Our bishops among hierarchs most reluctant to go along

Pope Francis is dragging the Roman Church into the mean streets of the “Third World,” to confront the global issues of ­poverty and inequity; and the Philippine bishops are among the national hierarchies most reluctant to go along.

Francis is the very first Pope from Latin America—arguably the most afflicted by these social problems. The continent is also where the Christian faith is the most vibrant—but in its populist varieties. And Latin America is the birthplace of “liberation theology’—which preaches that the Christian churches have a duty and a commitment to oppose social, economic and political repression.