theology *fascinating* and it deeply interests me how much Pope Bob is clearly an adherent because it's actually a wild change of pace from how... I don't want to say suppressed, that's not exactly it, but... contained? It's been in the church until Francis

I do remember a discussion about it being something that was meant to be only for South America, and so the teacher that tried to introduce liberation theology into a Sydney catholic school was shot down very quickly. The idea of Leo being a fan fits in with that.

Bannon is doing something similar with Evola's traditionalism through both Catholicism and Orthodoxy, Vance is likely involved, and in general Bannon is trying to seed in Evola style trads into both churches. He's also trying to manipulate US based clergy into getting comfortable doing things that

Are outside church norms. For example this little event during the eclipse: www.rawstory.com/steve-bannon... Where in Catholic doctrine or tradition does it say that demons come out of the sun during an eclipse? Nowhere, it's just what you do when you want people comfortable praying to the sun.

President Donald Trump's casual dismissal of Jeffrey Epstein's survivors as "victims, or whatever" drew immediate fury on social media Thursday, with critics blasting him for being not just callous, but for outright lying.

Guénon was an esotericist who moved from Catholicism through theosophy to Sufi Islam, calling for elite aristocratic order and denouncing industrial materialism. In Sufism he saw a vessel for the false nostalgia of traditionalism to be preserved. Is Steve Bannon doing something similar with Vance?

Liberation theology is at best a misguided attempt to fit leftist politics into a niche of a reactionary institution, and at worst a form of reputation laundering for that same institution.

"a nation can only legitimately take up the sword ‘in #self-defense, once all #peace efforts have failed’ (Catechism of the #Catholic Church, no. 2308). That is, to be a #justwar it must be a defense against another who actively wages #war" #Theology

Stefanik: "I don't want to see the Pope as a politician. The president - he's going to stand strong for the American people. The president is a political figure. Of course he's going to engage in politics when he's politically attacked. I don't want to see the Pope get involved in domestic politics"

Wait until Donald Trump & JD Vance hear about the Catholic Church’s preferential option for the poor.

Pope Leo calls out Trump’s unhinged behavior, nuclear capability, and influence over millions, framing Trump as a serious threat to humanity and Christianity. www.msn.com/en-us/news/o...

BREAKING: In an unprecedented violation of religious liberty, the Trump–Vance White House has cut funding to Catholic Charities in Miami, shutting down a shelter for homeless children — just days after President Trump attacked Pope Leo XIV.

The Trump Admin has abruptly canceled an $11M contract with Catholic Charities to shelter and care for migrant children who enter the U.S. alone, ending a relationship between the Catholic Church and the U.S. government dating back to the first arrivals of Cuban exiles in South Florida.

Hegseth Borrows Violent Prayer from ‘Pulp Fiction’ to Bless Iran War at April Pentagon Worship Service

It's interesting watching people discover Marxism and Liberation Theology over and over again. When everything is monetized, we become alienated to the real relationships we have with our community, our world, and our work. We stand outside human emotion to judge only financial wins or losses.

True, but this is also why some of us don't return to the Roman church: If Pope Leo is right, then so were Benedict and JP2 when they excused capitalist genocide and a global war against sexual minorities.

Why convert to Catholicism then say the Pope is wrong about theology? If you want to be Christian without deferring to the Pope, there are many options. Isn’t “the Pope is wrong, the Church is wrong, I’m interpreting scripture myself and communing directly with God” why we have Protestants?

Fair. I'd argue people like Vance never really took his Catholicism seriously. He's one of the cultural Catholics that just use his faith as a ornate marker for Western/white identity.

Wealthy white cultural Catholics don't want you to take the faith seriously. The actual Gospel message of radical non-violence and a preferential option for the poor makes them uncomfortable. They want it to adorn their Whiteness under the guise of conventional cleanliness is closest to Godliness

When Arthur Holquin published his initial post decrying the selective outrage of Bill Donohue and the Catholic League in response to President Trump’s diatribe against Pope Leo XIV, a reader — a retired tax lawyer — left a comment that stopped Holquin cold. … 1/2

When I was in Catholic school, a watchdog group called the Catholic League would condemn speech like this as discriminatory and recommend a boycott. Only one problem: every Catholic League supporter I knew was an avowed Republican. So, what happens when the Republicans come for you?

We had an official chapter of the Catholic League at our high school! Imagine being 14-18 and aspiring to be like Bill Donahue.

MAGAts are willing to burn in hell for Donald Trump. #Trump #Pope #CatholicChurch #Catholics #Religion #Fundamentalists #PopeLeo #Libtard #MAGA

Notice how Christian nationalists suddenly believe in the separation of church and state when Bishop Mariann Budde asks the president to be merciful, when the Pope asks the president to be peaceful, and when anyone suggests that the government should take better care of the poor.

This is pointless whining, while the pope could kick JD Vance out of the Catholic Church tonight.

Butterfly's Box of Saints, April 11th - Tom Cornell An American journalist and a peace activist against the Vietnam War and the Iraq War. He was an associate editor of the Catholic Worker and a deacon in the Catholic Church.

Yeah I think what’s happening is Trump bringing into view for normies the long brewing antagonism of the US Catholic Right toward, well, Catholicism. Sort of a protest. We could call them, I dunno, “protest-ants.” (But “assholes” also works.)

Incredible seeing liberation theology, some 36 years after the massacre in El Salvador and almost 60 years after Medellín, finish the long march through the institutions and confront the dying spasms of US imperialism from the holy see.

I studied Liberation Theology when I was at uni, and let me tell you, you do NOT want to mess with an angry machine gun toting Catholic priest

I think it a little more likely that Bergoglio drew social justice principles from his faith, than from the liberation theology which he opposed. YMMV. Putting up with and placating the USA is not revolving around it, any more than putting up an umbrella is revolving around the rain. Again, YMMV.

Been reading James Cone's, "A Black Theology of Liberation" and think his analysis of American white theology is INCREDIBLY on-time, given that we all woke up to Trump arguing against peace with the Pope while sharing imagery of himself as the Christ.

I doubt that Pope Leo XIV will lose any sleep over this, before he begins his pilgrimage to Africa tomorrow. But the rest of us should. Because it is unhinged, uncharitable and unchristian. Is there no bottom to this moral squalor?

He's also steeped in Latin American Liberation Theology and looks up to Romero. Unlike Trump, this is a man of true conviction willing to pay great sacrifices, a kind of person Trump simply cannot understand or even conceive of.

Paul Williams from "Blogging Theology" describes his journey from fundamentalist Christianity to Islam after engaging with academic biblical scholarship. 🧵 1/6

For those interested in the new book about the Bund, this video presents an overview of the Bund that is much more accurate than what I see in the book publicity. (Haven't yet read the book itself.) Tony Michels is a leading historian of the Jewish left in the US. www.youtube.com/watch?v=uigz...

Catholic Workers Advocate for Christian Nonviolence open.substack.com/pub/catholic...

Fox News is alarmed that teenagers are having fewer kids.

FOX'S SEAN HANNITY: LIAR & PROUD OF IT Fox's Sean Hannity says he knew all along Trump lost the election Hannity admitted under oath he never believed the lie that Trump was cheated of victory in 2020 www.npr.org/2022/12/22/1...

There was an old joke that "a Fundamentalist is someone who wants for the country what God would want for the country if God really understood what was happening." Hannity goes the full New Canaan, wonders aloud if the Pope has ever read the Bible. www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity...

My book, The Justice of Jesus, has been out for over 6 months now and it is somehow still the #1 Bestseller in Liberation Theology on Amazon Canada. Truly astounded, friends! Thank you. 🙏🏽 Get your copy here: linktr.ee/joashpthomas

Sadly, in most of Latin America, among most of its people- & in most of the Global South- the U.S has never had the moral legitimacy that Fareed Zakaria & Ezra Klein are in mourning about here. The "road back" from Iran- & Gaza, among other moral stains on US honor- must reckon first w/history