The Holy See’s denial of a top Peruvian university’s right to call itself “Pontifical” and “Catholic” is the latest battle — but unlikely the last — in a long conflict over what it means to be a Catholic university.
“The Holy See, with decree of His Eminence, the Secretary of State [Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone], under a specific pontifical mandate, has decided to remove from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru the right to use in its name the titles ‘Pontifical’ and ‘Catholic,’ in accordance with canon law,” the Vatican announced July 21.
The decision followed months of discussions between the university’s rector, Marcial Rubio, and Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. The Holy See asked Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo to investigate the university in an apostolic visitation conducted last December.
The university’s recent conflict with the Vatican follows another unrelated dispute between Church and university officials that broke out three years ago. The school decided unilaterally to remove the archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, from its board of directors. The university’s effort was blocked by Peru’s Supreme Court following a two-year legal battle.
But tensions between the university and Church authorities date back to the early 1970s, when the Peruvian Church — including the Peruvian hierarchy — was sharply divided over the growing influence of “liberation theology.”
The irony is that the Pontifical Catholic University was founded by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts as an authentically Catholic alternative to the Universidad de San Marcos. San Marcos, founded as a theological school by the Dominicans in 1551, had become by the turn of the century the hot spot for intellectual anti-Catholicism in Peru.
Founded in 1917 and granted pontifical status in 1942, the pontifical university made a strong contribution to the renewal of Catholic social thought in the 1940s and 1950s, fostering a new generation of Catholic intellectuals.
But this trend changed dramatically in the late 1960s, in the midst of rising social unrest throughout Latin America. By 1974, the university had become the epicenter of the Marxist-influenced theology of liberation, and one of the movement’s chief theorists, Father Gustavo Gutierrez, was named head of the university’s theology department.
In 1976, the university, acting on its own, adopted a new legal model that dramatically reduced the role of Church authorities in its day-by-day activities.
“The then-archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Landázuri, tried to bring the university back to the fold, but any bold move was almost impossible, considering the situation at that time,” Father Luis Gaspar, canonical advisor to the Archdiocese of Lima, told the Register.
“His successor, Cardinal (Augusto) Vargas also started negotiations to undo some of the strange structural changes introduced by academic authorities, but he did not succeed,” Father Gaspar also explained.
Natale Amprimo, the archdiocese’s attorney, said that by 1994 the university had “completely abandoned a Catholic identity” and had withdrawn the archdiocese’s legal right to serve on the school’s board.
Amprimo told the Register that Cardinal Cipriani, the current archbishop, only discovered this recently — in the course of his efforts to intervene in “a shady financial operation” by the university “that was giving the Church a black eye.”
“Cardinal Cipriani was informed by the current university authorities that he had no right to intervene in the financial decisions, something he obviously contested,” Amprimo explained.
When the archdiocese tried to exercise its legal rights, the university decided to sue.
In June, Peru’s Constitutional Court ruled that the archdiocese maintains the right to remain on the university’s board of directors.
Vatican Inquiry
In the meantime, the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education launched its own investigation into the school’s refusal to comply with Church guidelines for Catholic universities.
These guidelines were set out in Ex Corde Ecclesiae (From the Heart of the Church), a 1990 apostolic constitution on Catholic universities issued by Blessed Pope John Paul II.
Rubio, the university rector, was summoned to Rome several times in the last two years. He repeatedly declined to offer details of his meetings with Church officials, only saying that “conversations” regarding the university’s Catholic identity are under way.
Cardinal Erdo’s investigation on behalf of the Vatican concluded that the university is in conflict with Church law in several significant areas — including conferring honorary doctorates to personalities out of step with Catholic teaching, such as Italian “postmodern” homosexual activist Gianni Vattimo and the anti-Catholic Spanish intellectual Gregorio Peces-Barba.
In February, Cardinal Bertone had given the university until Easter, April 8, to comply with the Church’s requirements for Catholic institutes of higher education. This request marked the first time the Holy See had set a deadline for a university to reform.
Collision Course
Eventually, the university missed both the April deadline and an extension that was granted by the Vatican at the university’s request.
In a personal letter to Cardinal Bertone, which was then made public May 10 in Peru’s La Republica newspaper, the university’s rector offered to amend the school’s constitution, but demanded in return that the archbishop of Lima relinquish his role as the interlocutor between the Church and university.
In a letter to Rubio that accompanied the Vatican’s decree stripping the university of the titles “Pontifical” and “Catholic,” Cardinal Bertone strongly criticized the rector for the outcome.
“After so many years of dialogue and attempts to restore the legitimate autonomy of a Catholic university, the Holy See is forced to take the necessary measures regarding that university,” Cardinal Bertone wrote.
“You, Mr. Rector, bear a specific responsibility in the current situation, since you, by your position, have the mission to make the university compliant to Church laws and regulations.”
Also, in a separate letter sent to all the Peruvian bishops, Cardinal Bertone specifically requested that the bishops “support both the position of the Holy See as well as the Archdiocese of Lima and vigorously disavow any stand” that would undermine the Church’s unity.
In response, Archbishop Salvador Piñeiro, president of the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference, issued a statement in late July expressing its support of the Vatican decree and demanding that the university drop the use of both “Pontifical” and “Catholic.”
The university has remained defiant. In a July 22 statement on the university’s website and in interviews with media, the school has said it has no intention of changing its name, arguing that it has the legal right to the name under Peruvian law and has no duty to follow Church law.
The university rector continues to blame Cardinal Cipriani for the tensions with Church authorities.
Rubio told CNN en Español that “the whole issue is nothing more than an attempt of the Archdiocese of Lima to take control of the financial resources of the university.”
He described the Vatican decree as “a favor from one cardinal to another that hasn’t even been signed by the Pope.”
Gonzalo Flores, an expert on canon and civil law and advisor to the Peruvian bishops, told the Register that the university’s defiance will only continue a long and losing battle.
“The university has no escape, according to Peruvian legislation,” Flores said. “The concordat between Peru and the Vatican, which recognizes the autonomy of the Catholic Church to decide on all things Catholic, trumps any copyright claim.”
“Paradoxically, the only way that the university can liberate itself from canon law is by resigning to be Catholic by name,” he explained. “And considering how afar is the institution from Catholicism, that would be the honest thing to do.”
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Oh good, they finally got the ball rolling. Any suggestions from the rest of the readership for a list of American Universities? Is there an address to send them to?
It occurs to me that if I applied to a particular University specifically because I thought it was Catholic, and was accepted by that Catholic Institution, that I might be upset to the point of a law suit if the University’s status were to change?
Does this open up this University to student lawsuits or tuition refund?
July 30th: Although this is a good move, it seems strange that those so called ‘Catholic’ universities that publicly defy Church teachings are permitted to retain the title ‘Catholic’ -
Why a Peruvian university and not the ‘Catholic’ universities in the USA who consistently and publicly defy Church teachings?
July 30th: Why a Peruvian University and not all the so called Catholic universities in the USA who consistently and publicly defy Church teachings?
I wish Rome would do more of this. I think we have to face the fact that for the next generation in the U.S. (and probably Latin America) will be at best a time for retrenchment. We do need Catholic universities but far better that they be small and Catholic than big and carry a Catholic name and tradition. There might be an advantage. The Church does need intellectuals, but I’m not sure that the various “religious studies” departments or “divinity schools” are really the best place to get them. A smaller school like Thomas Aquinas in California might be a far better place for students to live their faith and to gain the intellectual tools to continue to do so throughout life.
NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY, show your hypocrisy!
NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY Should go the same way .Take them to task
Why didn’t the author speak to the Catholic lay people who run this university? I ask in all seriousness. And before all you self-appointed watchdogs who act like some kind of alternative magisterium write back to say that they need not be consulted because they are not truly Catholic, that they are cathylic or “Catholic” or CINO, or whatever other disparaging names you use, read this: You don’t get decide who is truly Catholic and who is not. AND while the Vatican has taken away the title of “Catholic” and “pontifical” from the INSTITUTION, a juridical person canonically, so far I have seen no evidence that the Vatican or the local bishop has excommunicated or put under penalty any of the individual Catholics involved. So again, I ask the author and the NCRegister, why didn’t the author speak to any of the Catholic lay people at the university?
To the extent I understand David’s rant, like the former Pontifical University of Peru, he is in serious error.
First, Catholics , including lay Catholics, do get to decide who is truly Catholic and who is not. At least, they have a pert to play. Let’s take a very recent and apt example. In the last few months, William Peter Blatty, best known as the author of “The Exorcist” and Georgetown alumnus, brought a suit against Georgetown seeking the exact same relief as imposed on the University in Peru. Stated differently, Blatty has requested the Vatican declare Georgetown may not hold itself out as Catholic. Now, what was the reason for this? In May, Georgetown honored the high priestess of infanticide Kathleen Sebelius. Sebelius, who gave safe haven to the baby killer George Tiller and allowed him to commit murder, believes plunging scissors into babies’ skulls and sucking out their brains should be the 8th sacrament. Blatty, a lay person, would have none of it. He sued. By the way, if anyone questions Blatty’s bona fides, no less an authority than Gabriele Amorth has proclaimed that “The Exorcist” is entirely accurate. Amorth himself writes about entire places needing exorcism. This is what Georgetown needs.
Second, David also is wrong about excommunications. By definition, all those involved were excommunicated latae sententiae. Indeed, it is tautological. Think about it. Likewise, here in America, we know that many people have been excommunicated even if the Vatican has not taken out an ad in the New York Times identifying such persons. For example, we know for certain that Joe Biden, Kathleen Sebelius, Gray Davis, Patrick Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, OK, let’s just make this easy and say all the Kennedys, et al, have been excommunicated.
Third, in the late 19th century, Pope Leo XIII issued “Satis Cognitum”, which is not as well known as “Rerum Novarum”, but much more clear and explicit. In “Satis Cognitum” Leo expressly and unambiguously declared that any person who dissents from even one Catholic doctrine—even if they agree with all others—is not a member of the Catholic Church. See section 16.
They can start with Fordham U. Went there for 2 years and left in disgust. Can’t even remember to have the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel or have a Vigil Light.
Since the university belongs to the Catholic Church the rector and other members of the university administration who are joint trustees have no business overstepping the bounds of their brief. Therefore they are wrong in calling the university ‘catholic’ and ‘pontifical’ when the current activity of the university is anti-Catholic. It is criminal and criminal sanctions should be imposed on the rector and his colleagues.
The Catholic Church Bishops need to repossess all of its hospitals and colleges. The church needs to send the anti-Catholics who run these institutions packing.
A simple solution would be to abolish the category of Catholic University altogether. It see,s simply impossible to subject research in theology, philosophy, biology, psychology to the shibboleths and litmus tests now imposed by the Vatican.
Anybody who wants to establish a university can go ahead and do that. However confusionists must not ride on the back of the Catholic Church to create spiritual and psychological havoc in the society. The Catholic Church had a reason for founding Catholic universities; and nobody must grudge the Church that right. If you want to found your own university where students are allowed to become vampires or walk naked on the streets and on campus, then go ahead. But please leave the Catholic Church alone. We live in a free society and no one must interfere in the legitimate pursuits of the other. The allusion that one cannot do research in Theology, biology, psychology just goes to show some level of ignorance of the author.
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