Christians must decide definitively for the revolution . . . [but] they must come without the pretension of evangelizing the Marxists and without the cowardice of hiding their faith in order to assimilate themselves . . . When Christians dare to give an integral revolutionary testimony, the Latin American revolution will be invincible.
—Che Guevara
More than 400 self-proclaimed "Christians for Socialism," meeting in Santiago, Chile, last month, acted on Che's prophecy. They declared that the time has come for "a strategic alliance of revolutionary Christians and Marxists in the process of liberating the continent." Participants in the meeting, from all 28 Latin American countries, the U.S., Canada and Europe, were both Protestant and Roman Catholic; they were social scientists, missionaries, teachers, theologians, social workers. Some were nuns. The majority were Roman Catholic priests. One bishop took a leading role: Don Sergio Mendez Arceo of Cuernavaca, Mexico.
The "class struggle," said the socialists' congress, has so sharpened in Latin America that there remain "only two possibilities: dependent capitalism and underdevelopment, or socialism." The participants emphasized that they want to use Marxian economic and social analysis as a tool to transform society, but do not accept philosophical Marxism's doctrine of atheistic materialism. It "does not mean for Christians an abandonment of their faith, but rather gives renewed impetus to their hopes in the future of Christ."
To what extent were the Santiago activists speaking for their Christian brethren throughout Latin America? In terms of numbers, radical Latin American clerics are a small minority everywhere. But in some countries, at least, they form a vocal, dedicated cadre determined to influence the masses through conscientizacion—"consciousness raising"—or as some now prefer, politizacion. Chile's radical priests' organization, which is led by Jesuit Gonzalo Arroyo, the congress organizer, is called the Group of 80—in a nation that has 2,500 priests. An Argentine priests' group, the Third World Movement, claims 400 members out of a clergy numbering 5,200. Mexico's new Movement of Priests for the People says it has 100 priests (out of the nation's 8,700). Peru has its National Office of
Social Information (ONIS), an organization that includes both native priests and missionaries (TIME, Feb. 22, 1971).
Other major countries show less organized involvement. Colombia, home of Rebel Priest Camilo Torres, martyred hero of the left, has virtually no radical Christian organization; the once active Golconda movement has all but disappeared for lack of leadership. Brazil's Dom Helder Camara, Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, is still an outspoken proponent of "liberation," and many of Brazil's priests and bishops, while quiet on ideology, are actively working for change. But the government has become so repressive that it now censors even church newspapers; no visible leftist priests' movement could hope to exist.