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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW SOU officials: Handwritten note found in campus building prompted Wednesday closure ... Our View: Buckley leaves his mark ... Mochas, midrash and mysteries: Skorka and Francis — a model interfaith friendship ... SOU officials: Handwritten note found in campus building prompted Wednesday closure ... Our View: Buckley leaves his mark ... Mochas, midrash and mysteries: Skorka and Francis — a model interfaith friendship ... RELOCATIONS Herb Rothschild Jr.: The pope and South America Comment DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Oct. 3, 2015 at 12:01 AM Posted Oct. 3, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News What Pope Francis’s visit brought to my mind was that something extraordinary happened in South America when we weren’t paying attention. In one nation after another, military regimes have been replaced by elected governments, and the neo-liberal economic policies promoted by the U.S. have been challenged with considerable success. The mainstream media hasn’t helped us follow these trends, which emerged most clearly since the turn of the century. That’s because the five or six developments beyond our borders that the media focus on at any given time are what the White House indicates are worth attending to, and since 2001 its occupants have been fixated on the Middle East. It’s instructive to compare the current political landscape in South America with what it was in 1977, the year Penny Lernoux published her influential Cry of the People: The Struggle for Human Rights in Latin America. There were military dictatorships in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. To varying degrees the U.S. befriended most of them. Lernoux focused on two interconnected realities. One was the intense political repression across much of the continent. The other was the change of allegiance by major sectors of the Roman Catholic Church from the privileged to the poor, who made up the vast majority of their flocks. That historic change, announced at the Latin American Episcopal Conference in Medellín, Colombia, in 1968, was called the Preferential Option for the Poor. For a time, the church in Latin America was a church of the martyrs. Then, Pope John Paul II, whose bitter experience with Soviet-imposed Communism in Poland made him wary of anything smacking of Marxism, suppressed Liberation Theology and discouraged clerics from working openly for social change. His policies were continued under Benedict XVI, formerly his close adviser in the Curia. When Francis I was elected Pope, some charged that he hadn’t done enough to protect activist priests targeted by Argentina’s military junta during the Dirty War (1976-83). He has defended his record, and we’ll never know how much pressure that murderous regime put on him. But it’s obvious from his numerous papal proclamations that he was deeply influenced by the Preferential Option for the Poor. Meanwhile, our nation’s ability to control the politics and economics of South American nations has diminished. The Latin American members of the Organization of American States have ended U.S. domination of that organization, including our insistence that Cuba be excluded (one factor in Obama’s decision to resume relations with Cuba). Our effort to extend NAFTA to all of South America through the Free Trade Area of the Americas pact was stymied. Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez survived a U.S.-blessed coup attempt in 2002, continued to publicly defy George W. Bush, and used his nation’s oil wealth to counterpoise the influence of U.S. economic aid. And so it has gone. Does this mean that all the current regimes are governing fairly and effectively? Hardly. But the continent has come a long way since 1977, when entire populations were living in terror. Advocates of economic and social justice wield much more influence now, and often get elected to the top leadership. In sum, South Americans have found new space to work out their own destinies. Pope Francis’s visit added legitimacy to the call for economic justice in our own country, where wealth distribution is now more similar to the nations south of our border than to Europe and Japan. Our 2016 elections will help us gauge his impact. Herb Rothschild Jr. is chairman of the board of Peace House. DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Oct. 3, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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