1. In order to answer the challenge leveled at our times by oppression and hunger, the Church's Magisterium has frequently expressed her desire to awaken Christian consciences to a sense of justice, social responsibility, and solidarity with the poor and the oppressed, and to highlight the present urgency of the doctrine and imperatives contained in Revelation.
2. We would like to mention some of these interventions here: the papal documents "Mater et Magistra", "Pacem in Terris", "Populorum progressio", and "Evangelii nuntiandi". We should likewise mention the letter to Cardinal Roy, "Octogesima adveniens".
3. The Second Vatican Council in turn confronted the questions of justice and liberty in the Pastoral Constitution, "Gaudium et Spes".
4. On a number of occasions, the Holy Father has emphasized these themes, in particular in the encyclicals "Redemptor hominis", "Dives in misericordia", and "Laborem exercens". These numerous addresses recall the doctrine of the rights of man and touch directly on the problems of the liberation of the human person in the face of the diverse kinds of oppression of which he is the victim. It is especially important to mention in this connection the Address given before the 26th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, October 2, 1979. [14] On January 28 of that same year, while opening the Third Conference of CELAM in Puebla, John Paul II affirmed that the complete truth about man is the basis for any real liberation. [15] This text is a document which bears directly upon the theology of liberation.
5. Twice the Synod of Bishops treated subjects which are directly related to a Christian conception of liberation: in 1971, justice in the world, and in 1974, the relationship between freedom from oppression and full freedom, or the salvation of mankind. The work of the Synods of 1971 and 1974 led Paul VI in his Apostolic Constitution "Evangelii nuntiandi" to clarify the connection between evangelization and human liberation of advancement. [16]
6. The concern for the Church for liberation and for human advancement was also expressed in the establishment of the Pontifical Commission, Justice and Peace.
7. Numerous national Episcopal Conferences have joined the Holy See in recalling the urgency of authentic human liberation and the routes by which to achieve it. In this context, special mention should be made of the documents of the General Conferences of the Latin American episcopate at Medellin in 1968 and at Puebla in 1979.
Paul VI was present at the Medellin Conference and John Paul II was at Puebla. Both dealt with the themes of conversion and liberation.
8. Following Paul VI, who had insisted on the distinctive character of the Gospel message, [17] a character which is of divine origin, John Paul II, in his address at Puebla, recalled the three pillars upon which any authentic theology of liberation will rest: truth about Jesus Christ, truth about the Church, and truth about mankind. [18]