Pontifical Catholic University of Peru is not deserving of its name. It has spurned the pontiff, they say. It is far from Roman Catholic orthodoxy, they argue.
In their minds, the school ought to be called something else entirely.
“It’s false advertising,” said Fernán Altuve, a conservative legal expert who supports a recent order by the Vatican that the school change its name by eliminating references to the pope and the church. “It’s as if I sell you a bottle that says Coca-Cola but what’s inside is Pepsi.”
The fight over the name of what is considered one of the top universities in South America is part of a fierce battle over academic freedom and the authority of the Vatican that is unfolding here. La Católica, as the school is known, is the alma mater of many of Peru’s elite, including President Ollanta Humala.
The clash has divided the community here.
“I entered this school because it was the PUCP and I’m one semester away from graduating, and now my degree is going to say something other than PUCP,” said Vesna Gálvez, 25, a law student, using the school’s Spanish acronym (pronounced pook). “I know the prestige won’t change, but it’s tradition and I’d like to get what I signed up for.”
The school, closely associated with the teaching of liberation theology, a movement that emphasizes Christianity’s connection to the poor, has refused to change its name or to enact other changes that would give the church more control over its operations.
Officials say they are being targeted for a hostile takeover by far-right elements in the church, led by the conservative archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani.
“They’ve told us, ‘Hand over your money and obey,’ ” the university president, Marcial Rubio, told a gathering of students and faculty members in the school gym on Wednesday, casting the fight as a battle over the school’s valuable real estate and financial holdings.
Mr. Rubio singled out a church spokesman and legal expert, the Rev. Luis Gaspar, accusing him of trying to scare students by suggesting that degrees from the school would not be valid.
“Father Gaspar is a terrorist against the university,” Mr. Rubio said, to applause.
Father Gaspar called the comments hurtful. He said that if Mr. Rubio continued to resist the church’s demands, church officials would be forced to consider a range of sanctions, the most serious of which would be excommunication.
“They are not currently adhering to Catholic values at that university,” Father Gaspar said. “They have shown rebelliousness to the ecclesiastical authorities, disobedience. This has caused a scandal among faithful Catholics.”
In keeping with the order to change the name, Father Gaspar now refers to the school as the “ex-PUCP.”
The church says the school is under the jurisdiction of canon law, which gives church leaders the right to approve the appointment of the university president and oversee its finances.
The church also says that the will of a major benefactor who died in 1944 gives it additional claim to the school’s holdings, which include a profitable shopping mall and other real estate.
University officials say the school is independent.
The university president is chosen by an assembly of school administrators, faculty members and students, as well as a small number of church leaders. University officials disagree with the church’s interpretation of the will, saying they alone control the school’s finances.
The two sides tried to negotiate their differences, but the talks broke down.
In its latest move, the Vatican signaled that it had lost patience. In a decree signed July 11, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, said the university was not being run in a way that was “compatible with the discipline and morals of the church.”
As a result, the decree said, the school had lost the right to call itself pontifical or Catholic.
But even if the school were to change its name, that would not be the end of the fight. Father Gaspar said the school’s land, buildings and financial resources were the property of the church and should be used for educational purposes in line with church doctrine.
“If this university is going to stop being Catholic and not fulfill its purpose, the Catholic Church has the obligation to designate that property to another Catholic university or to create a new Catholic university in Lima,” he said.
The battle is a particularly vivid example of the long-running fight between the left and right within the church.
The university is closely associated with liberation theology, a movement that mixes leftist politics with religion and views the Christian faith from the perspective of poor people. It encourages followers to tackle social problems in terms that opponents equate with Marxism.
One of the movement’s founders, the Rev. Gustavo Gutiérrez, has taught theology at the school for many years. He also teaches at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
School officials say that if the church gets control, it will scrub liberation theology from the curriculum, eliminate a gender studies program that includes courses on feminism and homosexuality, and take other steps to align teaching with religious doctrine.
They also predict a purge of faculty members whose views on issues like abortion, birth control or gay rights are considered incompatible with church positions.
On the other side of the spectrum is Cardinal Cipriani, a member of Opus Dei, an ultraconservative church order.
Liberal Catholics here said that because liberation theology was associated early on with Peru, the country has been singled out by the Vatican, which opposes the movement.
The split within the church mirrors a similar ideological divide within elite Lima society.
The university is often associated with what conservatives mockingly call “caviars,” a term roughly equivalent to “limousine liberals,” meant to evoke the image of well-off leftists who maintain a comfortable lifestyle while espousing politically correct notions of equality and class consciousness.
In turn, the caviars describe the cardinal and his allies as being part of what they call the “D.B.A.,” the initials in Spanish for what amounts to stupid and thuggish right wing.
The increasingly shrill standoff has many students unnerved.
Sandra Ires, 19, who studies industrial engineering, said school officials were being hardheaded.
“We’re a Catholic school that’s governed by Catholic laws,” she said. “If people want pluralism, they should look for it at another school.”
But Gabriel Rodríguez, 19, an anthropology student, said he would transfer if the church won control.
“I don’t intend to be in a closed-minded environment,” he said. “I don’t think it would be good for my development as a person and professional.”
Pepi Patrón, a university vice president, said officials at the school, which opened in 1917, would keep fighting.
“They would have to use violence to get us out of here,” she said.