Latin American Episcopal Conference
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CELAM (Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano - Latin American Episcopal Conference) is an Episcopal Conference of the Roman Catholic Church, created in 1955 in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).
Based in Bogotá (Colombia), the CELAM pushed the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) toward a more progressive stance. During the four next years, CELAM prepared 1968 Medellin Conference, in Colombia, officially supporting "base ecclesiastic communities" and the Liberation theology founded by Gustavo Gutiérrez in his 1972 essay, A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics and Salvation.
CELAM support to Liberation theology was frowned on by the Vatican, Pope Paul VI trying to slow the movement after the 1962-1965 Council. Antonio Cardinal Samore, in charge of relations between the Roman Curia and the CELAM as the leader of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, was ordered to put a term to this orientation.
With Alfonso López Trujillo's election in 1972 as general secretary of the CELAM, conservatives gained control of this organization as well as of the Roman Curia. Considered a papabile at the 2005 Papal conclave, López Trujillo stayed CELAM's general secretary until 1984.
However, at the 1979 CELAM's Conference of Puebla, conservative reorientation of the CELAM was met by strong opposition from the progressive part of the clergy, which defined the concept of a "preferiential option for the poor". But with the election of Pope John Paul II, conservatives took control of both the Roman Curia and the CELAM. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, was charged of bringing back the Vatican's authority in the third-world. In 1984 and 1986, the Vatican condemned twice Liberation theology, accusing it of marxist influence.
In his travel in Managua, Nicaragua, John Paul II harshly condemned what he dubbed the "popular Church" (i.e. "base ecclesiastic communities" supported by the CELAM) and, against Nicaraguan clergy tendencies to support the Sandinistas, insisting on the Vatican's sole and only authority.
Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga was CELAM's general secretary from 1995 to 1999, and Cardinal Luis Aponte Martínez also has been one.
