CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - As we wrote in a previous article, after decades-long and unsuccessful efforts by the Holy See to get the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) to abide by the canonical requirements established by Blessed John Paul II in his apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae which are intended to assure that Catholic universities abide by their mission, the Vatican Secretary of State finally delivered a strong sanction: it ordered that the University remove the names "Pontifical" and "Catholic" from its name. 

"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, 2012.

Really, the decree of the Holy See is recognizing de jure what is already de facto obvious to any honest observer.  Whatever this Peruvian university is under its Rector Marcial Rubio Correo, it is neither Pontifical nor Catholic.  Indeed, it is anti-Pontifical and anti-Catholic.  Yet in an interview after the Holy See's action, Rubio stubbornly maintained the university would retain the names since they are part of its legal trademarks or servicemarks.  The Rector's intransigence will probably require future legal action by the Holy See.

According to Gonzalo Flores, an expert on canon and civil law and an advisor to the Peruvian bishops, the university refusal to abide by the decree of Cardinal Bertone is a losing battle.  "The university has no escape, according to Peruvian legislation," Flores told the Catholic Register.  "The concordat between Peru and the Vatican, which recognizes the autonomy of the Catholic Church to decide on all things Catholic, trumps any copyright [or servicemark] claim."

The problem with the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru actually pre-dates the 1990 apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae.  The apostolic constitution represents Blessed John Paul II's efforts to cure the problem of Catholic universities which had lost their sense of mission, or whose mission has become inconsonant with the mission of the Church.

There is a certain irony in the current situation.  The Pontifical Catholic University of Peru was founded by the French priest, Fr. Jorge Dintilhac, a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and of the Perpetual Adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar in 1917.  It was founded to be an authentic Catholic alternative to Universidad de San Marcos, a Dominican school founded in 1551 which had itself been captured by anti-Catholic intellectuals at the time.  The university's pontifical status was granted by the Holy See in 1942.

Unfortunately, in the 1960s the PCUP itself was besieged by theologians that were influenced by liberation theology, a Marxist interpretation of the Gospel which is untrue to it, and in fact Father Gustavo Gutiérrez Muerino, one of liberation theology's most vociferous promoters, was named director of the School of Religious Studies in 1967, which later became the Department of Theology in 1969. 

Gutiérrez is perhaps best known for what is considered the foundational text of this thinking published in 1971, A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation.  In 1984, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then-headed by Cardinal Prefect Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) was critical of some aspects of this manner of theology, and issued its Instruction on Certain Aspects of the "Theology of Liberation". 

The Congregation's instruction largely fell on deaf ears.  The university's School of Theology has never been able to overcome the virus of its original founding, and so suffers from the theological foibles of its original director.  In fact, Gutiérrez's text is still considered required reading by theology students.

In 1976, the university adopted a new legal form that was calculated to reduce to a minimum the influence of the Church, to reduce the role of the Archbishop of Lima to a mere figurehead, and to minimize the Church's hiearchy's ability to govern day-to-day affairs of the university. 

The efforts at securing independence from the Church hierarchy in the 1970s were resisted by Cardinal Archbishop Juan Landázuri, as well as his successor Cardinal Archbishop Augusto Vargas, but the Archbishops were not successful, and eventually, the Archdiocese was even denied the right to serve on the school's governing ...