“Mysterium liberationis queer”: Multiplying Theological Horizons

The book’s title refers to the two-volume Mysterium liberationis: Fundamental Concepts of Liberation Theology (ML), a now-canonical collection of essays from the 1980s defending a first generation of Latin American liberation theology to ecclesiastical authorities, other theologians, and the Christian faithful more broadly. This earlier book was published in Spanish in 1990 and co-edited by Basque-Salvadoran Jesuit priests Ignacio Ellacuría and Jon Sobrino of the Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas in San Salvador.

In the prologue to the newly-released MLQ, Jorge A. Aquino describes the first, preceding Mysterium liberationis as a “[…] transitional document” which “represents the maturation of the first generation of liberation theology, but at the cost of suffocating part of its revolutionary fire.” Aquino resists the methodology of the earlier Latin American liberation theologians which referred to material poverty as the “infrastructural” source of all oppression, relegating what Aquino calls “sociological oppressions” (e.g., sexism, racism, other cultural and religious supremacies) as merely added on. The editors and other contributors to MLQ stress that these oppressions are inextricably integrated, mutually informing and sustaining each other.

MLQ also places itself beyond the approval-seeking aspirations of its predecessor and sees its work as “multiplying the horizons of the previous project, instead of excluding vital options.” Without denying first-generation theologians’ emphasis on the evangelical option for the poor and drawing on Latinx theology’s option for culture, MLQ’s editors opt preferentially for queer sexual subjects and focus on bodies marginalized for reasons of gender and sexuality. They describe sexuality as a “master key that unlocks our understanding of theological transactions that are intrinsically tangled among political, economic, social and theo(ideo)logical spheres.” The system is a web, not a pyramid.

This book proposes that queer liberation threatens the enduring colonial, imperial, and eurocentric dynamics that afflict our hemisphere—and it does so in the hemisphere’s majority tongue. The book’s engagement with Latin American and Latinx theological legacies refuses to allow that the mystery of specifically queer liberation be considered separately from the glimpses of the divine manifest among other embodied, de(s)colonial, and intercultural/interreligious paths.

In chapter three, for example, author Molly Greening applies decolonial feminist María Lugones to critique Pope Francis’ gloss of “gender theory” as a colonial imposition, reminding the reader how the European colonial project itself has long relied on a tangled web of theology, military power, and hetero-patriarchal control. In an appendix to the volume, editor Anderson Fabián Santos Meza confirms:

“[…] the path towards liberation is not one that can be traversed individually, as dominant neoliberal and capitalist logics claim. What is needed is solidarity and support among those who share a vision of justice, inclusion, and equity. When we commit ourselves to solidarity with others in the struggle, we are committing ourselves not only to the construction of a stronger community, but also to progress towards a more just and free world for all” (494-95).

Other chapters pick up on this challenging intersectional commitment. For example, Ana Ester Pádua Freire’s contribution, “I am not Marie Kondo: Disordering theology,” looks at the category “woman” from a queer perspective. Although humanizing “woman” has been a vital task for cisgender feminist theologies, Pádua Freire contends that maintaining such a category reinforces the unequal and binary terms set by colonial and heteropatriarchal controls, ultimately limiting human expression. By engaging with figures like Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, and Gloria Anzaldúa, Pádua Freire proposes “dis-ordering” the “mythical norm” of these “prescripted” categories, revealing the possibility of poetic identities that flow between and beyond the rigid borders of colonial gender.

Reflecting on the book’s title and its intellectual heritage helps me think about what the work does and does not set out to accomplish. In these pages, “the mystery of queer liberation” is not a fixed object to be pursued, triangulated, surrounded by gazes fit with laser scopes, captured, identified, and cataloged. These chapters are not taxidermy of a static, dead thing perceived from the outside in. They do not systematically define and expose some imagined queer essence, nor do they offer an argument vindicating queer Catholics on the church’s terms. Despite the volume’s 540 pages, the “mystery” is not solved. 

Instead, this book acts as a multifaceted prism casting rainbows on the walls. The editors and contributors refract the grace of queer lives from the inside out to show—even for a fleeting second—where the divine flickers in the midst of our survival, resistance, and joy. The chapters invite pause, contemplation, and wonder as any icon, hymn, or dancing tabernacle candle.

We should receive MLQ in the tradition of ML, as a significant collection for Christian theology. We should resist, however, the temptation for canonical status to condemn it becoming merely the representative text on “the mystery of queer liberation.” Instead, may it succeed in provoking further volumes and, more importantly, in pointing its readers and observers back to the practical, back to the everyday struggle for concrete liberation, back to the queer lives that illuminate and refract the living Mystery between and beyond our moorings.

—Laurel Potter (she/they), June 10, 2024

TONIGHT: Laurel Potter will join theologians Travis LaCouter and Nicolete Burbach for a webinar about “Catholic Approaches to Queer Theology” on Monday, June 10, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time.

Moderated by Brian Flanagan, New Ways Ministry’s Senior Fellow, the panelists will introduce what queer theology is, how it can contribute to the lives and understanding of LGBTQ+ Catholics, and how it can be a gift that queer communities and theologians can share with the entire church. No prior experience with theology is required. All are welcome!

To register, click here.