Juan Luis 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 Cardinal Herranz Casado, he is one of two cardinals who are members of Opus Dei.
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[edit] Youth
Cipriani attended the Colegio Santa Maria Marianistas, a Catholic school, 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] As Archbishop
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 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)
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]
Cardinal Cipriani is a member of the Personal Prelature Opus Dei; he was the first priest incardinated into Opus Dei to be made a cardinal. Cardinal Cipriani is also Great Chancellor of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
[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.
He was also 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].
Cardinal Cipriani has been accused of having made some questionable remarks. Perhaps most famously, in a 1994 interview with Caretas, he referred to the Human Rights Coordinator as "esa cojudez," which roughly translates to "that bullshit." [2]
In the same interview, Cardinal Cipriani expounded his views on human rights. Part of the interview was reproduced in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission`s Final Report, as well as below
Cipriani- In a violent context such as that of Ayacucho, deaths, disappearances, and abuses are a part of the battles of war. The defenders of human rights call that dirty war. I cannot justify excesses that were committed on behalf of the police or armed forces, excesses that were committed that created violence, but if there are people who silently kill during the night like snipers, they have to be opposed by justice. I believe that the armed forces had to use methods to figure out who and where those acts occurred. And when they used those methods, naturally there were dead people all around.
Interviewer- You mean like the disappeared persons?
Cipriani- If you can call them that. It is certain that some people tried to attack during an ambush or a battle was were killed.
Interviewer- But hundreds of people were kidnapped and latter disappeared.
Cipriani- That is true, it could be, but I have not investigated any of those cases. And what do those people want?
Cardinal Cipriani also said that people who believed that the La Cantuta massacre was committed by the Army of Peru were guilty of "treason of the fatherland."[4] The massacre was later proved to have indeed been committed by members of the Army Intelligence Service working within Grupo Colina.
Cardinal Cipriani is also an avid supporter of capital punishment, and accused Peruvians who opposed the institution of the death penalty of being cowards. [5] Shortly after the capture of Abimael Guzmán, Cipriani said that the Shining Path leader should be executed.
In 1997, the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, 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 Juan Luis Cipriani, Archbishop of Lima.
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.”
| Preceded by Augusto Cardinal Vargas Alzamora |
Archbishop of Lima 9 January 1999–incumbent |
Succeeded by incumbent |
