The new evangelization in Latin American perspective

20. This echoes Catholic social teaching in early documents such as Rerum Novarum (1891) and Quadragesimo Anno (1931), which encouraged laypeople to participate in organizations such as trade unions - but under the guidance of the church.

21. John Paul II, "Opening Address," 51.

22. These are the same men who run the parish's central coordinating committee; they thus lead the parish's two most important projects.

23. It is important to keep in mind that early CEBs in El Salvador also focused on local and family issues until the mid-1970s, when political repression and the war diverted the attention of many activists. See Pablo Galdamez, The Faith of a People: The Life of a Base Christian Community in El Salvador (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1986).

24. See Karol Wojtyla, "The Problem of the Constitution of Culture through Human Praxis," in Person and Community: Selected Essays (New York: Peter Lang, 1993).

25. John Paul II, Catechesi Tradendae (1979), no. 53.

26. CELAM, "Conclusions," 83.

27. Paula Montero, "Tradicao e modernidade: Joao Paulo e o problema da cultura." Revista Brasileira de Ciencias Sociais 7, no. 20 (October 1992): 90-112.

28. International Theological Commission, "Faith and Inculturation," in New Directions in Mission and Evangelization I: Basic Statements 1974-91, ed. James A. Scherer and Stephen B. Bevans (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1992), 157. Emphasis added.

29. Penny Lernoux, People of God: The Struggle for World Catholicism (New York: Viking, 1989), 133.

30. See Ralph Della Cava, "The Ten Year Crusade Towards the Third Millennium: An Account of Evangelization 2000 and Lumen 2000," in The Right and Democracy in Latin America, ed. Douglas Chalmers, Maria do Carmo Campello de Souza, and Atilio Boron (New York: Praeger, 1992). Opus Dei has not fallen from papal favor. In April 1995, the pope named an Opus Dei member (and strong opponent of liberation theology) as archbishop of San Salvador.

31. David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity (Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1989), 41.

32. Influenced by John Paul, the bishops at Santo Domingo asserted that "Postmodernity is the product of the failure of the reductionistic pretension of modern reason. It leads humanity to question some of the gains of modernity, such as trust in unlimited progress . . ." CELAM, "Conclusions," 142.

33. "The Church values the democratic system [that] ensures participation of citizens in making political choices, guarantees to the governed the possibility of electing and holding accountable those who govern and of replacing them through peaceful means when appropriate." John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, no. 46.

34. This conclusion is suggested in passing by Jose-Maria Ghio, "The Latin American Church and the Papacy of Wojtyla," in The Right and Democracy in Latin America, ed. Douglas A. Chalmers, Maria do Carmo Campello de Souza, and Atilio Boron (New York: Praeger, 1992). According to Ghio, the restoration program "recovers elements of preconciliar Catholicism but it also integrates - although in modified form - some aspects that can be readily attributed to the heritage of Medellin" (189). For an analysis of the meaning and impact of the new evangelization in Europe, see Rene Luneau and Paul Ladriere, La reve de Compostelle: Vers la restauration d'une Europe chretienne (Paris: Centurion, 1989).