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To Be a Revolutionary: The explosive autobiography of an American priest, missing in Honduras
473 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 21, 2025
The autobiography of Father James Carney, S.J., traverses the spiritual and political journey of a liberal American pacifist of WW II to militant, Marxist-Leninist “revolutionary priest” by 1980. As such it has long been presented to the Catholic and larger Christian world as a “warning” against politicized religion; an expose of just why 1960s Liberation Theology was such a danger to civilization. Yet none of this aghast horror has been applied to the Christian Nationalists and Dominionists who are creeping over evangelical Protestantism and the countries (the US and UK) where it predominates. I believe this discrepancy is intentional, and has caused me to take a second look at a man long dismissed in Christian circles and the theology he stood for.
I have no reason to doubt Carney’s transparency in reconstructing his evolution (or “enlightenment,” as he’d put it.) As early as WW II he was a Christian pacifist, refusing to shoot German soldiers in combat. Having decided on a priestly career and seeking ordination in the Society of Jesus, this brought him into missionary contact with the Catholic poor of Central and South America. It was in Colombia during his “Third Ordination” that he discovered the Theology of Liberation. His parish experience with exploited banana workers and landless, often starving campesinos, led to his open embrace of its “preferential option for the poor.”
What followed was a bitter struggle to represent the downtrodden mass of Honduran peasants as co-operative organizer and parish priest in “Christian base communities,” developing the persona of “Padre Guadalupe.” Very revealing is his description of the Salvadoran-Honduran “soccer war” of 1969 as a deliberately-instigated hate campaign on both sides, to turn poor Hondurans against poor Salvadoran immigrants and a war of land by El Salvador. The intent, Carney writes – and I believe correctly – was to take the pressure off land and labor organizing by organizations like his and redirect popular anger into nationalist channels. This trick didn’t stick: come the 1970s and the Sandinista Revolution.
This was the final layer of Carney’s transformation. Inspired by the Sandinista struggle he began openly embracing the war of national liberation as the final solution to Latin American injustice. He was careful – even in his co-op days – to distinguish his position from “Stalinist Communism,” which he considered a heresy against the good name of socialist revolution. Whatever the merit of this argument - which I believe is begging the question – the Sandinistas and FMLN in El Salvador inspired him to join with Hondurans who hoped to begin the same process at home. Before illegally returning to Honduras from his forced exile, he stopped in Cuba. He mentions next to nothing about this: was it mere political tourism, or some nefarious intelligence coordination? His enemies will insist the latter, though there’s no conclusive proof.
Carney tagged along with Honduran gunrunners to establish a base camp in 1983. This was soon discovered by Honduran army intelligence (with CIA help), attacked, and finally overrun. Carney and a close associate were captured and “disappeared.” The how is unknown, but no doubt included a savage martyrdom that shames his critics.
So, while there is much to criticize in Father James Carney's struggle for earthly redemption, one cannot doubt his passion, his sincerity, and his faith (or fanaticism) to put his life where his mouth opened, on the line for his beliefs. I can’t imagine the tongue-clucking finger-waggers of orthodox Catholicism capable of such consistent passion. Certainly the witch-burning haters of Protestant Christian Nationalism in the USA are, simply, spiritually incapable of any self-sacrifice.
A “good read” on what seems an archaic question today: how far should one’s commitment to the “despised and wretched of the earth” go in eliminating earthly injustice? At the time “social programs” were the “real answer.” By 1995 it was neo-liberal “market mechanisms.” In the Trump Era it’s open Social Darwinism and Malthus. Somehow, I think Father Carney, S.J., M-L, is the better man.
I have no reason to doubt Carney’s transparency in reconstructing his evolution (or “enlightenment,” as he’d put it.) As early as WW II he was a Christian pacifist, refusing to shoot German soldiers in combat. Having decided on a priestly career and seeking ordination in the Society of Jesus, this brought him into missionary contact with the Catholic poor of Central and South America. It was in Colombia during his “Third Ordination” that he discovered the Theology of Liberation. His parish experience with exploited banana workers and landless, often starving campesinos, led to his open embrace of its “preferential option for the poor.”
What followed was a bitter struggle to represent the downtrodden mass of Honduran peasants as co-operative organizer and parish priest in “Christian base communities,” developing the persona of “Padre Guadalupe.” Very revealing is his description of the Salvadoran-Honduran “soccer war” of 1969 as a deliberately-instigated hate campaign on both sides, to turn poor Hondurans against poor Salvadoran immigrants and a war of land by El Salvador. The intent, Carney writes – and I believe correctly – was to take the pressure off land and labor organizing by organizations like his and redirect popular anger into nationalist channels. This trick didn’t stick: come the 1970s and the Sandinista Revolution.
This was the final layer of Carney’s transformation. Inspired by the Sandinista struggle he began openly embracing the war of national liberation as the final solution to Latin American injustice. He was careful – even in his co-op days – to distinguish his position from “Stalinist Communism,” which he considered a heresy against the good name of socialist revolution. Whatever the merit of this argument - which I believe is begging the question – the Sandinistas and FMLN in El Salvador inspired him to join with Hondurans who hoped to begin the same process at home. Before illegally returning to Honduras from his forced exile, he stopped in Cuba. He mentions next to nothing about this: was it mere political tourism, or some nefarious intelligence coordination? His enemies will insist the latter, though there’s no conclusive proof.
Carney tagged along with Honduran gunrunners to establish a base camp in 1983. This was soon discovered by Honduran army intelligence (with CIA help), attacked, and finally overrun. Carney and a close associate were captured and “disappeared.” The how is unknown, but no doubt included a savage martyrdom that shames his critics.
So, while there is much to criticize in Father James Carney's struggle for earthly redemption, one cannot doubt his passion, his sincerity, and his faith (or fanaticism) to put his life where his mouth opened, on the line for his beliefs. I can’t imagine the tongue-clucking finger-waggers of orthodox Catholicism capable of such consistent passion. Certainly the witch-burning haters of Protestant Christian Nationalism in the USA are, simply, spiritually incapable of any self-sacrifice.
A “good read” on what seems an archaic question today: how far should one’s commitment to the “despised and wretched of the earth” go in eliminating earthly injustice? At the time “social programs” were the “real answer.” By 1995 it was neo-liberal “market mechanisms.” In the Trump Era it’s open Social Darwinism and Malthus. Somehow, I think Father Carney, S.J., M-L, is the better man.
January 9, 2020
Really challenging thinking about social justice and what it is to be truly living "in Christ". Some fascinating bits. Some read more like a chronological record which was distracting. Obviously written passionately and in a stream of consciousness as recall occurred. Still good.
December 11, 2016
There were two things that I really enjoyed about this book:
First was gaining an understanding of the religious development and maturity of this very special man who dedicated his life to God and his beloved campesinos.
Second was learning more about the disgraceful involvement of the US in Central American politics in the 1970's.
It is his autobiography, and he includes a lot of details--too many for me. I just skimmed through those parts.
First was gaining an understanding of the religious development and maturity of this very special man who dedicated his life to God and his beloved campesinos.
Second was learning more about the disgraceful involvement of the US in Central American politics in the 1970's.
It is his autobiography, and he includes a lot of details--too many for me. I just skimmed through those parts.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews