Sobrino criticized, faithful notified, CWN still gets it wrong

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released its Notification on the work of Jon Sobrino, SJ today. The text of the document can be found here. The rumors of Sobrino’s “silencing” received little news coverage this past week, save for the Catholic World News service which ran several stories claiming that the document would “silence” Sobrino by prohibiting him from teaching theology at Catholic institutions, a fate suffered by such theologians as Roger Haight, SJ and Charles Curran. Despite the repeated hints at this sort of censure, the CDF issued a mere warning to the faithful about the ambiguities in Sobrino’s work. The introduction reads:

After a preliminary examination of the books Jesucristo liberador: Lectura histórico-teológica de Jesús de Nazaret (Jesus the Liberator) and La fe en Jesucristo: Ensayo desde las víctimas (Christ the Liberator) by Father Jon Sobrino, SJ, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, because of certain imprecisions and errors found in them, decided to proceed to a more thorough study of these works in October 2001. Given the wide distribution of these writings and their use in seminaries and other centers of study, particularly in Latin America, it was decided to employ the “urgent examination” as regulated by articles 23-27 of Agendi Ratio in Doctrinarum Examine.

As a result of this examination, in July 2004 a list of erroneous or dangerous propositions found in the abovementioned books was sent to the Author through the Reverend Father Peter Hans Kolvenbach, SJ, Superior General of the Society of Jesus.

In March of 2005, Father Jon Sobrino sent a Response to the text of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to the Congregation. This Response was studied in the Ordinary Session of the Congregation on 23 November 2005. It was determined that, although the author had modified his thought somewhat on several points, the Response did not prove satisfactory since, in substance, the errors already cited in the list of erroneous propositions still remained in this text. Although the preoccupation of the Author for the plight of the poor is admirable, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has the obligation to indicate that the aforementioned works of Father Sobrino contain notable discrepancies with the faith of the Church.

For this reason, it was decided to publish this Notification, in order to offer the faithful a secure criterion, founded upon the doctrine of the Church, by which to judge the affirmations contained in these books or in other publications of the Author. One must note that on some occasions the erroneous propositions are situated within the context of other expressions which would seem to contradict them, but this is not sufficient to justify these propositions. The Congregation does not intend to judge the subjective intentions of the Author, but rather has the duty to call to attention to certain propositions which are not in conformity with the doctrine of the Church. These propositions regard: 1) the methodological presuppositions on which the Author bases his theological reflection, 2) the Divinity of Jesus Christ, 3) the Incarnation of the Son of God, 4) the relationship between Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God, 5) the Self-consciousness of Jesus, and 6) the salvific value of his Death.

The text then offers further explanations of the six problematic areas mentioned above, and concludes with the following:

Theology arises from obedience to the impulse of truth which seeks to be communicated, and from the love that desires to know ever better the One who loves – God himself – whose goodness we have recognized in the act of faith. For this reason, theological reflection cannot have a foundation other than the faith of the Church. Only starting from ecclesial faith, in communion with the Magisterium, can the theologian acquire a deeper understanding of the Word of God contained in Scripture and transmitted by the living Tradition of the Church.

Thus the truth revealed by God himself in Jesus Christ, and transmitted by the Church, constitutes the ultimate normative principle of theology. Nothing else may surpass it. In its constant reference to this perennial spring, theology is a font of authentic newness and light for people of good will.

Theological investigation will bear ever more abundant fruit for the good of the whole People of God and all humanity, the more it draws from the living stream which—thanks to the action of the Holy Spirit—proceeds from the Apostles and has been enriched by the faithful reflection of past generations. It is the Holy Spirit who leads the Church into the fullness of truth, and it is only through docility to this “gift from above” that theology is truly ecclesial and in service to the truth.

The purpose of this Notification is precisely to make known to all the faithful the fruitfulness of theological reflection that does not fear being developed from within the living stream of ecclesial Tradition.

Today’s story at CWN issues the following correction: “[C]ontrary to previous reports, the Vatican does not invoke any disciplinary measures against the Jesuit scholar; he is not barred from publishing other theological works or from teaching at Catholic universities.” Of course it does not indicate that the only erroneous “previous reports” that existed were its own.

The CWN article ends with a summary statement: “The central difficulty in Sobrino’s work, the CDF finds, is a failure to recognize the central role of Jesus and the Church in the economy of salvation.” Unfortunately, CWN gets it wrong here again—the CDF does not say that Sobrino has failed to recognize the central role of Jesus for salvation, but criticizes what it perceives to be a misplaced emphasis on the humanity of Jesus or an ambiguous description of the relationship between the humanity and the divinity of Jesus.

The document itself is hardly the thrashing that some expected to be aimed at Sobrino. But the Notification is not without its faults. For example, in its insistence that the CDF’s issue with Sobrino’s work is not simply related to his liberationist perspective, the document says that “the preoccupation of the Author for the plight of the poor is admirable.” This is certainly a twisted way to refer to the Church’s commitment to a “preferential option for the poor,” which has been described as a “constitutive element of the Gospel” in recent Magisterial documents.

It is also curious that, to my knowledge, the CDF has never criticized a theologian for deemphasizing Christ’s humanity, the equally important flip-side of the Chalcedon dogma. Oh well.

Read more about the Sobrino case in John Allen’s article at NCR. Catholic News Service also has an insightful report here that puts things into better perspective. Zenit.org provides the text of the CDF’s “Explanatory Note” on the Notification here.

But do avoid the Catholic World News’ shoddy and shallow reporting. I’m sure many of the right-wing Catholic news sites and blogs, like the CWN, have been waiting for another “crackdown” on “liberal” theologians. The actual action taken by the CDF must come as quite a disappointment to those Catholic news agencies whose reports are based more on their hopes than on reality.