More confusion: is Abp. Müller supporting Peru's rebel "Catholic" university?

Another situation that cries out for a clarification.

For the background to this, see the following articles:

-Universidad Ni-Ni: ni Pontificia ni Católica - The non-Pontifical non-Catholic University of Peru.
-Updated: full text of the decree
-New episodes in the Peruvian telenovela "La universidad del diablo"- In historic move, Vatican slams Episcopal Conference

Abp. Müller, current Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, receiving an Honorary Doctorate from the "Pontifical Catholic" University of Peru, already under investigation by Cardinal Cipriani Thorne, on Nov. 28, 2008. 

From Vatican Insider English version (with the translation slightly edited by Rorate):

Müller stands up for Peru’s “rebel” university

 

A letter from the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to Cardinal Cipriani seems to support the University of Peru’s rebellion against the Pope and that of its rector, Marcial Rubio

ANDRÉS BELTRAMO ALVAREZ

VATICAN CITY

Gerhard Ludwig Müller is a Doctor "Honoris Causa" at the former Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP). As Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he had stayed out of the conflict between the institution’s authorities, the Archbishop of Lima and the Holy See. But a letter of his addressed to Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani was interpreted as an expression of support for the university’s rebellion against the Pope.

In the letter, Müller asks for an explanation regarding the decision not to renew the ecclesiastical permission to teach at the PUCP of some Professors from the university’s Theology Department. The decision to withhold permission was communicated by the archbishop last December and came as a result of the decree issued by the Vatican last June, forbidding the university to use the titles “Pontifical” and “Catholic”.

Although the content is meant to be confidential, Peruvian magazine Caretas revealed some parts of the text. The Prefect apparently wrote that the university can continue to give theology lectures until the Holy See has fully resolved the problem. If this is true, it would come as a huge blow to the archbishop of Lima who is fighting a legal and ecclesiastical battle to drive home the fact that the university belongs to the Church.

In Peru, the sheer fact that this letter exists was an encouragement to rector Marcial Rubio and his collaborators, who on several occasions refused to reform the university’s statutes to bring them in line with the Vatican’s regulations on Catholic universities, the Apostolic Constitution “Ex Corde Ecclesiae”.

According to the counsellor of the Vice Rectorate of the former PUCP, Marco Sifuentes, the letter put Cipriani in his place. He wrote this on Twitter, whilst other users were claiming Müller had allegedly told off the Peruvian cardinal.

The Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith intervened after Rome received complaints from professors saying they had been forbidden to hold lectures. The professors in question claimed this measure was taken for “doctrinal reasons”.

This seems to be a common feeling among staff at the former PUCP, as is confirmed in an article written by the university’s former rector Salomón Lerner Febres for La República newspaper on 13 January. In the article, Febres calls the removal of professors’ permission to teach as “a decision that is not in line with the evangelical spirit” and is a way to put a stop to the spread of Liberation Theology which Gustavo Gutiérrez developed in the university.”

To demonstrate his theory, Lerner quoted Müller’s words pronounced at a conference in Lima in November 2008, in which he defended Gutiérrez’s Theology as “orthodox”.

But Cipriani decided to revoke professors’ canonical authorization to teach, officially at least, on the basis of one objective fact: a sanction the Holy See imposed on the university via a decree that was signed by order of the Pope. Such an action does not require justification and can be taken by the archbishop of the Peruvian capital.

Gerhard Müller and the PUCP are linked together by a common past. Rome will never forget Müller’s study trips to Lima, as Bishop of Regensburg. He went every year for 18 years, without giving the local bishop any warning. And his Degree “Honoris Causa” was approved without even taking into account Cipriani or other important figures’ recommendations.

In light of this past, suspicions about the potential exploitation of Müller’s intervention in the “rebel” university case may not be completely unfounded.  Fears of this have heightened ahead of the conference that will announce Müller as Doctor “Honoris Causa” at Notre Dame University. In 2009 this university was criticised by the traditionalists for awarding the Degree “Honoris Causa” to Barack Obama.

New episodes in the Peruvian telenovela "La universidad del diablo" In historic move, Vatican slams Episcopal Conference

The historic action of the Vatican to bring some order to the ex-Pontifical ex-Catholic University of Peru (the former PUCP - see first post) is a gift that keeps on giving. La Stampa's Andrés Beltramo Álvarez reports that, when the Vatican decree removing the titles from the name of the University was handed by the local Nuncio (Pennsylvanian Archbishop James Green) to several authorities on Friday, the document was accompanied by a specific letter to the University rector and, which is more impressive, by a specific letter to the President of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, to be forwarded to each bishop in the country.

Because in fact the Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Cipriani Thorne, had spent the last few years almost isolated by his own peers and undermined by most members of the Episcopal Conference in his efforts to rein in and put under control the rebellious university. As Beltramo reports:

The Peruvian Episcopal Conference must not be manipulated by the "rebellious university". On the contrary, [the Conference] is called to lend "determined and clear" support to the determinations of the Holy See in the dispute for the legitimate property of the institution, until yesterday Pontifical and Catholic. This is the center of a letter sent by the Vatican to the President of the South American country's bishops, Salvador Piñeiro. A harsh wake-up call, in order to cease with the ambiguities and the foul play.

... Green ordered that all three documents, including the letter to Piñeiro, be sent to all the bishops in the country. He received the authorities of the PUCP later in the Nunciature, and delivered to them the decree and the letter.

The message from Rome to the Archbishop of Ayacucho-Huamanga [Abp. Piñeiro] left little room for doubts: "For the good of the University and for the responsibility of the Church in the educational field, this Episcopal Conference must support the position of the Holy See and of the Archbishop of Lima, disavowing vigorously any opposing intervention and inviting the country's episcopate to a loyal collegial action. In case of eventual doubts, you and the other bishops please be kind enough to consult with the Rev. Nuncio in Lima."

And it added: "The Holy Father expects that, in the future, the Episcopal Conference will render determined and clear support to the decisions taken by the Holy See regarding the situation of the PUCP, and that new misunderstandings and divisions be avoided."

The severity of the words left clear that, instead of keeping an institutional position, the direction of the bishops sided with the center of studies during the disputed. Even when the rebellion of its authorities was open and manifest.

This was made clear on April 17, when the Conference published a public note in the name of its five delegate bishops of the University Assembly of the PUCP. ... This episode was called "regrettable" by the Vatican letter to Piñeiro, which was blunt: "I ask you to take care that this Episcopal Conference avoid being manipulated by the rectorate of the university."

Today, in declarations to the local press, the Rector of the Universidad del Diablo was defiant:

The rector of the PUCP, Marcial Rubio, called the decision of the Vatican of stripping the center of studies of the titles of "pontifical" and "Catholic" regrettable ... . ...

"This is our official name, and we are recognized nationally and internationally by it. We have the full right to keep using it for as long as we consider it convenient. Any decision that is taken about it is of the responsibility of the ruling bodies of the university itself," he added.

The former PUCP is the academic alma mater of Liberation Theology (the expression itself was coined by its most famous theology professor, Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez).

Universidad Ni-Ni: ni Pontificia ni CatólicaThe non-Pontifical non-Catholic University of PeruUpdated: full text of the decree

Peruvian daily El Comercio publishes this Saturday the Decree of the Secretary of State, under the mandate received from His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, removing the titles of "Pontifical" and "Catholic" from the name of the disobedient and dissenting "Pontifical Catholic University of Peru" (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú - PUCP).

___________________________________________

SECRETARIA STATUS

N. 3168/12/RS

DECREE

The Secretary of State, fulfilling the mandate of His Holiness Benedict XVI, sent a letter to the Honorable Rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru on February 21, 2012, reiterating the demand of adapting the Statutes of said University to the prescriptions of the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae, of August 15, 1990 (AAS 82, [1990] 1481-1490), also establishing April 8, 2012, as the final date for the fulfillment of such obligation. This petition was in addition to several others made to the same University in the same sense for the past twenty years.

The deadline initially established was extended repeatedly by petition of the Rectorate of the University up to April 18, 2012, with no fulfillment of the order of the Holy See.

Afterwards, by way of two letters of the Honorable Rector addressed to the Emin. Cardinal Secretary of State, one dated April 13, 2012, the other being an "open letter" dated May 9, 2012, and published by the same Rectorate as a "Warning" [Aviso] in the Lima daily "La República" on May 11, 2012, the notice was delivered of not being able to accede to the required fulfillment of the law.

For all this:

- considering that the aforementioned University was founded on March 1, 1917, with ecclesiastical approval of the Archbishop of Lima, Abp. Pedro Manuel García y Naranjo; recognized by the Peruvian State on the 24th of the same month and year as the Catholic University; erected by Pope Pius XII on September 30, 1942, as a canonical juridical person, subjected as such to the canonical legislation in matters of centers of Higher Education and whose property thus holds the nature of ecclesiastical assets, in the manner established of the can. 1257 § 1, in force;


-considering that art. 1 § 3, of the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae, of August 15, 1990, establishes that all Universities subjected to the canonical legislation must adapt its Statutes to the aforementioned Constitution, which was not done up to this moment by the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, despite repeated requests;


-considering that the fulfillment of the canonical legislation is compatible with the applicable Peruvian legislation, in the manner established in articles I and XIX of the Agreement celebrated between the Holy See and the Republic of Peru on July 19, 1980 (AAS 72, [1980] 807-812);


-considering that the aforementioned University persists in guiding its institutional initiatives according to criteria that are incompatible with the discipline and morals of the Church;


-considering that no University, even if effectively Catholic and framed according to the Church legislation, may use in its name the title "Catholic" if not with the consent of the corresponding ecclesiastical authority, as established by can. 808 (cf. Canons 803, 216 of the Code of Canon Law);


-considering that the express consent of the Holy See is similarly necessary for the use the name of "Pontifical" ["Ponticio" o "Pontificia"], (Declaratio ad Summi Pontificis dignitatem tuendam, in AAS 102 [2010] 59);

Consequently, in virtue of the mandate

received from His Holiness, Benedict XVI

by the present

Decree

1. It is forbidden to the aforementioned University the use of the title of "Pontifical" in its name, suppressing the concession that had been previously granted to it.

2. It is forbidden likewise that the aforementioned University use in its name the title of "Catholic", with the removal of the consent that had been previously granted to it in such sense, in the sense of the current can. 808 of the Code of Canon Law.

3. It is declared at the same time that the aforementioned University, as a public juridical person of the Church, remains subjected to the canonical legislation in the matters to which it is currently bound, even if, for the aforementioned reasons, it has been deprived of the right to use in its name the titles of "Pontifical" and "Catholic", and that the Holy See will continue to insist in the full respect of the canonical discipline.

Notice is to be given of the present Decree to the Congregation for Catholic Education for its effective fulfillment. 

Given in Vatican City, July 11, 2012

Tarcisio Card Bertone

___________________________________________

Congratulations to Cardinal Cipriani Thorne, Archbishop of Lima, and the Holy See for their firmness. They were too patient, at least since 2006-2007, but the dissenters of this university, completely subverted by Liberation Theologians, were on the shining path to secularism. Considering that almost all the assets and property of the university were awarded decades ago by faithful Catholics to  specifically house a Catholic University, and that the University is still juridically/canonically Catholic, one hopes that the Holy See and the Archdiocese of Lima will be able to recover all of them and expel the deceivers.

[Tip: Infocatólica, via La Cigüeña. Update: also at News.va. In the image: Abp. Müller, current Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, receiving an Honorary Doctorate from the "Pontifical Catholic" University of Peru, already under the investigation of Cardinal Cipriani Thorne, in Nov. 28, 2008. Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez is to his right, and the University Rector whose actions were condemned by the Holy See this July, Marcial Rubio Correa, is to his left. Cardinal Cipriani Thorne was not present.]

CDF Succession Watch: a Gutiérrez disciple?

With this post, we begin a series which will surely include several rumors: who will succeed Cardinal Levada as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith? Today's rumor, by Vatican Insider: Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Bishop of Regensburg.

Gerhard Ludwig Müller is the Bishop of Regensburg. A personal friend of Benedict XVI, in Germany they deem him a defender of Catholic Orthodoxy. In Rome his name is one of the most mentioned as the man who will succeed to Cardinal William Joseph Levada at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the former Holy Office. Only a few know that he is also a pupil of Gustavo Gutiérrez, the “father” of Latin-American liberation theology, with whom he has a long and close friendship.

...

But the Regensburg [bishop] also has strong ties with Latin America. From 1998 to date, he has travelled to Peru every year to follow the courses taught by Gustavo Gutiérrez, who he deems to be his mentor and friend. He frequented a few theological workshops in the seminaries of Cusco, Lima and Callao in addition to living for months with the farmers of a parish in the vicinity of Lake Titicaca, on the border with Bolivia.

In November 2008, this old relation led to him being awarded a “honoris causa” doctorate at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP), the same university that is currently involved in an institutional conundrum as it states it is against the authority of the Lima's Cardinal, Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne, and the instructions of the Holy See. A University where the most significant progressive movements of Peru found their origins, including the pro-gay lobby.

“My experiences with theology and liberation” was the title of the conference held by Müller during the ceremony in his honor. On that occasion he spoke at length about his relationship with Gutiérrez and explained his reasons for supporting this theological current.

“I am not referring to the theology of liberation in an abstract and theoretical form, or in an ideological fashion, to praise the progressive ecclesial group. At the same time I do not even fear that this could be interpreted as a lack of orthodoxy. The theology of Gustavo Gutiérrez, independently of how you look at it, is orthodox because it is orthopractic and it teaches us the correct way of acting in a Christian fashion since it comes from true faith,” he stated during his speech.