Secretary of State Scolds New CDF

Edit:  Archbishop Müller attempts to go over the head of the local ordinary, the Pope, even lies about it, on behalf of his Liberation Theology friends in Peru. 

(Lima) In the Andean country of Peru, there is a rebellious university, which was deprived by Rome of the right to continue to call itself a "Catholic.”  The competent Archbishop and nominal chancellor of the academic institution withdrew the right to teach theology from the entire faculty.  After a heated session, which took place a few days ago in Rome, the Holy See insisted  that the university will continue to rebel without theologians. Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone had been invited to the meeting. The senior participants made the intention of the Prefect of the Congregation, Archbishop Curia Gerhard Ludwig Müller to thwart the ruling. He had tried to take the side of the Peruvian rebel party. A "gross error” for the keeper of the faith, as it is described in Rome.

Several dicastries were invited to the meeting  to consider a letter from Archbishop Müller to the Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Cipriani Thorne at the end of January. Therein the Prefect demanded an explanation as to why the Peruvian Cardinal had revoked the Church’s permission to teach theology for all the university professors of theology department.   This had notified the university authorities in December of disciplinary action by which the Holy See had withdrawn by its decree of June 2012, the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru’s  right to continue to describe themselves as “Papal" and call themselves "Catholic".

University must not describe itself as "papal" and "Catholic" - withdrawal of entire faculty's theology teaching license

The disciplinary measure which took place with 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 ecclesiastical regulations to implement 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, and the new CDF Prefect was active, according to which the rebellious professors had then turned to complain to him. According to this the withdrawal of permission to teach, it was made from "reasons of doctrine." Müller felt thus responsible, and called on the Archbishop of Lima, despite his own existing decision, to let the regular teaching  in theology continue. Müller justified this unusual step by saying that the Holy See had not yet decided the question.

CDF Prefect Müllers' interference in Lima and in the Vatican was not viewed well

The new Prefect’s interference came to nothing in Archbishop's Palace in Lima or in the other departments in Rome. Therefore, the Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone  addressed the situation at the aforementioned meeting at which the Muller's letter was canceled. It was annuled on the grounds that it had merely been a “personal" intiative by the Prefect, who had not even consulted his experts at the Congregation. Mueller also failed to send the letter through the regular channels of the Apostolic Nunciature in Lima. The Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Cipriani had instead simply just gotten a fax. The document has ignored the canon law, the other departments, which the competent diocesan bishop for 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 the decision of Archbishop Cardinal Cipriani has undiminished validity.

Müller's letter null and void - “Heavy Blow" for the new Master of the Holy Office

The former Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, whose acronym of PUCP has shrunk in UP, does not have enough teachers who are willing to teach without church permission at the university.

The outcome of the meeting chaired by Cardinal Bertone was a "serious blow” all around to the new Prefect, such as Andrés Beltramo Álvarez wrote for Vatican insider. To the Roman Curia  the question is whether the "new German” in Rome "is really the right man for such a central post, which requires maximum discipline and allows neither improvisation nor formal or editorial errors".

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Corrispondenza Romana

Katholisches….