The Return of the Preferential Option for the Poor

Some Aspects from the Pontificate of Pope Francis

Abstract

The desire for a Church of the Poor stems from the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), which, by inserting the category of historicity into the Church, freed it from a certain institutional immobility. The Council affirmed that “the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of the men and women of today, especially the poor and all those who suffer, are also the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of the disciples of Christ.” (GS 1). In Latin America, this conception was matured with the preferential option for the poor, affirmed in Medellín (1968), Puebla (1979), Santo Domingo (1992) and Aparecida (2007). From this last conference, then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, was the president of the commission that drafted the final document. Since 2013, elected Bishop of Rome, Francis has sought to bring his experience of the Latin American Church to the Universal Church, renouncing symbols and titles that express power, not service, and demonstrating simplicity in the ways of being and acting, constantly reaffirming his desire for a “poor church for the poor”. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate some of the aspects and the actuality of the preferential option for the poor in the light of the current pontificate, making, at the same time, a recession of what this choice represents for the Latin American church.