Episcopal Press and News

Liberation Theologian Boff Leaving Priesthood

Episcopal News Service. August 19, 1992 [92179E]

Leonardo Boff, one of Latin America's most articulate liberation theologians, is leaving the priesthood. In a June 28 "Letter to My Fellow Travelers on the Journey of Hope," Boff said, "I am leaving the Franciscan Order but not putting aside the tender and fraternal dream of St. Francis of Assisi." In a 1984 book on St. Francis, Boff wrote, "The periphery is where the great prophets arise, where the reforming movements are born and where the Spirit flourishes. The periphery has theological privilege, because it is there that the son of God was born." Boff said that he cannot take the power structure of the church any more, and has been pushed to the limit by this power that, Boff charges, "forgets nothing, forgives nothing, exacts a price for everything." He said, "Before I become bitter, before I see the human bases of Christian faith and hope destroyed in me, before I see the evangelical image of God as communion-of-persons shaken, I prefer to change course, not direction."