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BISHOPS´ CONFERENCE OFFICIAL DEFENDS VATICAN BAN OF THEOLOGIAN

Updated: March 15, 1988 05:00 PM GMT
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The Vatican decided to forbid Jesuit theologian Father Aloysius Bermejo from teaching with "the larger interest of the Church in mind," according to an Indian Church official.

In doing so, the Vatican did not violate its standard procedures for judging a controversial book, said Father Saturnino Dias, deputy secretary general of the Catholic Bishops´ Conference of India (CBCI).

The book in question is Father Bermejo´s "Towards Christian Reunion," published in 1984, which raises questions about papal infallibility and episcopal irreversibility. The Vatican began reviewing it in January 1986.

The decision to remove Father Bermejo from the staff of Jnana Deepa Vidyapeeth (University of the Light of Knowledge) in Pune was conveyed to Vidyapeeth in August 1987.

The decision, however, was announced to the community only on October 9, after Bermejo completed the course he was teaching. A public statement on the ban was made by the Jesuit provincial of India October 27.

Father Dias debunked the claim of some theologians that the Vatican acted secretively and bypassed the Indian bishops when it decided to ban Father Bermejo from teaching.

Father Bermejo himself had said that the Vatican, by failing to consult the bishops of the region when reviewing his writings, had bypassed an important step in the procedure for evaluating the orthodoxy of a theological tract.

On the contrary, Father Dias said, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had been in constant consultation with Bishop Valerian D´Souza of Pune during the 20-month scrutiny of Father Bermejo´s book.

Father Dias said that the procedure for judging the orthodoxy of a theology book, laid down by Pope Paul VI in 1971, implied consultation with the local bishop and not with the bishops´ conference.

Father Dias also refuted the charge leveled by the mass-circulated news magazine Illustrated Weekly of India that Father Bermejo was "summarily debarred" and was denied an opportunity to be heard.

The magazine ran a four-page article, which said the "verdict amounts to a reversal of the policies of Vatican II."

The article also accused the CBCI of meek surrender to Vatican high-handedness, stating: "In India, there was still no protest from the CBCI -- the body directly superseded by the Vatican."

The article quoted an unidentified Vidyapeeth theologian to say that the CBCI is silent on the issue because it is "far too fond of Rome´s patronage."

Father Dias also said the resentment against the Vatican action had now died down and people see the logic behind the ban.

Even though the issues raised by the book are significant, he conceded, Vatican doctrinal officials cannot act on them now.

The magisterium, he said, "which has to keep the larger interests of the Church in mind, may not be in a position to accept all the research findings, even though they may be the best."

He added that a genuine researcher would submit his results to Church authorities and wait for approval.

Church history abounds with examples where individuals were ahead of their time and had to face criticism and condemnation, Father Dias noted, adding that the Church could not accept them then because of certain circumstances.

"People once condemned were appreciated later," he said.

END

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