Pope Francis brings liberation theology with him to Rome

With Pope Francis, the "poetic prose of the liberation theologians with more than 30 years delay has arrived in Rome through the main entrance ". This was written by the editor of the German Catholic news agency KNA, Ludwig Ring-Eifel, on Thursday on the website of the Cologne Diocesan transmitter "domradio". He refers to the amazing parallels between the views of the Pope and Leonardo Boff.

Francis had changed within a week the externals and also the working environment. "Hugs, warmth and laughter have come to St Peter's Square and the Papal Basilica. And the new Bishop of Rome races through the awe inspiring halls and corridors of the Vatican in  his threadbare black street shoes with dynamic steps making things seem suddenly very different," said Ring-Eifel .

In his first major sermon at the inauguration Mass on Tuesday, the new Pope had shown that he would not only change style and appearance, but also the content, writes the journalist. The Pope spoke "not formulaic ecclesiastical prose like some cardinals and which observers contemptuously call 'Vatispeak'". But even "dogmatic formulas and lecture-like essays on the theology of the Fathers" were not subjects for Francis (Cathcon-!!).

"Instead," - according to Ring-Eifel - "He speaks quite specifically, without falling into the merely political." The statements could be readily fit into two Twitter messages, they are "easy to understand, but not empty slogans."

There was also something else new to the content. Francis say things like: "The feeling of mind, the pastoral care requiring goodness, demanding living with tenderness," and he went further that tenderness is "not about the virtue of the weak" , but the ability "to he really open to others, to love. "

"Such phrases have been heard on the matter before," says KNA's chief editor: "They are concepts and images of liberation theology in Latin America."

Ring-Eifel pointed to a book by "the liberation theologian Leonardo Boff who was first sponsored by Joseph Ratzinger and later reprimanded". The title of the book by Boff reads "Tenderness and Strength - Francis of Assisi, seen through the eyes of the poor".

"The poetic prose of the liberation theologians with more than 30 years delay has arrived in Rome through the main entrance.   Of course, it is not the violent and totalitarian version of this theology, as applied in Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Colombia, where many people lost their lives . It is the quiet, humane version which is first about the inner transformation of the individual, analyzed Ring-Eifel.

He remembers that as in the early days of the Franciscan movement so there were in the liberation theology of the 20th century, there were two wings  - the soft-version and the hardline. The former has now "placed an Argentine Jesuit to Rome on the Chair of Peter."

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Cathcon- if this interpretation is correct, the Head of the CDF will feel safer in his job, but Cardinal Cipriani will be less than delighted.

Battle in Vatican leaves Archbishop Müller routed by Cardinal Bertone

Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone reprimands Archbishop Müller

(Lima) in the Andean country of Peru, there is a rebellious university, which Rome has deprived of the right to continue to call itself a "Catholic." The Archbishop who is responsible and nominal Chancellor of the academic institution withdrew from the entire faculty for the right to teach theology. After a heated session, which took place a few days ago in Rome, it has been laid down by the Holy See that the rebel university will continue without theologians. Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone was responsible for invitations to the meeting. The senior participants wished to thwart the intentions of the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,Curial Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller. He had tried to take the side of the Peruvian rebel party. A "gross error" from the protector of the faith, as it is said in Rome.

Several Dicasteries were invited to the meeting to consider a letter from Archbishop Müller to the Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Cipriani Thorne dated the end of January. In it the Prefect demanded an explanation of why the Peruvian Cardinal had revoked the church's permission to teach all the university professors of theology department. The disciplinary measures were notified to the university authorities in December after which the Holy See by decree of June 2012, deprived the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú of the right to continue to describe themselves as "Papal" and "Catholic".

University must not be no longer describe themselves as "Papal" and "Catholic" - entire faculty of theology deprived of teaching license.

The disciplinary measures which had the approval of Pope Benedict XVI, has lost none of its legal validity, since the university boards continue to refuse to reform the statutes and to conform to the the ecclesiastical provisions of the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae for higher education institutions.

Although the Roman decree at the time of appointment of the Bishop of Regensburg to Rome had been adopted, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith becaome active after the rebellious professors had turned to complain to him. According to them, the withdrawal of permission to teach was made from "reasons of doctrine." Müller felt himself to be responsible for this matter and called on the Archbishop of Lima, despite his decision to allow the teaching regularly of theology. He justified this unusual step of saying that the Holy See had not yet decided the question.

Archbishop Müller's interference neither in Lima nor in the Vatican taken well
This interference of the new Prefect at the Congregation of the Faith was not taken well in Archbishop's Palace in Lima and not in the other departments in Rome. Therefore Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone called together the meeting at which the Müller 's letter was cancelled. It was done on the grounds that it had merely been a "personal" initiative by the Prefect, who had not even consulted his experts at the Congregation. 

Müller also did not also send the letter via the regular channels of the Apostolic Nunciature in Lima. The Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Cipriani had instead simply just got a fax.  The letter had ignored canon law, according to the other Dicasteries, in which the competent diocesan bishop has the right to grant and revoke the teaching license.

The result of the meeting was immediately sent through diplomatic channels to Peru. It can be summarized as follows: The letter from Archbishop Mueller is null and void and the decision of Archbishop Cardinal Cipriani has undiminished validity.

Müller's letter null and void - "Hard hit" for the new tenant of the Holy Office
The former Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, whose acronym of PUCP has shrunk in UP has not enough teachers who are willing to teach at the university without ecclesiastical permission.

The outcome of the meeting chaired by Cardinal Bertone was a "serious blow" to the new head of the CDF, as Andrés Beltramo Álvarez for Vatican Insider wrote. It is questioned in the Roman Curia whether the "new German" in Rome "is really the right man for such a central post, which demands maximum discipline demands and allows neither for improvisation nor for formal or editorial errors".

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Amazing developments at formerly Catholic, formerly Pontifical University of Peru

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.

Whole story here

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

Vatican and liberation theologians battle for the soul of Pontifical University

Aumenta la tensión entre el Vaticano y la Pontificia de Perú :: Educación :: Religión Digital

Tension between the Vatican and the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru

Cardinal accused of wanting to end the pluralism of the academic centre

The Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, a cradle of Liberation Theology, on Friday released a letter to the Vatican Secretary of state where they reject Cardinal Cipriani as confrontational as a dialogue partner in the process in which they are involved.

"The only way to achieve full peace that the University and the Peruvian bishops want is if Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani ceases to be the interlocutor between the hierarchy of the Church and the college authorities", says the rector Marcial Rubio in the letter sent to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State of the Holy See.

PUCP and the Vatican have fought since 2007 according to Rector Rubio who thinks Cipriani wishes to end the pluralism of the university, which is denied by the Cardinal .

Cipriani and the Vatican are seeking to enforce canon law , as noted by an apostolic visitor sent this year by Pope Benedict XVI in search of a solution.

The Vatican granted on April 8, an extension of the ultimatum set for that date by which PUCP should reform its statutes to bring them into line with canon law.

PUCP argues that the reform of the statute would mean accepting, among other things, "reforming the election of the rector , which is inconsistent with Peruvian law because it would affect our academic autonomy. "

The Peruvian Cardinal "shows an ongoing personel desire for conflict and public disputation, riding roughshod over the Catholic University of Peru (PUCP)," Rubio said in the letter published on the internet and in the local press.

The chancellor blamed Cipriani, Archbishop of Lima and a leading figure of Opus Dei for the breakdown of dialogue by refusing to "a comprehensive peace agreement on institutional relations" that includes adapting the statutes of the PUCP with canon law and stopping canonical process against the university.

The impasse puts a virtual chasm in the dialogue between the university and the church, always represented by Cipriani. The negotiations were "frozen" for over two weeks when the Cardinal announced his refusal to concede in the canonical process.

This affects the academic future of the 22,000 students of the PUCP, one of the most progressive universities in Peru and cradle of liberation theology, which appointed the priest Gustavo Gutierrez to this university in the 1960, Cipriani being his fiercest critic.

The Rector wrote to the Vatican's Number two , who made the letter public, "because we are aggrieved by the public statements of the Archbishop of Lima." The letter, dated May 9, was delivered to the Nuncio in Lima and an email sent to Bertone, says Rubio.

Founded in 1917 by a French priest and a group of lay people, the PUCP want to keep its pluralistic, tolerant and non-denominational charector, and understands the title of "Pontifical" as an honorific.