INTERVIEW/LEONARDO BOFF : "LIBERATION THEOLOGY IS INCREASINGLY TIMELY" Inara Claro/TerraVIva With the authority of someone who has won the Right Livelihood Award, the "Alternative Nobel Prize", for his social activism and his efforts in Liberation Theology, the Brazilian former priest Leonardo Boff says the essence of that theology is the same as the World Social Forum.

Boff: Oh my God!

In a brief interview with TerraViva he reasserts his spirituality and his confidence that building another world is possible.

Is Liberation Theology still a valid point of reference for discussion at the WSF? - Liberation Theology was born in the late 1960s, with the same proposals that are being defined today by the World Social Forum -- liberation based on spiritual and ethical resources. The will to work for the poorest, to join forces behind that cause, to go beyond.

Was Liberation Theology at the forefront of the WSF? - Let's say that we started earlier. But the WSF is an appropriate space for this discussion, especially after the prohibition by the Vatican, which dismantled the movement surrounding Liberation Theology. (In 1984, the Vatican banned then-Catholic priest Boff from continuing discussions of LT. That same year, Boff was punished by the Church with one year of "obsequious silence". Eight years later, faced with new threats, he decided to renounce the priesthood and shifted his efforts to the secular world.)

You talk about "awareness of poverty". How should that issue be tackled? - We theologians and clergy of the world are always participating in the WSF discussions, precisely because we see here the possibility of raising the awareness of the poor for the historic moment we are living. Fundamentally, we have to overcome poverty, eliminate it from the world. That is raising awareness, and it becomes possible through networks, political parties, NGOs, base communities, and volunteers around the planet.

And the Catholic Church, what position does it take in regards to this intensified mobilisation of social movements? - The Catholic Church is experiencing very strong internal tensions. The tendency of the Vatican is that it is increasingly interested in having a strong church and not a better world. There do exist sectors of the Church that support President Bush, but there are progressives who believe in a mature, academic culture, who pursue the option for the poor. What we want is a more religious church, and therefore one that is turned towards those who most need it. The Church is in the middle of the people, it relates directly with the communities. It can't make religion a mere factor of accommodation and historic indifference. On the contrary, it must support moments of indignation, resistance and liberation. There is a new society, a new humanity is being created and it is crucial to accompany this phenomenon.

Speaking of Bush, what was your reaction to his re-election received? - Father Betto was extraordinary in commenting yesterday that "after Bush, there is no more utopia, only myopia."

Liberation Theology makes direct reference to the use of the land. Do you see the world as moving towards taking better care of the environment? - We have lost the memory of the earth. But there is a turning of humanity back towards it. I work and I think with a sense of caution. We most work ecologically to prevent total destruction. For example, I think Agenda 21 (the UN plan for sustainable development) is very important, which discusses the planet's environmental matters, and where the priority is to demand a truce for nature, allow it to recover for some time and only then begin again to use its resources. That is a utopia that is possible.