Leonidas Proaño liberalizing theological ideas in indigenous Development

Abstract

This chapter shows the impact of the episcopal work of Monsignor Leonidas Eduardo Proaño Villalba in favor of the indigenous class, highlighting the validity of his thinking in recent times. In the arguments used to explain the legacy of this distinguished exponent of the Theory of Liberation in the Sierra region of Ecuador, its loyalty to the native peoples, the poorest sectors of its diocese and the practice of solidarity with the rest of America. Such budgets coincide from the ethnographic perspective with researchers in the style of Gallegos (2011); Jaramillo (2012); Bazurco (2006), and from the sociological vision with authors such as Sarzosa (2016); Zambrano (2013). 

These statements include historical, sociocultural, ethnographic and theological aspects, where testimonies, published works of Proañista thought are incorporated, as well as theoretical definitions on some of the categories used in the text. It is valid, pertinent and necessary to disseminate the validity of Monsignor Proaño's ideology in the influence exerted on evangelizers, community leaders and the rest of Latin American theologians; In addition to the accompaniment of the social struggles of his country, especially those involving the indigenous.
This research is not a description or mere historical account, but the current message that allows the sociological and theological discussion of the role of the Catholic Church in Ecuadorian society and aimed at claiming equal rights that were denied to the humble, dispossessed, indigenous. In other words, religious and liturgical discussion extrapolated to social praxis.