Update on Sobrino story

Grant Gallicho, an associate editor of Commonweal magazine, has written on the magazine's blog that prior news reports have gotten the story wrong:

Jon Sobrino, SJ, put on notice.
March 13, 2007, 11:34 am
Posted by Grant Gallicho


The story hasn't made much of a splash Stateside, but Fr. Jon Sobrino, SJ, a well-known liberation theologian, is the subject of a "notification" by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which takes issue with several aspects of his Christology. The Spanish newspaper El Mundo broke the embargo on the document, and Catholic World News has run two stories on the matter, both of which contain a serious error. Their most recent story again claims that Sobrino has been sanctioned:
The disciplinary notice will reportedly stipulate that Father Sobrino should cease publishing theological works and cannot teach at a Catholic university while he maintains the positions that the Vatican has identified as clashing with Catholic doctrine.

Calling the ten-page notification a "disciplinary notice" is misleading, and claiming it stipulates that Sobrino cannot publish theology or teach at a Catholic school is simply false. Unlike the notification regarding the theology of Roger Haight, SJ, Sobrino's contains no sanctions whatsoever. He is not ordered to cease publishing, nor is he told he cannot teach Catholic theology. Apparently Catholic World News has not read the notification they're reporting on. More updates as they come.

In a response to a comment on the blog, Gallicho states that he has, in fact, read the notification to Sobrino.

Also published today is this Los Angeles Times story.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Thanks for this information. This was the first that I heard of this news. I saw Sobrino speak at la UCA in 2000 in front of a packed room, and was quite impressed.