The second anniversary of the election of Pope Francis has just passed, and a hallmark of his papacy has been his calls for ‘a Church which is poor and for the poor.’
He has given new currency to the term ‘preferential option for the poor’ which has strong associations with Liberation Theology. Ever since it was coined by Latin American theologians in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, it’s been controversial and contested in the Church.
The theologian featured in this interview on Eureka Street TV is well qualified to explain the meaning of the term and its implications and application in the present day Church.
Rohan Curnow’s PhD thesis was on this topic, and he recently published a book based on the thesis entitled The Preferential Option for the Poor: A Short History and a Reading Based on the Thought of Bernard Lonergan. It was launched by Frank Brennan, whose speech was published in Eureka Street.
Curnow was raised in Canberra in a devout Catholic family with seven brothers and sisters. His mother’s side of the family was steeped in the trade union tradition, and his father had an interest in politics and history. These were strong and abiding influences on him as he grew up.
In school he was mainly interested in science and technical subjects, and after school started a degree in architecture. He quickly changed direction however and studied arts at the Australian National University in Canberra, majoring in philosophy and religious studies.
Following this he flirted with the idea of the Catholic priesthood, but remained a lay person and studied for a Bachelor of Theology, then a Master of Theology at the Catholic Institute of Sydney.
After this, through the Jesuits, he gained a scholarship to study for his doctorate at Regis College in the University of Toronto in Canada. Here he was strongly influenced by the work of Canadian Jesuit, Bernard Lonergan who died in 1984 and is acclaimed as one of the major thinkers of the twentieth century.
Lonergan was a great teacher and lecturer, and a prolific author. Among his many books are the seminal works Insight: A Study of Human Understanding and Method in Theology.
Curnow is now Academic Registrar and Senior Lecturer in Theology at the Catholic Institute of Sydney and a Research Fellow at the Australian Catholic University.
This interview is in two parts - Part 1 (9 mins) above, and Part 2 (10 mins) below:
Peter Kirkwood is