The story hasn't made much of a splash Stateside, but Fr. Jon Sobrino, SJ, a well-known liberation theologian, is the subject of a "notification" by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which takes issue with several aspects of his Christology. The Spanish newspaper El Mundo broke the embargo on the document, and Catholic World News has run two stories on the matter, both of which contain a serious error. Their most recent story again claims that Sobrino has been sanctioned:

The disciplinary notice will reportedly stipulate that Father Sobrino should cease publishing theological works and cannot teach at a Catholic university while he maintains the positions that the Vatican has identified as clashing with Catholic doctrine.

Calling the ten-page notification a "disciplinary notice" is misleading, and claiming it stipulates that Sobrino cannot publish theology or teach at a Catholic school is simply false. Unlike the notification regarding the theology of Roger Haight, SJ, Sobrino's contains no sanctions whatsoever. He is not ordered to cease publishing, nor is he told he cannot teach Catholic theology. Apparently Catholic World News has not read the notification they're reporting on. More updates as they come.

Update: The CDF has released the notification, which can be read here. And John Allen has written about it here. As I reported, the notification contains nothing about sanctions, and Allen's sources confirm that this is the case, although they don't "rule it out" in the future (of course). Why, if the reports are correct, did Sobrino's archbishop tell El Mundo otherwise?

Grant Gallicho joined Commonweal as an intern and was an associate editor for the magazine until 2015. 

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