Aparecida, Brazil, May 18, 2007 / 10:27 am
During a press conference at the 5th General Conference of the Latin American Bishops’ Council, the president of the Conference of Jesuit Provincials of Latin America, Father Ernesto Cavassa, SJ, expressed his hope that the theology of Father Jon Sobrino would in time be vindicated, and that therefore the notification of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith would be left historically outdated.
Earlier this year on March 14, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published a notification on some of the writings of Jesuit priest Father Jon Sobrino, stating that parts of his theology are “not in conformity with the doctrine of the Church.” The warning mainly addressed two works by Sobrino in which the divinity of Jesus is questioned, as well as Jesus’ knowledge of himself and the salvific value of his death. While the Congregation praised Sobrino for his concern for the poor, it said this option (the preferential option for the poor) should “exclude no one,” and that “the Church cannot express this option by means of reductive sociological and ideological categories which would make this preference a partisan choice and a source of conflict”.