Juan Luis Cardinal Cipriani Thorne
Encyclopedia
Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne (born in Lima
, 28 December 1943) is a Cardinal Priest and Archbishop
of Lima
in the Roman Catholic Church
. He is a member of the prominent conservative Peruvian Thorne family, and one of two cardinals
who are members of Opus Dei
, the other being Julián Herranz Casado
.
player. He studied industrial engineering
at the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería in Lima
, Peru
.
in 1977; he also holds a doctorate
in theology
from the University of Navarra
. In his service to the church, he did pastoral work in Lima, taught at the Pontifical Faculty of Theology, and was regional vicar
for Peru and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Piura
.
In 1988, he was appointed titular Bishop of Turuzi and Auxiliary of Ayacucho, and was promoted to Archbishop of Ayacucho in 1995. During the 1996–1997 Japanese embassy hostage crisis
, he attempted to negotiate a peaceful settlement, and ministered to Japanese and Peruvian hostages.
by Pope John Paul II
in the consistory of 21 February 2001, with the title Cardinal-Priest of San Camillo de Lellis. His appointment met with protests from a section and left-leaning groups in Peru due to his close relationship with the right-wing regime of Alberto Fujimori
.
He was one of the cardinal electors
who participated in the 2005 papal conclave
that selected Pope Benedict XVI
, and was himself considered papabile
— a possible successor to the papacy.
The cardinal is a member of the Personal Prelature Opus Dei
; he was the first priest incardinated into Opus Dei to be made a cardinal. He is also Grand Chancellor of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. In 2008 he banned receiving Communion
on the hand, instead ordering that the faithful take it on the tongue. He said that "the relaxed attitude of many priests" was to blame for a decline in reverence for the Eucharist among the faithful. http://www.thetablet.co.uk/article/11362
On 19 July 2011, he was named as a member of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America
by Pope Benedict XVI
.
(PCUP), in Lima, barred a gay student organisation from holding any events. The organisation, Parenthesis Collective (Colectivo Paréntesis), was formed by two third-year students, Rodrigo Vecco and Bernardo Nieuwland. In addition, the university distributed a pamphlet, “Sexual Identity: Is It Possible to Choose?” which described homosexuality as a curable illness. The pamphlet was prepared at the request of the university’s chancellor, Cardinal Cipriani.
In 2005, during a Mass marking the 36th anniversary of Ricardo Palma University, Cipriani commented on the recent legalisation of homosexual unions in Spain. He denounced the existence of a worldwide campaign that sells “damaged goods,” calling a relationship that is “not between a man a woman” marriage, and he warned that by legalising homosexual unions, society is disfigured. He warned that, “In today’s world, evil disguises itself as good, it is imposed on others, and woe to him who does not accept it!”. The cardinal called on the faithful not to refer to relationships that “are not between a man and a woman” as marriage.
In March 2007, PCUP filed a lawsuit against Mr. Walter Muñoz Cho, who was appointed to the Board of Directors by Cardinal Cipriani. In 2010 legal proceedings between the Archdiocese and the PCUP began on the issue of autonomy of senior academic appointments and the University's property rights.
while he was the Archbishop of that troubled province of Peru. Global intra-ecclesial rivalries between groups, and philosophical tendencies (especially, between the more liberal Jesuits and the conservative Opus Dei), do play a part in this row. Several Peruvian Bishops who represent the leftist liberation theology
of Gustavo Gutierrez
are decided opponents of the conservative Cardinal Cipriani Thorne.
was committed by the Army of Peru were guilty of "treason of the fatherland."http://www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/pdf/TOMO%20III/CAPITULO%203%20-%20Org%20Sociales%20frente%20al%20conflicto/3.3.LA%20IGLESIA%20CATOLICA%20Y%20LA%20IGLESIA%20EVANGELICA.pdf The massacre was later proved to have indeed been committed by members of the Army Intelligence Service, working within the Grupo Colina
.
in certain very limited cases, where the criminal poses to society a real threat that probably cannot be safely contained by less severe means, including life imprisonment without parole. For example, shortly after the capture of violent revolutionary Abimael Guzmán
, Cardinal Cipriani Thorne expressed an opinion that the Shining Path
leader should be executed. He referred to Peruvians who opposed the institution of the death penalty as "cowards".
groups, including some led by Catholic priests and laypeople. In contrast to his predecessor, the Jesuit Augusto Vargas Alzamora, he has often been accused of not giving heed to claims of human rights abuses purportedly committed by Peruvian state forces during the 1980s and 1990s.
Some remarks of his have been seen as questionable, most famously perhaps his reference, in a 1994 interview with Caretas
in which he expounded his views on human rights, to the Human Rights Coordinator as "esa cojudez", which roughly translates to "that bullshit."
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
, 28 December 1943) is a Cardinal Priest and Archbishop
Archbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
of Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
in the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. He is a member of the prominent conservative Peruvian Thorne family, and one of two cardinals
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
who are members of Opus Dei
Opus Dei
Opus Dei, formally known as The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei , is an organization of the Catholic Church that teaches that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. The majority of its membership are lay people, with secular priests under the...
, the other being Julián Herranz Casado
Julián Herranz Casado
Julián Herranz Casado is a Spanish Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as President of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts in the Roman Curia from 1994 to 2007, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 2003.One of only two cardinals—along with Juan Luis...
.
Youth
Cardinal Cipriani attended the Colegio Santa Maria Marianistas, a Catholic school, and as a young man he was a champion basketballBasketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
player. He studied industrial engineering
Industrial engineering
Industrial engineering is a branch of engineering dealing with the optimization of complex processes or systems. It is concerned with the development, improvement, implementation and evaluation of integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy, materials, analysis...
at the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería in Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
.
Religious Life
After working as an engineer, he was ordained as a priest for the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus DeiOpus Dei
Opus Dei, formally known as The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei , is an organization of the Catholic Church that teaches that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. The majority of its membership are lay people, with secular priests under the...
in 1977; he also holds a doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
in theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
from the University of Navarra
University of Navarra
The University of Navarra is a private pontifical university based at the southeast border of Pamplona, Spain. It was founded in 1952 by St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, the founder of Opus Dei as a corporate work of the apostolate of Opus Dei....
. In his service to the church, he did pastoral work in Lima, taught at the Pontifical Faculty of Theology, and was regional vicar
Vicar
In the broadest sense, a vicar is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior . In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant...
for Peru and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Piura
University of Piura
The University of Piura is located in Peru, the Latin American country with the highest levels of economic growth in recent years. Founded in 1969 by Josemaría Escrivá, UDEP provides quality education, promotes research and trains professionals capable of transforming society.One of the ten best...
.
In 1988, he was appointed titular Bishop of Turuzi and Auxiliary of Ayacucho, and was promoted to Archbishop of Ayacucho in 1995. During the 1996–1997 Japanese embassy hostage crisis
Japanese embassy hostage crisis
The Japanese embassy hostage crisis began on 17 December 1996 in Lima, Peru, when 14 members of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement took hostage hundreds of high-level diplomats, government and military officials and business executives who were attending a party at the official residence of...
, he attempted to negotiate a peaceful settlement, and ministered to Japanese and Peruvian hostages.
As Archbishop
Named Archbishop of Lima in 1999, Cipriani was proclaimed Cardinal-Priest of San Camillo de LellisSan Camillo de Lellis
San Camillo de Lellis is a church on Via Sallustiana, Rome, Italy. It is dedicated to Saint Camillus de Lellis.It was built under Pope Pius X, with construction commencing in 1906 and the first stone being laid by Cardinal Antonio Agliardi...
by Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
in the consistory of 21 February 2001, with the title Cardinal-Priest of San Camillo de Lellis. His appointment met with protests from a section and left-leaning groups in Peru due to his close relationship with the right-wing regime of Alberto Fujimori
Alberto Fujimori
Alberto Fujimori Fujimori served as President of Peru from 28 July 1990 to 17 November 2000. A controversial figure, Fujimori has been credited with the creation of Fujimorism, uprooting terrorism in Peru and restoring its macroeconomic stability, though his methods have drawn charges of...
.
He was one of the cardinal electors
Cardinal electors in Papal conclave, 2005
The following is a list of the 115 cardinal electors in the 2005 papal conclave, arranged by region and, within each region, alphabetically. Two cardinals who were eligible to participate in the conclave, namely Adolfo Suarez Rivera and Jaime Sin, did not attend due to ill health.-Roman...
who participated in the 2005 papal conclave
Papal conclave, 2005
The Papal conclave of 2005 was convened as a result of the death of Pope John Paul II on 2 April 2005. After his death, the cardinals who were in Rome met and set a date for the beginning of the conclave to elect John Paul's successor. The conclave began on 18 April 2005 and ended on the following...
that selected Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
, and was himself considered papabile
Papabile
Papabile is an unofficial Italian term first coined by Vaticanologists and now used internationally in many languages to describe a cardinal of whom it is thought likely or possible that he will be elected pope. A literal English translation would be "popeable" or "one who might become pope".In...
— a possible successor to the papacy.
The cardinal is a member of the Personal Prelature Opus Dei
Opus Dei
Opus Dei, formally known as The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei , is an organization of the Catholic Church that teaches that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. The majority of its membership are lay people, with secular priests under the...
; he was the first priest incardinated into Opus Dei to be made a cardinal. He is also Grand Chancellor of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. In 2008 he banned receiving Communion
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
on the hand, instead ordering that the faithful take it on the tongue. He said that "the relaxed attitude of many priests" was to blame for a decline in reverence for the Eucharist among the faithful. http://www.thetablet.co.uk/article/11362
On 19 July 2011, he was named as a member of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America
Pontifical Commission for Latin America
The Pontifical Commission for Latin America is a department of the Roman Curia. Established by Pope Pius XII on 19 April, 1958, it is charged with providing assistance to and examining matters pertaining to the Church in Latin America...
by Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
.
Homosexuality
In 1997, the Pontifical Catholic University of PeruPontifical Catholic University of Peru
Pontifical Catholic University of Peru is a private university in Lima, Peru. It was founded in 1917 by F. Jorge Dintilhac SS.CC. as Peru's first non-profit private institution of higher learning. Academically, PUCP ranks second in Peru, behind the National University of San Marcos.-History:The...
(PCUP), in Lima, barred a gay student organisation from holding any events. The organisation, Parenthesis Collective (Colectivo Paréntesis), was formed by two third-year students, Rodrigo Vecco and Bernardo Nieuwland. In addition, the university distributed a pamphlet, “Sexual Identity: Is It Possible to Choose?” which described homosexuality as a curable illness. The pamphlet was prepared at the request of the university’s chancellor, Cardinal Cipriani.
In 2005, during a Mass marking the 36th anniversary of Ricardo Palma University, Cipriani commented on the recent legalisation of homosexual unions in Spain. He denounced the existence of a worldwide campaign that sells “damaged goods,” calling a relationship that is “not between a man a woman” marriage, and he warned that by legalising homosexual unions, society is disfigured. He warned that, “In today’s world, evil disguises itself as good, it is imposed on others, and woe to him who does not accept it!”. The cardinal called on the faithful not to refer to relationships that “are not between a man and a woman” as marriage.
“Call it what you want but don’t sell damaged goods, don’t traffic in that dictatorship of moral relativism in which there is nothing good, only opinions and trends of thought.”
In March 2007, PCUP filed a lawsuit against Mr. Walter Muñoz Cho, who was appointed to the Board of Directors by Cardinal Cipriani. In 2010 legal proceedings between the Archdiocese and the PCUP began on the issue of autonomy of senior academic appointments and the University's property rights.
Relations with the Jesuits
He was also accused of hampering the efforts of Jesuit human rights workers in AyacuchoAyacucho Region
Ayacucho is a region of Peru, located in the south-central Andes of the country. Its capital is the city of Ayacucho. The region was one of the hardest hit by terrorism during the 1980s during the guerrilla war waged by Shining Path known as the internal conflict in Peru.A referendum was held on...
while he was the Archbishop of that troubled province of Peru. Global intra-ecclesial rivalries between groups, and philosophical tendencies (especially, between the more liberal Jesuits and the conservative Opus Dei), do play a part in this row. Several Peruvian Bishops who represent the leftist liberation theology
Liberation theology
Liberation theology is a Christian movement in political theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions...
of Gustavo Gutierrez
Gustavo Gutiérrez
Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino, O.P., is a Peruvian theologian and Dominican priest regarded as the founder of Liberation Theology...
are decided opponents of the conservative Cardinal Cipriani Thorne.
La Cantuta massacre
Cardinal Cipriani said that people who believed that the La Cantuta massacreLa Cantuta massacre
The La Cantuta massacre, in which a university professor and nine students from Lima's La Cantuta University were abducted by a military death squad and "disappeared", took place in Peru on 18 July 1992 during the presidency of Alberto Fujimori...
was committed by the Army of Peru were guilty of "treason of the fatherland."http://www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/pdf/TOMO%20III/CAPITULO%203%20-%20Org%20Sociales%20frente%20al%20conflicto/3.3.LA%20IGLESIA%20CATOLICA%20Y%20LA%20IGLESIA%20EVANGELICA.pdf The massacre was later proved to have indeed been committed by members of the Army Intelligence Service, working within the Grupo Colina
Grupo Colina
Grupo Colina was a paramilitary anti-communist death squad created in Peru that was active from 1990 until 1994, during the administration of Alberto Fujimori...
.
Capital punishment
Cipriani has considered that conditions in Peru argue for the permissibility of capital punishmentCapital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
in certain very limited cases, where the criminal poses to society a real threat that probably cannot be safely contained by less severe means, including life imprisonment without parole. For example, shortly after the capture of violent revolutionary Abimael Guzmán
Abimael Guzmán
Manuel Rubén Abimael Guzmán Reynoso , also known by the nom de guerre Presidente Gonzalo , a former professor of philosophy, was the leader of the Shining Path during the Maoist insurgency known as the internal conflict in Peru...
, Cardinal Cipriani Thorne expressed an opinion that the Shining Path
Shining Path
Shining Path is a Maoist guerrilla terrorist organization in Peru. The group never refers to itself as "Shining Path", and as several other Peruvian groups, prefers to be called the "Communist Party of Peru" or "PCP-SL" in short...
leader should be executed. He referred to Peruvians who opposed the institution of the death penalty as "cowards".
Human rights
Since the early 1980s Cardinal Cipriani has been seen as showing hostility to certain human rightsHuman rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
groups, including some led by Catholic priests and laypeople. In contrast to his predecessor, the Jesuit Augusto Vargas Alzamora, he has often been accused of not giving heed to claims of human rights abuses purportedly committed by Peruvian state forces during the 1980s and 1990s.
Some remarks of his have been seen as questionable, most famously perhaps his reference, in a 1994 interview with Caretas
Caretas
Caretas is a weekly newsmagazine published in Lima, Peru, renowned for its investigative journalism. It was founded in October 1950 by Doris Gibson and Francisco Igartua....
in which he expounded his views on human rights, to the Human Rights Coordinator as "esa cojudez", which roughly translates to "that bullshit."