In 1984 the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith publishedan Instruction on Certain Aspects of the 'Theology ofLiberation', known from the first two words of its Latin text as Libertatis Nuntius. The intention of this document was, itsays, 'limited and precise', which was

The issue, then, was Marxism, or the use of it within some versions of liberationtheology. The document is careful to point out that it offers no general criticismof liberation theology as such, at any rate insofar as liberation theology isdefined by its response to the 'preferential option for the poor'; nor, it adds,should its criticisms of liberation theology on the score of its Marxism 'serve asan excuse for those who maintain an attitude of neutrality and indifference in theface of the tragic and pressing problems of human misery and injustice'. TheApostolic See, it goes on, has a good record of denunciation, for it 'has notceased to denounce the scandal involved in the gigantic arms race', nor does itany longer tolerate 'the shocking inequality between rich and poor' the injuriesof which to the poor, it notes, are aggravated by 'the memory of crimes of acertain type of colonialism'.