Peru University Rejects Vatican Decree

One of Peru’s top Catholic universities will continue to call itself Catholic and pontifical, despite a Vatican decree on July 21 aiming to strip the titles after decades of ideological tension. Lima’s Pontifical Catholic University of Peru will preserve its title as long as the institution “considers it relevant,” said university director Marcial Rubio. The Vatican has accused P.U.C.P. of causing “serious damage to the interests of the church” since the 1960s, when a Peruvian priest and instructor at the university, Gustavo Gutiérrez, O.P., right, founded the institution’s guiding principle of “liberation theology,” promoting social justice and pan-Latin American solidarity. P.U.C.P. is an “institution created in Peru, governed by Peruvian law, not canonical law,” Rubio said. “This is the official name by which we are known domestically and internationally,” he added. “The university’s assets are the property of the P.U.C.P. and are protected by the Peruvian constitution.”