Madam, – It is quite extraordinary for Naom Chomsky, who normally and so brilliantly dissects social phenomena, to equate the “end of Christianity with the defeat of Liberation theology” in El Salvador 20 years ago when six Jesuits, their housekeeper and daughter had their brains blown apart by Salvadoran forces acting under orders from the highest level (Home News, November 4th).
These Jesuit martyrs were indeed leading exponents of Liberation theology, but their martyrdom was not the deathknell of Liberation theology; that came about under the present pope when, as Cardinal Ratzinger of the Vatican agency for enforcing a reactive theology, he was instrumental in a bloodless but no less effective campaign which ruthlessly suppressed Liberation theologians. The good news is that, in spite of all this, the spirit of Liberation theology lives on as an expression of a renewed Christianity in Latin America. – Yours, etc,