A Comparative Evaluation of Combating Oppression Model from the Roman Catholic Church and Latin American Liberation Theology’s Perspective

In Latin American countries during the 1960s and 1970s, a theological movement emerged in the Catholic Church, which was called liberation theology due to its orientation. This theological movement offered a religious model for fighting oppression and supporting the poor. However, the liberation struggle model was not approved by the Roman Catholic Church. The aim of this article is to explain the relationship between liberation theology and the Roman Catholic Church in order to understand the commonalities and differences between these two Christian readings of struggle. In this article, we have examined the model of fighting oppression from the perspective of the Roman Catholic Church and Latin American liberation theology with an analytical and comparative approach, using the method of content analysis and with the help of library resources. The result is that liberation theology has many things in common with the Roman Catholic Church in the areas of the foundations of "belief in: legislative and creational guidance, the divinity of man, human dignity, punishment and reward in the afterlife, rational goodness and ugliness, combating oppression as a value", and the goals of "creating security, laying the groundwork for the realization of the kingdom of God, bringing the world to perfection, the right to equality and freedom, justice, love, the common good, solidarity". However, the fundamental differences of liberation theology in the areas of the foundations of "exclusive emphasis on combating oppression, the view of God's absolute favoritism towards the poor, supporting the poor as a duty" and the method of "using the Marxist method as a tool, theology as a basis, and a hard struggle to achieve the goal" have caused its fundamental distinction from the Catholic Church and, as a result, the Roman Catholic Church has not accepted the liberation discourse.