CDF Succession Watch: a Gutiérrez disciple?

With this post, we begin a series which will surely include several rumors: who will succeed Cardinal Levada as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith? Today's rumor, by Vatican Insider: Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Bishop of Regensburg.

Gerhard Ludwig Müller is the Bishop of Regensburg. A personal friend of Benedict XVI, in Germany they deem him a defender of Catholic Orthodoxy. In Rome his name is one of the most mentioned as the man who will succeed to Cardinal William Joseph Levada at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the former Holy Office. Only a few know that he is also a pupil of Gustavo Gutiérrez, the “father” of Latin-American liberation theology, with whom he has a long and close friendship.

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But the Regensburg [bishop] also has strong ties with Latin America. From 1998 to date, he has travelled to Peru every year to follow the courses taught by Gustavo Gutiérrez, who he deems to be his mentor and friend. He frequented a few theological workshops in the seminaries of Cusco, Lima and Callao in addition to living for months with the farmers of a parish in the vicinity of Lake Titicaca, on the border with Bolivia.

In November 2008, this old relation led to him being awarded a “honoris causa” doctorate at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP), the same university that is currently involved in an institutional conundrum as it states it is against the authority of the Lima's Cardinal, Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne, and the instructions of the Holy See. A University where the most significant progressive movements of Peru found their origins, including the pro-gay lobby.

“My experiences with theology and liberation” was the title of the conference held by Müller during the ceremony in his honor. On that occasion he spoke at length about his relationship with Gutiérrez and explained his reasons for supporting this theological current.

“I am not referring to the theology of liberation in an abstract and theoretical form, or in an ideological fashion, to praise the progressive ecclesial group. At the same time I do not even fear that this could be interpreted as a lack of orthodoxy. The theology of Gustavo Gutiérrez, independently of how you look at it, is orthodox because it is orthopractic and it teaches us the correct way of acting in a Christian fashion since it comes from true faith,” he stated during his speech.