College students, professors call on university to obey Vatican

Lima, Peru, Feb 29, 2012 / 16:05 pm

A group of professors, students and alumni of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru are urging the school to obey the Vatican and update its statutes in accord with Church teaching.

Members from the Riva Aguero University Association – named after the principal benefactor of the university –  called on school officials to “fully comply with the petition made by the Holy See, as the university would not exist were it not for the effort of the Catholic Church.”

The Vatican has given the Pontifical University of Peru until Easter 2012 to comply with the Church’s requirements for Catholic colleges, marking the first time the Holy See has set a deadline for a university to reform.
 
University officials have been refusing to comply with the Church’s guidelines for Catholic universities, which were laid out the papal document “Ex Corde Ecclesiae.” The apostolic constitution was promulgated in 1990 by Pope John Paul II to clarify what is expected of an authentically Catholic university.

The association said in a Feb. 27 statement provided to CNA that the Church “has the right to create educational institutions in harmony with the principles of the faith and her Magisterium.”

Members noted that the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru has been identified “since its founding in 1917” as a Catholic institution dedicated to the “teaching of the doctrine of the Church, under the protection of the Holy See.”