Leonardo Boff - Brazil

Leonardo Boff has been preaching an activist gospel in Brazil for decades. Although no longer a priest, Boff is still a theologian and an active member of a Christian community in Brazil. He was more or less forced out nearly four years ago after a battle with the Vatican over his penchant for mixing politics with religion.

Boff says the Catholic Church is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the poor. The people he works with now are committed to building a better world not because they are Christians but because they are profoundly human. The poor in Brazil are now finding a vision of social justice and community in the 'comunidades de base' or 'Base Christian Communities'. There are more than 100,000 of these grassroots Christian groups in Brazil which attempt to fuse the teachings of Christ with a liberating social gospel.

Boff believes these are the places where liberation theology is lived concretely and where the political dimensions of a liberating faith come into play. He says that the poor must understand that poverty is not natural. The 'communidades de base' continue to spawn leaders who work on behalf of the poor - in trade unions, political parties and in community organizations.

Boff admits the world has changed dramatically since the birth of liberation theology 20 years ago in Latin America. He says that today the problem is no longer marginalization of the poor but complete exclusion. The question now is how to survive. That's why liberation theology deals with fundamental issues like work, health, food, and shelter.

Economic globalization and the spread of poverty is of particular concern to Boff, who says the poor are much worse off today than 30 or 40 years ago. He says that in Brazil the excluded don't believe in the old myths of development anymore. They feel that development has been at their cost and not for their benefit. "Brazil has 150 million inhabitants, and for a third of them the system functions well, but for the other 100 million it is a disaster."

The ex-cleric is especially attuned to the ecological costs of industrial development. "The earth has arrived at the limits of its sustainability. Our task is not to create sustainable development, but a sustainable society - human beings and nature together."

In the meantime, Boff argues, the first step toward change is for the poor to take charge of their own lives. "The institutional Church counts on the support of the economic and political powers." As far as Boff is concerned, "the Pope's approach to the world is feudalistic. He wants a Church of the rich for the poor, but not with the poor."

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