The vice-president of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute in Rome has said that changes to the Institute have affected its ability to carry out its function according to its original purpose.
In 2017 Pope Francis called for the drawing up of new statutes for the Institute, which would broaden its focus. The Institute was established to explore the theology of marriage and the family, but Francis wanted the curriculum to be broadened out to incorporate studies of the family based on the social sciences, and with other inputs. The news statutes were approved and released last month.
Speaking to Catholic News Agency on 31 July, Fr Jose Granados DCJM said that he and other faculty members of the Institute had been taken by surprise when they saw the final draft of the statutes. Many of them had not seen it before it was approved by the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education.
Fr Granados said the statutes, that cut the number of professors in the Institute’s leadership council, show an “astonishing” loss of collegiality and it would be “impossible for the faculty to oppose a candidate promoted by the Grand Chancellor”.
Fr Granados also regretted the downgrading of moral theology, with the elimination of the chair of fundamental moral theology and the dismissal of its faculty members. In the new curriculum, “morality … has been reduced by half and … they have thrown out teachers who taught it: [Mgr Livio] Melina, {Fr Jose} Noriega and for bioethics Maria Luisa di Pietro.”
Fr Granados was particularly concerned that the teaching of St John Paul II’s 1993 encyclical Veritatis splendour would be undermined.
“The way that you understand Veritatis splendor will shape the way you view particular moral issues, such as the morality of contraception or sexual acts outside of marriage,” Granados said.
“This also shapes the way you approach the greatness of the vocation to which God calls man and also the dignity of the mercy with which God regenerates man in Christ, so that he can do good, and live a great and beautiful life.”
He noted that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger praised the Institute’s role in the development of fundamental moral theology, and that, unlike the newly approved statutes, a 2011 version of the Institute’s statutes said that fundamental moral theology should be among the primary aims of the school.
Concern about offering fundamental moral theology had not previously been raised in the 38 years the subject had been taught at the John Paul II Institute, Fr Granados pointed out before speculating that the reasons offered for the downgrading were “a smokescreen. The true and sad reason? Is it not that Melina...has remained faithful to Humanae vitae and Veritatis splendor, and the chair is eliminated in order to eliminate Melina?”
Fr Granados said the removal of the staff could hardly be because of “doctrinal problems”. “As students can testify, and an analysis of their writings would show, they have always been excellent in their respect for the Magisterium, including, of course, that of Pope Francis,” he insisted. “Explaining the teaching of the pope in continuity with the previous popes is not only something essential to every Catholic hermeneutic, but something promoted by the pope himself. And in any case, if one thought, in spite of everything, that there were doctrinal problems in their teachings, why are they not judged and given the possibility of defending themselves?
“We should all be alarmed by this arbitrary exercise of power over the nature of university work: the argumentative discussion in a common search for truth. And what will be thought of this way of proceeding in the European academic community?”
He went on to express grave concern over the appointments that might be made to replace Melina and Noriega. “With the powers that the Grand Chancellor now has, and the intentions that he reveals when dispensing with Melina and Noriega, it will be a matter of time to replace the teaching staff with another alien to the vision of St. John Paul II. For the great Polish pope, at the centre was always the faithfulness of the Church to the flesh of Christ, which assumes in itself the project of the Creator, and thus can heal the wounds and frailties of man,” he pointed out.
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