Report: Vatican to Remove Titles “Pontifical” and “Catholic” from [Peruvian] University
In an unprecedented and stunning move that could send shock waves throughout the world of Catholic education, the Holy See is reportedly set to strip a university of its status as a “Pontifical” and “Catholic” university.
After years of shocking disobedience and obstinate refusal to bring its statutes in line with the Apostolic Constitution Ex corde Ecclesiae, the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) will be stripped of its status as a “Catholic” and “Pontifical” university, according to the publication Vatican Insider.
The Apostolic See will however state that the university will retain its rights in relation to the structure.
That would seem to be an important legal distinction because it’s been reported that if the college loses its status as a “Catholic” college, it could also lose the land it’s built on, as the inheritance that was left to the institution in the 1940s was on condition that it function as a Catholic college. With the term “Catholic” being stripped from the university the land itself was in dispute.
It would seem that the Vatican has decided not to dispute that issue.
This shocking situation is the result of a long and controversial feud that began between the university and the Archbishop of Lima and escalated to the Vatican, recently resulting in Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B., issuing a deadline to the university to adapt is statutes and allow the Archbishop a place on its board of directors.
At one point the Vatican Secretariat of State ordered an apostolic visit from Cardinal Peter Erdo of Budapest, Hungary but that too was reportedly rebuffed by the university.
The university reportedly remained obstinate on all fronts. In fact, in February, a legal representative for the university, Martin Mejorada, reportedly said, “(i)n no way will we accept any imposition made by Cardinal Erdo. We are governed solely by Peruvian law.”
Earlier this year, the Vatican set a deadline for April 8 at which time the university was required to hand over its new statutes. But the university reportedly failed to do so.
[CDF Prefect Muller's honorary alma mater]
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.
Source: rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-non-pontifical-non-catholic.html
New episodes in the Peruvian telenovela “La universidad del diablo”
In historic move, Vatican slams Episcopal Conference
Posted by New Catholic at 7/22/2012
rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2012/07/new-chapters-in-peruvian-telenovela-la.html
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:
Today, in declarations to the local press, the Rector of the Universidad del Diablo was defiant:
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).