The apostolic visit to the Catholic Pontifical University of Perù (PUCP), arranged by the Vatican, has failed.
The openness to dialogue demonstrated by Cardinal Peter Erdö, sent personally by the Pope to mediate an old conflict, was not enough.
The University authorities showed themselves to be inflexible: they do not intend to accept the legitimate authority of the Church. Now, the Holy See will have to intervene and it will have to do it drastically.
The Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest went to Lima with the goal of arriving at an agreement to ensure that the university corrects its ecclesiastical situation, adjusting its statutes according to the apostolic constitution “Ex corde ecclesiase,” written by John Paul II in 1990 to guide Catholic higher education institutions around the world.
Initially, the cardinal was to have remained in the country for two weeks: the first week for listening and discussing, the second for negotiating and reaching solid agreements to arrive at a final solution. However, Erdö's plan changed abruptly. After meeting with the PUCP authorities, he decided to cut his trip short, and in the end stayed for only eight days.
The cardinal, who landed in the Peruvian capital on the evening of 4 December, returned on Sunday the 11th after meeting with the main actors in the dispute, first with Archbishop of Lima and Grand Chancellor of the University, Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne, and then with Chancellor Marcial Rubio and his main collaborators.
He also spoke with other people such as former chancellor Salomón Lerner Febres, President of the Peruvian Conference of Bishops Miguel Cabrejos Vidarte, and lawyers Natale Aprimo (civil) and Luis Gaspar (ecclesiastical). He also had two formal meetings with the President of the Congress of the Peruvian Republic, Daniel Abugattás, and with the Peruvian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rafael Roncagliolo.
Accompanied by two experts from the Secretary of State of the Holy See, the apostolic visitor confirmed that the leaders of the university do not recognize the Catholic Church as its founding body, and thus, are not willing to submit its statutes to ecclesiastical legislation, as the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education had formally instructed them to do.
He also learned that both the president and his main advisors do not consider faith and spirituality as priorities in their work. They were introduced simply as academic functionaries in the midst of a legal controversy, nothing more. The Catholic character of the institution they direct remains in the background.
With all the information gathered during his meetings, the apostolic visitor dedicated a great part of Saturday the 10th and Sunday the 11th of December to drafting a report on the situation. The document, consisting of 14 pages and two appendices, was sent via diplomatic pouch to the Vatican, where it will be carefully analyzed. The content is confidential and private, but there are also some concrete recommendations from Cardinal Erdö.
That same Sunday, the cardinal left Lima for Paris, and from there onto Budapest, where he continued his pastoral activities. The experts who traveled with him went to Rome (with a stopover in Madrid). They decided not to talk to the press as had been planned. Given the lack of an agreement, a statement (however brief) could have influenced the final decision - a decision that will have to be made public over the next few weeks, in 2012.
The Vatican does not have much room for maneuvering. It could leave everything as it is, allowing the Peruvian institution to be in open rebellion and allowing its independence from the Church structure. This would signal a negative precedent on a worldwide level.
The other possibility would be drastic: remove the titles “Pontifical” and “Catholic” from the name of the university, causing it to lose its ecclesiastical public identity. This option would seriously affect students, especially regarding their degrees. It would initiate a dispute over property, which would have to be moved to the Archbishopric of Lima, and a new university would have to be created.
Another possibility in this dispute would be sanctions against Chancellor Marcial Rubio, who could easily be subjected to a canonical trial for disobedience - a judgment that calls for punishments like excommunication.
It is a delicate problem that must be handled by the new Apostolic Nuncio to Lima, James Patrick Green.