Mary and Human Liberation

The concerned reader and searcher for the truth of the Blessed Virgin Mary may well turn to Mary: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow and of course Mary: Model of Justice (Reflections on the Magnificat) and also of course to this present text prepared by the great Sri Lankan and Reverend Father Balasuriya, a Catholic priest and theologian who was trained in the pre-Vatican Council period at the hallowed, ancient, orthodox and traditional Gregorian Institute. This present book gathers therefore this important Marian text together with associated reactionary documents and thus deserves a slim place upon your Catholic theology or Church History shelves alongside such similar collections as Faithful Dissent and the gathering of Church documents in the Schillebeeckx Case, as this book as well presents in one place nearly all of the correspondence and related documents stemming from this landmark statement of Marian theology. This present volume includes therefore the original text in question, on Mary and Human Liberation, for your lectio divina and contemplation of the Mystery of the Virgin Mary and her relevance for us today, in her powerful praying of the Magnificat. This book also contains for your careful consideration all related primary materials of official reactions and responses. I only wish it also included the Sollemnis Professio Fidei written by Pope Paul VI and signed before witnesses by the then 72 year old Reverend Father Tissa Balasuriya OMI as normative of our Faith, rather than the unorthodox and peculiar Profession of Faith forcefully required under pain of prosecution by the arbitrary CDF of those dark and damaging days. Having failed to find any substantial basis of error in the writings themselves, and having been fully and satisfactorily answered by the Reverend Father Balasuriya in texts reproduced herein, it forced the procedural machinations of an irregular Profession of Faith, far from the first level tenets of our Faith and thus unacceptable to any Catholic as abnormally laden with the personal politics of the prefect, particularly a priest and brilliant Catholic theologian well trained nearly fifty years earlier at the pre-Conciliar Gregorian Institute in Rome. As the Reverend Father Balasuriya, as a well trained Catholic theologian, correctly declined to sign such an irregular, extraordinary and unjustified document which did not represent a Profession of True Faith required of any other Catholic, the autocratic CDF arbitrarily and without just cause temporarily took the extreme action of automatic excommunication of this fine and Catholic priest. Especially important to read is the "Response to Joseph Ratzinger" which closes this collection. Having failed to substantiate any findings of heresy in the text brought into question (also included in this collection and important for us to read), the CDF suddenly late in the day alluded to the spectre of Marxism as the basis for some of the theology of Father Balasuriya, rather

This important text with associated documents demands and deserves a place on your recent Church History shelf alongside such classic works as Faithful Dissent and the Schillebeeckx Case as collecting all documents related to certain arbitrary actions by the SCDF in the 80's and 90's. This present volume includes, unlike the others cited, the original text in question, for your careful consideration of all relevant primary materials, and for your edification in lectio divina of a great and important work of Catholic Theology. I only wish it also included the Sollemnis Professio Fidei written by Pope Paul VI and signed before witnesses by the then 72 year old Reverend Father Tissa Balasuriya OMI as normative of our Faith, rather than the unorthodox and peculiar Profession of Faith required by the arbitrary CDF of those dark days. Having failed to find a substantial basis of error in the writings themselves, and having been fully and satisfactorily answered by the Reverend Father Balasuriya in texts reproduced herein, it forced the procedural machinations of an irregular Profession of Faith, far from the first level tenets of our Faith and thus unacceptable to any Catholic as abnormally laden with the personal politics of the prefect, particularly a priest and brilliant Catholic theologian well trained nearly fifty years earlier at the pre-Conciliar Gregorian Institute in Rome. As the Reverend Father Balasuriya, as a well trained Catholic theologian, correctly declined to sign such an irregular, extraordinary and unjustified document which did not represent a Profession of True Faith required of any other Catholic, the autocratic CDF arbitrarily and without just cause temporarily took the extreme action of automatic excommunication of this fine and Catholic priest. Especially important to read is the "Response to Joseph Ratzinger" which closes this collection. Having failed to substantiate any findings of heresy in the text brought into question (also included in this collection and important for us to read), the CDF suddenly late in the day alluded to the spectre of Marxism as the basis for some of the theology of Father Balasuriya, rather than his close and careful training in the Vatican. The same ruse had been attempted in the first CDF instruction on Liberation Theology, until the Reverend Father Gustavo Gutierrez (original author of A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics and Salvation, etc.), among other theologians, asked the CDF to find any reference at all in their writings to Karl Marx. The Reverend Father Tissa Balasuriya, OMI, over seventy years old at the time, a lifelong Catholic with a half century of priesthood, a respected and influential Catholic theologian, pre-Conciliar Vatican trained, even more eloquently if here succinctly declares: "Was the Jesus Gospel of social justice 'deduced from European theses which can be taken back to the Marxist interpretation according to which religious and priests construct for thems

In this polemic book, Fr. Tissa (one of the principal thinkers of the Feminist Theology), seek for the original Mary, the mother of Jesus. The search was centered in the Gospel, especially on the "Magnificat", with that the author tried to scape from all the thoughts that the european tradition add to the Mary image. Polemic, strong and clear, this book will show you a new Mary, closer to the reality, the poors and the liberation struggle.