Theology of the People: An Introduction to the Work of Rafael Tello

Book excerpt: Father Rafael Tello was an Argentine priest who dedicated his life to thinking about a possible popular pastoral for Latin America. This book is the first systematic study of his proposal and had the fortune of being presented and prefaced by the then Cardinal Bergoglio in Buenos Aires in May 2012. Then cardinal Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, wrote a preface to the original edition. He said about Tello: "History has its ironies, this is the first time I come to the Faculty of Theology (I did not get a degree here) and I have come to present a book about the thought of a man who was dismissed from this Faculty. In history God sometimes makes reparations: that the hierarchy that at the time thought it convenient to dismiss these thoughts today finds them valid, moreover, they have become the foundation of the evangelizing work in Argentina." Hence the incalculable value of this work for those who want to understand the theological roots of many pastoral practices developed in Argentina. In its pages appear topics such as: the people as subjects of evangelization, the path of the evangelization of culture, the option for the poor, and many other interesting arguments for those who want to understand more deeply what drives the current Pope.