The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola have a structure which forms a counterpoint to racism and can help social activists in their confrontation with it.
At a time when the church’s doctrinal teachings on faith and morals are questioned everywhere, the relevance of such teachings to the believers brought up in diverse contexts is of utmost importance.
In a world that was coming to understand the structural underpinnings of poverty and violence, Father Gutiérrez was a prophet who saw clearly how the Christian proclamation of salvation involved not merely the afterlife but included human liberation in this life as well.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, didn’t think much of bishops’ conferences. Among those who disagreed with the cardinal was Francis A. Sullivan, S.J.