Spirituality: "Empowerment," by Fred Kammer, SJ, JD, adapted by Thomas Massaro, SJ

Within the genre of Catholic social teaching documents, the term empowerment first appears in the 1967 encyclical Populorum Progressio by Pope Paul VI in addressing the realities of emerging nations.  It echoed in the writings of Pope Benedict XVI on the authentic development of peoples and nations.

Pope Francis has made the term his own in multiple addresses. Among these is his 2015 address in Bolivia where he expounded on its meaning in these words:

The world’s peoples want to be artisans of their own destiny. They want to advance peacefully towards justice. They do not want forms of tutelage or interference by which those with greater power subordinate those with less. They want their culture, their language, their social processes, and their religious traditions to be respected. No actual or established power has the right to deprive peoples of the full exercise of their sovereignty. Whenever they do so, we see the rise of new forms of colonialism which seriously prejudice the possibility of peace and justice.