130 Gutiérrez, Gustavo
Some radical priests and nuns followed this program
and fought with Marxist guerrilla groups in Latin
America. The papacy denounced this revolutionary,
violent involvement, but under Pope John Paul II, it
also called for political reform and concern for improv-
ing social justice for the poor in Latin America. The
democratic component of liberation theology also
called for a loosening of church HIERARCHY (priests
from bishops) and allowing Catholic lay involvement
in politics without the intermediary of the church.
By the late 20th century, liberation theology was
less popular in South America, as democratic move-
ments and economic development emerged there. But
it affected the liberal, mainline Protestant churches in
the United States and Europe (Episcopal, Presbyterian,
United Church of Christ), which adopted much of the
Marxist class-struggle rhetoric in their policies on CIVIL
RIGHTS, women’s rights, and “economic JUSTICE” (or
“racism, sexism, and classism”). This caused the lib-
eral North American churches to sympathize with
socialist Cuba, Nicaragua, the Soviet Union, and
China. Among CONSERVATIVECatholics and EVANGELICAL
Christians, liberation theology was rejected as heretical
and socialistic. It did heighten the Vatican’s sensitivity
to poverty in the developing countries and the church’s
call to help the poor and oppressed of the world.
Gutiérrez studied at the National University of Peru
and the Universities of Louvain and Lyon in France
and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1959. He taught
theology at the Catholic University in Lima, Peru.