The Vatican is determined to control the interpretation of scripture and insists that later theological developments proclaimed by Church Councils are already present in the New Testament.
It imposes its own dogmatic ‘Jesus Christ’ and sees any deviation from this as a flouting of its authority.
The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Inquisition) has published a Notification condemning Jon Sobrino’s two books on christology, Jesus the Liberator and Christ the Liberator.
Shortly before this Pope’s first visit to Latin America, the Notification, together with an explanatory note, was posted on 14th March 2007 on the Vatican website www.vatican.va (for the full text enter the site, go to English version and enter ‘Jon Sobrino’ in the Search box).
Sobrino is condemned for making the basis (‘place’ or ‘setting’) of christology, ‘the Church of the poor’, rather than ‘the apostolic faith which the Church has transmitted through all generations’.
Sobrino’s works, says the Vatican, ‘do not conform to the doctrine of the Church in certain key areas: the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Incarnation of the Son of God, the relationship of Jesus with the Kingdom of God, Jesus’ selfconsciousness, and the salvific value of Jesus’ death’. The Notification says: ‘A number of Father Sobrino’s affirmations tend to diminish the breadth of the New Testament passages which affirm that Jesus is God.’ It berates Sobrino for saying that Jesus was ‘a believer like ourselves’ and insists that ‘Christ enjoyed in his human knowledge the fullness of understanding of the eternal plans he had come to reveal.’ The Notification quotes Sobrino’s sentence: ‘Let it be said from the start that the historical Jesus did not interpret his death in terms of salvation, in terms of soteriological models later developed by the New Testament, such as expiatory sacrifice or vicarious satisfaction.’ Then it says Sobrino is wrong in maintaining that Jesus did not ‘attribute a salvific value to his own death’.
The Notification was sent to Sobrino via the Jesuit Superior General, Peter Hans Kolvenbach, demanding that he should give unreserved assent to it. In his reply to Fr Kolvenbach, Sobrino has refused to do so, saying: ‘I think that endorsing these proceedings does nothing to help the Church of Jesus, or to help present God’s face in our world, or encourage the following of Jesus or the crucial struggle of our time for faith and justice.’ The Vatican, he says, has conducted what amounts to a dirty war against liberation theology for the last 20 or 30 years. In particular, Joseph Ratzinger (now pope) has attacked Sobrino’s theology continually, for example, because Sobrino has said: ‘The true God is only the one who is revealed historically and scandalously in Jesus and in the poor, who continue his presence.’ Sobrino’s bishop, Archbishop Fernándo Saenz Lacalle of San Salvador, a member of Opus Dei and former chaplain to the Salvadoran military, supports the Vatican Notification and has forbidden Sobrino to teach theology in his diocese, which includes the UCA (University of Central America), where Sobrino has worked for many years.
Messages can be sent to the UCA at correo@www.uca.edu.sv or by post to UCA, Boulevard los Próceres, San Salvador, El Salvador, Central America.