Yearning to Be Free

"Don't separate your faith from your politics," Pope John Paul II exhorted Polish Catholics in Krakow, Poland during his August 2002 pilgrimage. The Pope urged the Polish faithful to continue along the path of democracy which they had laid in the wake of communism. The message from both Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II, as well as now Pope Benedict XVI to Catholics worldwide, since the end of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, has been that a person's faith must inform his or her political views and activities. In this manuscript, the historical relationship between the Catholic Church and the peoples of Latin America on the formation, development, and political implications of liberation theology is examined. This manuscript focuses, in particular, upon events and developments taking place since 1965 when the Catholic Church concluded its institutional modernization via the Second Vatican Council.