Peruvian University Worries Opus Dei Behind Dispute with Church

[Catholic_Press]

One of Peru’s top universities says it thinks maneuvers by the conservative Roman Catholic group Opus Dei are behind the school’s high-profile falling out with the Vatican.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/headlinebistro_complete/~4/GrC2HAKj6Vc

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[Dale_M]

Hmm… the Reuters article gives the impression that the controversy over the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru is a relatively new development. But a recent article in the National Catholic Register indicates that the controversy is decades old.

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.

ncregister.com/daily-news/catholic-identity-is-at-heart-of-peru-universitys-clash-with-vatican/

The attorney for the archdiocese was quoted as saying that, by 1994, the university had “completely abandoned a Catholic identity.”