Juan Luis Cardinal Cipriani Thorne
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| Styles of Juan Luis Cardinal Cipriani Thorne |
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| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
| See | Lima |
Juan Luis Cardinal Cipriani Thorne (born in Lima, 28 December 1943) is a Cardinal Priest and Archbishop of Lima in the Roman Catholic Church. Along with Julián Herranz Casado, he is one of two cardinals who is a member of Opus Dei.
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[edit] Young Cipriani
Cipriani attended a Catholic school (Marianists) and as a young man he was a champion basketball player. He studied civil engineering at the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería in Lima, Peru.
[edit] Religious Life
After working as an engineer, he was ordained as a priest for the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei 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.
[edit] Archbishop Cipriani
Named Archbishop of Lima in 1999, Cipriani Thorne was proclaimed Cardinal-Priest of San Camillo de Lellis by Pope John Paul II in the consistory of 21 February 2001, with the title Cardinal Priest of San Camillo de Lelli. His election met with protests from a considerable section of center- and left-leaning groups and Christians in Peru due to his close connections with the otherwise widely popular right-wing regime of Alberto Fujimori. During his first mass as cardinal, representatives of these groups were chanting "God, free us from Cipriani" and "Christ is justice, Cipriani corruption." [1] (Spanish)
[edit] Conclave 2005
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.[citation needed]
[edit] Criticism
Since the early 1980s Cipriani Thorne has been known in some quarters for his hostile attitude to some human rights groups, including groups lead by some Catholic priests and laypeople. In contrast with his predecessor, the Jesuit Augusto Vargas Alzamora, Cipriani is often accused of not taking heed to claims of human rights abuses purportedly committed by Peruvian state forces during the 1980s and 1990s. Indeed, he was once accused of hampering the efforts of Jesuit human rights workers in Ayacucho while he was the archbishop of that troubled province of Peru. Global intra-eclesial rivalries between groups and philosophical tendencies (especially, between the Jesuits and 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 conservative Cipriani[citation needed].
Cipriani Thorne is infamous in Peru for once saying "Los derechos humanos son una cojudez" ("human rights are bollocks"), by which he meant some secular and, in his view, radical understandings of human rights. Like the broader Catholic Church, Cipriani Thorne is acutely aware of some of the potential or actual incompatibilities between some contemporary understandings of human rights and the Christian worldview.
Cardinal Cipriani never said "Human Rights are bollocks". What he said was "La Coordinadora De Derechos Humanos es una cojudez", or "Human Rights Coordinator is a bollock". Coordinadora De Derechos Humanos (Human Rights Coordinator) is a NGO which is in fact an organization composed of people with leftist tendencies.
Cardinal Cipriani is a member of the Personal Prelature Opus Dei; he is the first declared member of the Opus Dei to be made a cardinal. Cardinal Cipriani is also Great Chancellor of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
