Central & Southern america

• in the late twentieth century, the extreme poverty caused by political corruption and suppression of any attempt to seek justice elicited two approaches to the problem
• approach 1:

  some leaders of the Catholic Church, including the pope at that time, advocated a non-confrontational and non-violent response
• approach 2:

  other leaders of the catholic church joined forces with secular protest groups in order to force change. this became known as the liberationist approach
• some saw violent action as the only way of removing corruption and establishing justice for the poor
• archbishop Oscar Romero denounced the government's oppression of the poor and violation of human rights in El Salvador, which led to his assassination in 1980. the resulting global publicity raised international awareness of the situation in El Salvador and of the church's denunciation of it
• liberationist approaches= they start by analysing the situation of the poor and oppressed and then use the gospel to challenge the causes of their poverty and oppression
• the preferential option for the poor= refers to the catholic teaching on social justice; it is about giving the marginalised in society the justice that is due to them. meeting their needs is an absolute priority in Christian living