Leonardo Boff (born 1938) is recognized as one of the most outspoken, controversial, and articulate proponents of Roman Catholic liberation theology. A staunch supporter of the ordination of women priests, Boff's controversial writings put him at odds with the Vatican and eventually led to his resignation from the priesthood.

Leonardo Boff is an ordained Franciscan priest who resigned his vocation in 1992 to become a member of the Franciscan lay clergy. Protesting the hierarchical structure of the Roman Catholic Church as it existed in his native Brazil, Boff has advocated the ordination of women as priests and promoted social justice for the poor. The Vatican officially silenced Boff for eleven months in the mid-eighties as the result of his publishing several controversial works in the 1970s and 1980s because his books had an ideological alignment with liberation theology. Liberation theology evolved in South and Central America following the 1968 Second Latin...