Cardinal Bergoglio, now Pope Francis: Against liberalism, critic of the IMF and foreign debt

[Catherina]

16. I have more faith than you do but you could be right

Only time will tell.

About those allegations, they're totally false.

If I had my preference, a Leftist Marxist theologist would have been chosen but that's about as unrealistic as expecting the US to allow a Marxist anywhere near Congress. He has respect from the Left and the Right. Several Liberation theologians have given him their open support via public endorsements and personally, I don't think the gulf between official Church positions and Liberation theology is that wide. The place where it's made to appear the widest is in the English press.

In March 1983, Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), made ten observations of Gutiérrez's theology, accusing Gutiérrez of politically interpreting the Bible in supporting temporal messianism, and stating that the predominance of orthopraxis over orthodoxy in his thought proved a Marxist influence. Ratzinger objected that the spiritual concept of the Church as "People of God" is transformed into a "Marxist myth." In liberation theology he declared, the "people is the antithesis of the hierarchy, the antithesis of all institutions, which are seen as oppressive powers. Ultimately anyone who participates in the class struggle is a member of the "people"; the "Church of the people" becomes the antagonist of the hierarchical Church."[24]

Cardinal Ratzinger did praise liberation theology in some respects, including its ideal of justice, its rejection of violence, and its stress on "the responsibility which Christians necessarily bear for the poor and oppressed."[25] He subsequently stated that no one could be neutral in the face of injustice, and referred to the "crimes" of colonialism and the "scandal" of the arms race. Nonetheless, media reports tended to assume that the condemnation of "liberation theology" meant a rejection of such attitudes and an endorsement of conservative politics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_theology

I'm not sure what that article is referring to by "efforts for structural reform". Do they mean within the Church or politically? I took it to mean Church structure but I could be wrong.

Only time is going to tell on this one I think.