Two books on Christology by a pioneer of the liberation theology movement contain statements that are “either erroneous or dangerous,” according to a formal Vatican notification published March 14, “and may cause harm to the faithful.”The ruling from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith finds various flaws in the works by Jesuit Father Jon Sobrino, a former theological adviser to Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador. Most notably, it complains of insufficient emphasis on the divinity of Christ.
Contrary to some early reports, the Vatican has not barred Father Sobrino from teaching or publishing, though a Jesuit spokesperson in Rome said that future disciplinary action has not been ruled out.
Father Sobrino himself has not yet commented, but in a December letter to Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, superior general of the Jesuits, Father Sobrino said he could not accept the Vatican’s judgment for two reasons: because it misrepresents his theology; and because to do so would be to acquiesce in what he described as a 30-year campaign of defamation against liberation theology, which, Father Sobrino wrote, “is of little help to the poor of Jesus and to the church of the poor.”
The letter, which is dated Dec. 13, has not been made public, but National Catholic Reporter obtained a copy.
The books in question are Jesus the Liberator, originally released in 1991, and Christ the Liberator, first issued in 1999. Both were published in English by Orbis Books.
Father Sobrino, 69, was born in the Basque region of Spain. He joined the Jesuits and arrived in El Salvador in 1958. Father Sobrino became one of the leading voices in liberation theology, the most important current in Latin American Catholicism following the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).
It was designed to break the traditional alliance of the Latin American church with social elites, and to support justice for the poor. The movement aroused fierce opposition.
In 1989, Father Sobrino narrowly escaped an attack on the University of Central America that left six of his fellow Jesuits dead, plus their housekeeper and her daughter.
The Vatican has been critical of the movement, issuing documents in 1984 and 1986 warning of excessive reliance on Marxism, a sociological concept of sin, and a worldly understanding of salvation.
While calling Father Sobrino’s concern for the poor “admirable,” and stating that it does not intend “to judge the subjective intentions of the author,” the new Vatican notification nonetheless cites six categories of errors in the two books:
- Father Sobrino’s method makes the “church of the poor” the central context for theology, thus minimizing or ignoring the apostolic tradition of the church, especially as expressed in the declarations of early church councils.
- It’s not sufficiently clear in his work that the divinity of Christ is taught by the New Testament itself, as opposed to being a product of later dogmatic development.
- In places, Father Sobrino tends toward the ancient Christological heresy of “assumptionism,” treating the historical Jesus as a separate figure who was “assumed” by the divine son of God.
- Father Sobrino makes too strong a distinction between Christ and the Kingdom of God, thereby devaluing the “unique and singular” significance of Christ.
- Jesus’ self-consciousness as messiah and as the son of God are not sufficiently clear.
- The death of Christ on the cross is reduced to a moral example, rather than understood as having universal significance for salvation.
The Vatican said that the examination that led to this notification began only in 2001. It cited “the wide diffusion of Father Sobrino’s works, especially in Latin America,” as grounds for the action.
In his letter to Father Kolvenbach, Father Sobrino laid out the reasons he is unable to accept the Vatican’s findings “without reservation.”
In the first place, he said, the two books in question were reviewed extensively by fellow theologians prior to publication. The Portuguese translation of Jesus the Liberator, Father Sobrino wrote, carried the imprimatur of Cardinal Paolo Evaristo Arns of São Paulo, Brazil.
For Christ the Liberator, Father Sobrino cited a number of theologians who he said found the book free of doctrinal error: Fathers J.I. González Faus, J. Vives and X. Alegre of the Monastery of San Cugat, Spain; Father Carlo Palacio of Bello Horizonte, Brazil; Father Javier Vitoria of the University of Deusto in Spain; and Father Martin Maier, of the German Jesuit publication Stimmen der Zeit.
In addition, Father Sobrino wrote that Father Maier sent a 2004 critique of Father Sobrino’s work from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to another Jesuit theologian, Father Bernard Sesboué, a former member of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission.
Father Sobrino said Father Sesboué responded that the congregation’s critique “appears so exaggerated as to be without value. ... With such a deliberately suspicious method, I could find many heresies in the encyclicals of John Paul II!”
Father Sobrino said it would not be honest for him to accept the Vatican’s findings, and that to do so would be to question the judgment of the theologians who had reviewed the book.
Second, Father Sobrino complained to Father Kolvenbach about harassment from church authorities, which he describes as reaching back to 1975, the year in which he first had contact with the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education, and 1976, when he first heard from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He describes the Roman curia’s methods as “not always honest or very evangelical.”
“An atmosphere against my theology was created in the Vatican, in several diocesan curias and among several bishops,” Father Sobrino wrote, “and in general against the theology of liberation. This atmosphere was created a priori, often with no need to read my writings.”
Father Sobrino says it would not be ethical for him to “approve or support” such efforts by signing the notification.
“I think that to endorse these procedures would not in any way help the church of Jesus to present the face of God to our world, nor to inspire discipleship of Jesus, nor [to advance] the ‘crucial fight of our time,’ which is for faith and justice,” Father Sobrino wrote.
Father Sobrino added that he “knows very well” that suspicions about his influence on the writings and speeches of Archbishop Romero is one reason that the late archbishop’s cause for beatification has been held up in the Vatican. Father Sobrino said he has written a 20-page document on the subject.
Father Sobrino cited numerous interventions by Colombian Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, currently president of the Pontifical Council for the Family in Rome, as well as other examples of what he considers a climate of hostility.
Father Sobrino said that in “1987 or 1988,” he received an invitation to speak in the Viedma Diocese of Argentina.
He claims that Cardinal Raúl Francisco Primatesta of Córdoba, Argentina, objected, and the invitation was withdrawn. Father Sobrino said he was later told that the bishop of Viedma was given an ultimatum: Either cancel the invitation to Father Sobrino, or Viedma would be scrubbed from the itinerary for a future papal visit to the country.
Through the use of such methods, Father Sobrino wrote, “many theologians, both men and women, who are good people – with their limitations, of course, but with great love for Jesus Christ, the church and the poor – have been persecuted insensitively.”
Father Sobrino cited several bishops, including Romero, Hélder Câmara of Brazil, Leonidas Eduardo Proaño of Ecuador, and Samuel Ruiz García of Mexico, as well as the Latin American Confederation of Religious, as objects of what he considers similar persecution.
Father Sobrino charged that elements of the hierarchy have sought to dismantle the “base communities” in Latin America.
Father Sobrino quoted extensively from a 1984 article on liberation theology by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger that was published in the Italian magazine 30 Giorni, and that Father Sobrino charges misrepresented his thinking on key points.
Father Sobrino also reaffirmed seven key elements of his own thought, including concern for the poor as the context for theology.
Extra pauperes nulla salus, Father Sobrino wrote – “Outside the poor, there is no salvation.”
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Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce