Religion: Boff Silenced

Soon after John Paul II was elected Pope in 1978, he initiated a policy designed to rein in his church’s most visible theological dissidents. Among the prime targets: Hans Kung of West Germany and Edward Schillebeeckx of the Netherlands, who had challenged traditional dogmas about both the nature of Christ and the authority of bishops and priests. Kung was forbidden to teach as a Roman Catholic theologian, and Schillebeeckx’s writings are still being examined. Last week the Vatican announced a disciplinary step against another scholar, Franciscan Father Leonardo Boff, 46, Brazil’s leading advocate of liberation theology. It ordered him not to publish, lecture or edit religious journals for an unspecified period, presumably one year.

The Vatican has long been concerned about Boff’s 1981 book, Church: Charism & Power, and last September he was summoned to Rome for interrogation. In a forceful March “notification,” the Vatican rejected the book’s Marxist- influenced examination of the Roman Catholic Church. Boff theorized about the sacraments as consumer products controlled by the bishops and priests. His ideas, said Rome, “endanger” the faith.

Boff insisted last week, “I am not a Marxist,” and said he would obey the order. One official at the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation explained that the directive of silence was issued so that Boff might rethink his ideas. Said this prelate of the Boff-Vatican confrontation: “If after a year he maintains the same point of view, then the struggle will be fierce.”