Hillary White, Rome Corresponent for LifeSiteNews.com, put up a story on 22 February, a story that betray the free-fall in the Roman Curia at the moment. That chaos, however, has been checked more than once by Cardinal Bertone. He has many critics. Lots of them don’t know what he does behind the scenes.
This story is particularly interesting for me, since I am personally acquainted with many of those involved. For instance, I pulled top marks for a course of Liberation Theology as taught by Father Gustavo Guttierez, now a Dominican of the Toulouse Province (which doesn’t mean he’s anywhere near France at any given time). This is the case even though I asked some particularly incisive questions throughout this course, making me a rather mysterious unknown quantity to him, as he oft-repeated to some of his other students. I bet I know Gustavo’s “theology” better than both Cardinal X (a particularly good friend and staunch defender of Guttierez and terribly disappointed with Cardinal Bertone at the moment, and Cardinal Müller). I only say that since it’s good to hack down any perception that students of Guttierez are somehow in an untouchable category of gnostic power. They’re not. Nor is Guttierez a gnostic god. This story is more about abortion than it is about anything with Guttierez, but it seems that Müller’s “in” with the former Pontifical Catholic University of Peru is decisive regarding the actions taken. HSH [comments]:
Cardinal Bertone overrules Vatican CDF head over removal of Catholic status from rebel university – Hilary White, Rome Correspondent Fri Feb 22 20:38 EST Abortion - ROME, February 21, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com)
In a highly unusual move, the Vatican curia’s highest official, the Cardinal Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, has reportedly corrected the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in a dispute over a rebel Peruvian university. According to a report by La Stampa’s Vatican Insider magazine, Cardinal Bertone and a meeting of high-level Vatican officials have declared that a letter by Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller to Cardinal Juan Cipriani Thorne, the archbishop of Lima, Peru, is “null and void” and that Cardinal Cipriani’s actions against the former Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PCUP) were correct and within the precepts of Canon Law. [This is so highly unusual, that it would seem to be false. Yet, with what is reported here, it seems to be true. I personally add that this is not so highly unusual. This isn't the first time this happens with the same Cardinals.]
Vatican Insider reports that a controversy has flared within the Vatican over the actions taken by the Secretariat of State and Cardinal Cipriani against PCUP, whose theology department is known for opposing Catholic teaching on homosexuality and abortion. ["homosexuality and abortion"]
The university received a papal decree dated July 11, 2012 from Cardinal Bertone withdrawing the titles “Pontifical” and “Catholic” and rescinding the licenses of the theology faculty to teach Catholic doctrine in the name of the Church. But the professors appealed to the CDF and Müller, who had been a student of Liberation Theology founder Gustavo Gutiérrez, a PCUP professor with whom Müller has had a long and close friendship. [Gnostic stuff! And it really is treated that way by adherents: No one understands us. We know everything! Everyone else is not in the local dialectic and so can't possibly appreciate what we are doing!]
The Vatican Insider says that Müller, an outsider to Vatican curial procedures, wrote a personal letter to Cardinal Cipriani reportedly without consulting his own staff in the CDF, bypassing the normal channels of the Peruvian nunciature [which once suffered from a perceived lack of hierarchical status, necessitating its status being jacked up a bit. All about related issues here, mind you. This goes back a long, long time.] The letter, the text of which was published in part by the Peruvian press, told Cipriani that he had no right to revoke the university’s status. [This is, by the way, how many bishops govern their dioceses, that is, by trampling the rights and duties of others by throwing out the Canon Law of the Church, that synthesis of the Church's governing wisdom gained by centuries of experience. Those who toss this out do no one any favors.] Müller demanded an explanation for the decision to not renew the licenses of theology professors. Müller had, moreover, told the university theology department to carry on teaching in the name of the Church, indicating that the issue is not yet closed in the Vatican. ["Not yet closed" -- that would be right, until right now.]
Bertone reportedly responded to the letter by calling a meeting of high officials in the Vatican who rebuked Müller’s interference. Bertone said that Canon Law is clear that it is the prerogative of the local bishop to grant or revoke the teaching license of any individual or institution proposing to teach Catholic theology. [Right.]
At the time of his appointment, Archbishop Müller was widely perceived to be sympathetic to theologians involved in Liberation Theology, a synthesis of Christian ideas and Marxism that was censured in the 1980s and ‘90s by then-Cardinal Ratzinger. Müller, a close collaborator with Ratzinger, came to Rome in July 2012 at Pope Benedict’s request from the archdiocese of Regensburg. His friendly relationship with PCUP is highlighted by his reception in 2008 of a doctorate honoris causa from the university.
The scandal comes at a time of extreme delicacy in the life of the Vatican, with scandal swirling around the unpopular Bertone, the pope resigning [The Pope doesn't "resign" as no one is over him in this world. He abdicates.] and a looming conclave that could change the entire curial landscape. [especially with certain volumes being handed to Benedict XVI of late, which will not only go to the next successor of Saint Peter, but, I think, will have to be presented in summary, with any names of implicated Cardinals, in the talks on the state of the Church just before the voting commences in the Conclave. This kind of recklessness on the part of Prefect of the CDF is backfiring on himself.]
Müller’s sidestepping of the Secretariat of State, formally above the CDF in the Vatican’s hierarchy, and in defiance of a papally approved decree is a major breach of protocol [and a grave insult to Pope Benedict XVI]. The rebuke from Bertone’s Secretariat of State to the CDF is being seen in Rome as a serious blow to the authority and prestige of the recently appointed Müller, and indirectly to Pope Benedict. [Sorry, Hillary, but you're wrong here. This defends Pope Benedict's authority against the ever more inept and rebellious Prefect.] It is being called another indicator of the state of near-chaos and rivalry that prevails in the Vatican. [That would be right. And this is one of the reasons why the perfect gentleman, Benedict XVI, is stepping aside. That chaos needs a stamina which he does not have.]
The university administration and theology faculty has remained defiant, claiming the university has a right to the name Catholic, and say they have no plans to change it. [Hah hah hah.] A former PCUP rector, Salomon Lerner Febres wrote on January 13th in La República [Ooooo! A newspaper in Peru! Ooooo!], that the decree is a “decision not in line with the spirit of the Gospel” aimed not at promoting Catholic doctrinal orthodoxy, but at suppressing Liberation Theology. [Ahem.... and what about the pro-homosexualist, pro-abort rubbish going on there? Forgot that, did we?]
Cardinal Cipriani, the university’s Great Chancellor, issued the decree after months of talks between the archdiocese and Rome, but the problems date back decades. Founded in 1917, the Vatican says that since 1967 the university “has on various occasions unilaterally modified its statutes, seriously prejudicing the interests of the Church.” [Anyone reminded of Notre Dame in South Bend?]
The Vatican and the local Church have been trying to bring PUCP back into line with Catholic teaching since at least 1990 when Pope John Paul II promulgated the law on Catholic universities, the Apostolic Constitution “Ex Corde Ecclesiae”. As of today, the university still bills itself as the “Pontifical Catholic University of Peru”. [They might be saying that in hell as well.]
Andres Alvarez Beltramo wrote for Vatican Insider that the “very existence of the letter” was seen at the university as “an encouragement” for the rector Marcial Rubio and his collaborators, who have long refused the requests of Church officials to comply with the Vatican’s requests.
See the original article HERE. There there are links to a number of lead up reports.
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Now, I’m sure that many of you are wondering what all this has to do with “Esa cojudez! C’est de la merde! Yikes!” in the title of this post. Those who have been following the blog for quite a while, of those who are already familiar with the background of this story, will have been laughing right along, and beating the air with their fists, cheering this post right along. Let me re-publish a bit of a previous post here:
Such bad language! For shame! For shame! For SHAME! And moreover: Be NICE!
Whatever. Get over it. Or, better yet, if you are really offended by this, go and complain to one of our greatest South American Cardinals, the Archbishop of Lima, Peru, his Eminence, Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne. These are his words. After your discussion with him about your rights, you’ll likely hear the same words hurled your way, as it seems that this is one of his favorite phrases. And you have to know, I just love that.
O.K., then, after you get unceremoniously tossed out on your keister, and probably using the latter part of his words against him (ironically, despite yourself), I urge you, go and kneel at the tomb of Blessed John Paul II, who named the good Archbishop a Cardinal within a few weeks after he made this internationally publicized statement about the rights of man being a just a load of s***. There were protests to the Vatican and no end to the headlines, which were put in such huge bold type that there were no stories on the front pages, only this one quotation. Throughout France, I’m told, all you could see everywhere on the front pages was this:
Les droits de l’homme:
C’est de la merde!
Friends across the border, down in Tor Ciudad, in Spain, were celebrating to no end. Their Cardinal (their second Cardinal) had gotten it right, though the whole world thought that he had gotten it oh so wrong.
Now remember, JPII’s answer was to make him a Cardinal. If you’re still complaining, go and kneel at John Paul’s tomb and complain to him about this. You’ll likely hear a voice from heaven repeating the same words without missing a beat. Hah! But, go ahead! You have to know that there is something to learn about how passionate we must be with the new evangelization amidst the total idiocy of this world: “The rights of man: what a load of sh*t!” Gasp!
But Father, but Father! Doesn’t man have rights? How could the Cardinal and Blessed John Paul get it so very wrong?
Seldom affirm, almost never deny, always distinguish… Let’s investigate this.
Let’s take this down to Peru, home of quite a few extremely violent Marxists, who kill indiscriminately just to get people angry so that they will fight the “oppressors”: onward to No Place, to Utopia. There are always some knucklehead priests who go along with this. They hated the Opus Dei Archbishop, and got together a protest outside the Cathedral, where the Archbishop was offering Holy Mass. All the media were present, taking notes, filming, recording the event as he walked out of the Cathedral after Mass to take on whatever stupidity the might-makes-right attention seeking clerics had to hurl at him. They chanted:
Men have rights, the right to kill one’s oppressors vigilante style! Kill! Kill! Kill! Tit for tat! We want a spiral of violence! Men have rights! The dialectic is the only way! Men’s rights! Men’s rights! Men’s rights!
There can be plenty of injustice, and one does have the right to defend oneself, but to foment a war by way of vigilantism – where there is almost never justice done for anyone – instead of using other means to bring society to a change for the better (and there are plenty) is just plain wrong. If one has to change the government by way of peaceful protest. Fine! Umpteen countries in Europe have done this, also thanks to Blessed John Paul II.
The distinction: the rights of man provided by man to himself for self-serving reasons are wrongly hailed as something being over and above the inalienable rights that God provides to us, over and above to the point of being able to ignore what God wants of us, the rights of God. But that’s wrong. The rights of man apart from God, as the Cardinal said and John Paul affirmed… the mere rights of man are sh*t.
That the rights of man are sh*t is a good call by the greatest of the great South American Cardinals, His Eminence, Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne. How great that Blessed Pope John Paul II confirmed this just some weeks later. But did the Holy Father really do that? Just because he made Cipriani a Cardinal while the whole world was in an uproar against Cipriani for this statement does not prove anything, does it? Recall, if you would, this video of Pope John Paul II down in Sicily, in Agrigento. I bet that this is exactly where Cipriani was inspired to say what he said. Go John Paul II!
Now, watch the video of the Great John Paul II again! Hah! The rights of man apart from God, what a load of s***!!! Go Cardinal Cipriani Thorne!!!
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter. 
Go Father Byers! Go! Thanks for giving us all this information we are not likely to get anywhere else.
I am glad to see the smackdown being put on a pontifical university that has been betraying its mission. It is as bracing and refreshing to see punishment meted out to the guilty as it has been demoralizing to see them act with impunity. But what is to be done about the curia? Should all these guys just be thrown out, and we start all over from scratch? (Aren’t some of them out of a job anyway, when Pope Benedict’s abdication takes effect?) Is there a chance the new Holy Father will throw them all out? Is there a chance he will boot anyone out of the College of Cardinals?
Over the last half-century or so, the Church gave up punishing malefactors. (I think some of Pope Benedict’s best comments in Peter Seewald’s book were the ones that addressed this, and the injustice that results from it.) Now, the Church is full of men who have just simply contemned and abused the gentleness with which they have been treated. Pope Benedict did indeed roll some heads over the last eight years, but my own personal sense is that a lot more heads need to roll before the Church’s affairs can be set right.
Anita: The difficulty is not one of rolling heads or keeping them pasted on. The challenge is one of prayer. Sure, the medicinal side of excommunication and other penalties were mocked in th over-optimism of post-WWII we’re all moving to the Omega Point and discipline slows us down heresy. But it can easily go the other way. Thus, the Prefect of the CDF can abuse his office in smacking down those he doesn’t like, and penalties become, as usual marginalization. The only way to proceed is in all humility before Christ Jesus. But that needs prayer. Such humility will rip people out of office and cast excommunications, but will do this with an eye to Christ Jesus instead of oneself. It is not easy to be in an office of authority. Often we don’t know our weaknesses until we are in an office of authority. And then it’s too late. We must all get to know Christ Jesus now. Yikes!
Amen, Father! St. Teresa of Avila wanted to go to the top of the highest mountain and cry out: “Pray! Pray! Pray!”
I feel I have no other defense left but prayer and hopefully the gift of humility. I’m just not equipped any longer to sort through the confusion and contradiction presented in our Church hierarchy and media in general. I know the truth will eventually come to light, but currently, any discernment I thought I had apparently was an illusion and now seems totally jammed.
I’m with Dismas.
You are right, Pater. We can do nothing without being grounded in prayer. However, when I talked about rolling heads, I did mean punishment justly administered. The cure for past abuses of the power to punish was never to just quit using it altogether, as we have learned to our cost; but I do not want to see us over-correct. Still, there are many problems (not to mention problematic people) for which moral suasion is just not a sufficient remedy.
(And the wild optimism in the wake of not one, but two fratricidal slaughters that left tens of millions dead is surely one of the most bizarre things fallen human nature ever came up with.)