Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

199does not regard these people as marginal. Instead, the message of liberationtheology is that these people, through Christ, can lay full claim to the salvationGod offers to all human beings. As Gutierrez asserts, through Christ the liberator,"... salvation embraces all persons and the whole person; the liberating action ofChrist – made human in this history and not in a history marginal to real humanlife – is at the heart of the historical current of humanity ..." 527 It is this Christwho upholds the value and worth of these people who live with intellectualdisability in an institutional context.Thus, as Christ the liberator offers salvation that is unconditionallyembracing of all humanity, Christ’s followers regard others as central to theirrelational and philosophical focus. This is necessary if their need of liberation isto become a genuinely-perceived and understood concern of others. As Tracyasserts in respect to regard for the other,The others must become genuine others for us – not projections ofour fears and desires. The others are not marginal to our centers ortheir own. Their conflicts and their liberationist self-namingsdemand the serious attention of our center on their own terms. 528It is to these people that the message of liberation comes through carerswho witness to this faith perspective. These people become the whole-heartedfocus of those who engage in pastoral relationship with them. This perspectivebrings dignity, value and liberation to those who receive it. It enables the other torecover something of their God-given identity. As pastoral theologian DonaldChinula asserts from a liberation perspective,... the vocation of pastoral caregiving empowers the caregiver toempower the symptom bearer to reclaim the sense of“somebodiness” that issues from being a copy of God’s ownimage and personality. ... Such prophetic, pastoral caregiving aidsthe sufferer to achieve ... a deeper adventure to reclaim Godvalued,God-allied, God-dignified, and God-bequeathedpersonhood ... 529527 Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation, 97.528 Tracy, On Naming the Present, 5.529Chinula, Donald. "The Tasks of Oppression-Sensitive Pastoral Caregiving andCounseling." In Injustice and the Care of Souls: Taking Oppression Seriously in PastoralCare, edited by Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook and Karen Montago, 133-38. (Minneapolis:Fortress Press, 2009), 136.