There’s Only Been One Theologian Publicly Chastised

Fr. Jon Sobrino, S.J.

So, is the long-awaited “Reagan Revolution” in Catholicism at hand? In thinking that through, five bits of perspective may be helpful. First, a cascade of disciplinary moves all at once can produce a misleading sense of proportion.

Measured over the full seven years of Benedict’s papacy, the total number of occasions when Rome has called someone on the carpet remains relatively limited. There’s only been one theologian publicly chastised by the Vatican on Benedict’s watch, the Jesuit liberationist Fr. Jon Sobrino of El Salvador in 2007. 

A handful of other cases, such as Sr. Elizabeth Johnson in the United States or Fr. Andres Torres Queiruga in Spain, have been handled by local bishops, and a few writers for publications sponsored by religious orders have had their wings clipped at Rome’s behest. Second, when discipline has been imposed, even by recent historical standards it’s often been fairly light. No one’s had their license to teach theology publicly yanked, as happened to Hans Küng in 1979, nor has anyone been fired from a teaching post at the Vatican's direction, as happened to Charles Curran at the Catholic University of America in 1987. For the most part, official censure of theologians these days typically takes the form of bad book reviews. Beginning in the 2000s, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith informally adopted a policy of preferring to target ideas rather than people, on the belief that gag orders or firings often take the focus off the content of the case and put it on process. In the main, this approach has continued under Benedict XVI. (In Sobrino’s case, the congregation criticized the content of two of his books, but did not impose disciplinary measures.)
Link (here) to John Allan's full piece in "The Fish Wrap"

Rene Emilio Ponce Dead At 64

Rene Emilio Ponce, a Salvadoran army general and former defense minister accused of ordering the 1989 killings of six Jesuit priests and two others during the country’s civil war, died on Monday. He was 64. Ponce — who faced an investigation in Spain for crimes against humanity — died of heart failure in a hospital in San Salvador, the Defense Department said in a statement. A U.N. truth commission report released in 1992 found Ponce ordered the killings of the Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter when Ponce was a colonel in the Salvadoran army. The priests, who worked at the Jesuit-run Universidad Centroamericana, had been suspected of sympathizing with the country’s leftist rebel movement. A U.S. congressional investigation found they had been rousted from their beds and shot by soldiers in the killings, which sparked international outrage. Ponce was promoted to general the year after the massacre. He was defense minister from 1990 to 1993.

Link (here) to read the full article at the Washington Post.

A Book About Liberation Theology, Communism, Central Americian Politics, Jon Sobrino, Pedro Arrupe And The University of Central America

Jesuit Education and Social Change in El Salvador By Charles Joseph Beirne, S.J.

Jesuit Says, "Liberation Theology Has Always Been A Minority.."

Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez is the best example of what U.S. Jesuit Father Dean Brackley, a professor of theology at the University of Central America in El Salvador, calls "solid leadership." His message "might not go as far as bishops once did, but the circumstances are now different," Father Brackley said.

"The prophetic church and the church of (the) poor and liberation theology has always been a minority..

.. Most people have been in the middle, and that's more evident now."

Link (here)

Photo of Cardinal Rodriguez

Autrefois Acquit? In El Salvador

Despite the tragedy or the apparent miscarriage of justice in the slayings of the six Jesuits in El Salvador is that any reason to finagle the law with the infliction of Double Jeopardy? The double jeopardy rule arises from the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the relevant clause of which reads:

“

nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb

”

This clause is intended to limit abuse by the government in repeated prosecution for the same offense as a means of harassment or oppression.

Here is an excerpt from an article about the issue.

It was one sort of grief that Father Jose Maria Tojeira felt when he entered the home of his fellow Jesuit priests that day in 1989. Before him, he saw corpses and bloodstained walls, testament to one of the most notorious massacres committed during El Salvador's civil war.

Twenty years later, another anguish lingers in Tojeira from the knowledge that the military officers accused of killing six priests and two others in their home now live openly without fear of punishment.

A controversial law granting amnesty to the perpetrators of abuses is once again in the spotlight in El Salvador after a judge in Spain agreed in January to prosecute 14 military officers in the slaying while explicitly leaving the door open to indicting former President Alfredo Cristiani in the coverup.

Link (here)

Jesuits In El Salvador Do Not Want Further Legal Action

Salvador archbishop nixes probe of killed Jesuits

The Associated Press

The Roman Catholic archbishop of San Salvador opposes reopening the prosecution of Salvadoran officials in the 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests, the cleric said Sunday.

Human rights activists have pushed for a trial of a former president and 14 other Salvadoran officials in Spain, where five of the killed Jesuits were born.

Archbishop Fernando Saenz Lacalle called the killings at the height of the country's 1980-92 civil war "a frightful crime," but said he was sure that former President Alfredo Cristiani was not involved.

"Opening this case in another country's courts won't help the process of domestic reconciliation," he said. "El Salvador's affairs should be resolved in El Salvador."

The Jesuit order in El Salvador also decided not to participate in the Spanish case, Jesuit university rector Father Jose Maria Tojeira said.

Activists said a former defense minister was present at a meeting where the attack was planned on the Jesuits, whom the army accused of supporting leftist rebels. The human rights groups said Cristiani helped to cover up the crime.

A housekeeper and her daughter also died in the attack.

Spanish courts sometimes invoke the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows for the prosecution of crimes against humanity and other grave offenses such as terrorism, even in another country.

A trial over the massacre was held in El Salvador in 1991, but only two of the 10 defendants were convicted of murder and they were released early from their 30-year sentences under a 1993 amnesty, human rights groups said. Others convicted of lesser charges did not go to jail at all, they added.

Cristiani signed a 1992 peace accord with leftist rebels that put an end to a civil war that killed 75,000 people.

Link (here)

Peace Lawyer Has Ties To Weather Underground Founder

In 1991 attorney Douglass Cassel sat in a courtroom in El Salvador as an observer at the trial of Salvadoran soldiers and officers charged with murdering six dissident Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter.

He represented the American Bar Association, one of the international observers appointed by the Salvadoran Supreme Court.

The judge had little control over a crowd just outside the courthouse that was led by a colonel attempting to intimidate the jury. Low-flying airplanes circled ominously above the courthouse......With help from colleague Bernardine Dohrn, director of the law school’s Children and Family Justice Center,

Cassel convened an unofficial “tribunal of opinion” in Chicago. The tribunal, chaired by former Illinois Supreme Court Justice Seymour Simon, unanimously found the Colombian government responsible for the bombing and recommended proper prosecutions.

The government was invited to the tribunal and declined to participate, so Cassel and Dohrn went to Colombia to present their case to the people.
Link (here) to an article entitled Rule of Law written by Laura Wilson. Laura Wilson is a clinical social worker for Catholic Charities in Lake County, Ill.