Taking Sides by Joe McVeigh

The late Albert Nolan was a priest and theologian from South Africa who has written a lot about Christian responsibility to take sides in any conflict. He emerged as an activist during the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa. He is one of my favourite writers and theologians because he writes from the perspective of the poor and oppressed. He took the side of the oppressed and suffered much for doing so. He died in 2022.

Albert Nolan was born Dennis Nolan of Irish extraction near Capetown. When he entered the Dominican Order of Preachers he changed his name to Albert. He was a good student and early in his life took a special interest in the politics of South Africa. Soon he was active in protests against Apartheid and writing a new liberation theology inspired by the liberation theology then emerging in South America. He became friendly with the ‘father’ of liberation theology- Peruvian priest, Gustavo Guttierez. (Gusatvo died in Perus just last month aged 93 years. Rest in Peace)

Apart from Fr Des Wilson and Fr Denis Carroll (both deceased) few priests or theologians approached the conflict in Ireland with the same depth of analysis or from the perspective of the poor and oppressed. These two Irish priests made a decision to take the side of the oppressed –even putting themselves at odds with the Church leaders. 

Throughout the years of the armed conflict in the north of Ireland the official Catholic Church represented by the Catholic bishops failed to make clear which side they were on. They would claim to have been neutral because that was the only Christian response. To side with the people and their struggle would have been perceived as being too extreme and leaving them open to the charge of being political. They opted for the Reconciliation model which according to Nolan is a cop-out.

Albert Nolan would argue that the Catholic church and the leaders must always take the side of the oppressed people even if it results in being perceived to support a particular political viewpoint. You cannot be neutral. 

In this regard, it is not enough to say you are opposed to violence without defining the different kinds of violence and without distinguishing Primary violence from Secondary violence. It is not enough to say you are anti-violence without saying which violence you are talking about.

Taking sides is not about being pro or against violence. Taking sides is not about being pro or against Reconciliation. To argue that taking sides makes you an opponent of Reconciliation is based on a mistaken understanding of Reconciliation. “Christians are not supposed to try to reconcile good and evil, justice and injustice; we are supposed to do away with injustice evil and sin. It is wrong to assume that all conflicts are based on misunderstanding and that there is always blame on both sides. “It is an unfounded assumption that has nothing to do with Christianity. It is an assumption that could only be made by people who do not suffer under injustice and oppression or who do not really appreciate the sinfulness and evil of what is happening.” 

Secondly neutrality is not always possible in situations of conflict. In cases of conflict due to injustice and oppression neutrality is impossible. If we do not take sides with the oppressed then we are, perhaps unintentionally, taking sides with the oppressor.

Thirdly, there is the mistaken view that Christians should always seek harmony and ‘a middle way’ at the expense of truth and justice.