Social Scientist. v 4, no. 38 (Sept 1975) p. 48.


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Christians for Socialism

An international conference which met in Quebec during April this year was concerned with the deteriorating world situation and the Christian responsibility for social change. The final communique was found interesting enough for publication, with a view to generating discussion among the readers. We expect some of this debate to crystalline in the form of communications to the SOCIAL SCIENTIST.

AS REPRESENTATIVES of Christian groups we have come together from various countries of Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia and Africa, for an international conference. In the three years since the first Latin American conference of "Christians for Socialism" in Santiago, Chile, in April 1972, Christians committed to the struggle for liberation have grown in number and extended throughout the world. As part of this current, we attempt here to define and develop our action and thought as a point of reference for Christians in the international class struggle today.

During this conference we have undertaken a political analysis of the present crisis of transnational capitalism, as well as of the struggles of peoples for liberation and the construction of socialism. Starting from the perspective of our political action, we have redefined community life, reflection, communication and celebration of our faith in Christ. Likewise, we have reflected on the situation of our churches, nationally and internationally, and also on the rise of a popular and proletarian Christanity, capable of emancipating itself from the domination of bourgeois ideology. We look with hope toward the emergence of a liberating evangelization and toward the establishment of a church of the people. Lastly, we analyze within this new Christian current the prospects of "Christians for Socialism". We present, in this final document, part of the intense work of the commissions and plenary sessions.

Today the world is suffering from an economic crisis, but the oppressed classes always live in crisis. Hunger is a permanent and cruel reality for millions of men, women and children of Asia, Africa and Latin America where now rural unemployment is invading the cities. In the face of this crisis the conspicuous consumption of the wealthy classes is a scandal. In the capitalist countries of the southern hemisphere, the political



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