Liberation theology

A movement within Catholicism that began in Latin America in the 1960s, which emphasizes the role of the church in social and economic justice. The movement was criticized by conservatives as Marxist, in response to which Jorge Bergoglio (before becoming Pope Francis) has said:

The option for the poor comes from the first centuries of Christianity. It’s the Gospel itself. If you were to read one of the sermons of the first fathers of the Church, from the second or third centuries, about how you should treat the poor, you’d say it was Maoist or Trotskyist.

Another liberation theologian, Dom Helder Camara, famously quipped:

When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.