Balthasar on Liberation Theology

"I Feel that the combined efforts of theology in the United States and Europe should also be directed toward helping the Latin American theology of liberation, which often becomes self-seeking and confused. I mean helping to clarify it with a sympathetic understanding of its genuine claims. Teilhard de Chardin (the French Jesuit philosopher) saw the future of theology as supranational, global, but he did not recognize the concerns of liberation theology. We must include them in our theological thinking, but in doing so, we must show greater discernment than our South American brothers do. Usually, their analysis of social situations is based impulsively on Marxist categories of "exploiting" and "exploited" countries... The tragic situation is more complex and we must show them that.

... The exponents of this third (liberation) direction must learn - with all due regard to their justified claims - that the Kingdom of God cannot be coerced into existence by any amount of social or political effort. It remains the gift of God and of the returning Lord to a world that cannot perfect itself by its own efforts."

- Hans Urs von Balthasar, "Current Trends in Catholic Theology", Communio(Sprint, 1978) pp. 84-85.