Argentinian to head Vatican Faith dicastery

Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez succeeds Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer - Appointment "good sign" for Schönborn - Former rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina and ghostwriter of the Pope

The Vatican's Faith dicastery will in future be headed by the Argentine Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez (60). Pope Francis appointed the former rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina and current head of the Archdiocese of La Plata on Saturday to succeed Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer (79), who had held the post since 2017. The so-called Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith decides on doctrinal issues of the Catholic Church and is one of the most important authorities of the Roman Curia.

Fernandez will take up his post as Prefect after the summer break in mid-September, according to a Vatican statement. He will also become President of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and the International Theological Commission, two important advisory bodies.

Appointment a "good sign" for Schönborn

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn is "very pleased" with the appointment of Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez as the new Prefect of the Vatican's Faith Ministry. He holds the Archbishop of La Plata in high esteem, whom he has known since his time as Rector of the Pontifical Catholic University in Argentina, said the Archbishop of Vienna in an interview with Kathpress immediately after the Papal decision became known. Archbishop Manuel was a "close confidant of Pope Francis" and overall a "good sign".

Cardinal Schönborn recalled that the designated Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith had participated in the two Synods on the Family in 2014 and 2015 as an auxiliary bishop. "I experienced him as very competent at the Synods on the Family," Schönborn said. Therefore, as a confidant of Pope Francis, he probably played an important role as a theological advisor not only for the two synods, but also for the resulting Papal document "Amoris laetitia", according to Cardinal Schönborn.

The Archbishop of Vienna knows the Vatican Dicastery for the Faith very well. Only on Monday he visited the dicastery with media representatives from Austria and was received there by the acting prefect, Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer. Schönborn had already been a member of the International Commission of Theologians, which is part of the Authority for the Doctrine of the Faith, as a professor of dogmatic theology since 1980. As Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Schönborn was and still is a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which has been renamed the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith since the reform of the Curia last year.

Ghostwriter of the Pope

Fernandez, who was born on 18 July 1962, wrote or drafted many speeches and texts of the current Pope as a ghostwriter in the past. The two are close theologically. After his ordination to the priesthood in 1986, Fernandez specialised in biblical studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and earned a doctorate at the Catholic University of Argentina with a thesis on the relationship between knowledge and life in the medieval church teacher Bonaventure.

After years as a university lecturer in his home diocese of Rio Cuarto and at the Catholic University in Buenos Aires, Fernandez was appointed to the plenary assembly of the Council of Latin American and Caribbean Bishops (CELAM) in Aparecida in 2007. At this landmark Church Assembly, he served as theological advisor to the Argentine Bishops' Conference and was involved in drafting the final document under Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

Rector of the Catholic University of Argentina since 2009, Fernandez was appointed Archbishop a few weeks after Bergoglio's election as Pope in June 2013; his pectoral cross, a sign of official dignity, is a gift from Francis. Contrary to expectations that saw Fernandez in an influential curia post in Rome, the Pope appointed him in 2018 to head the Archdiocese of La Plata, considered Argentina's second most important diocese.

Fernandez's list of publications includes more than 300 titles. The content of the books and articles focuses on biblical themes and faith formation; other fields are social issues and the dialogue between theology and culture.

The previous Prefect, Ladaria, had headed the Dicastery since 2017. Like Francis, he belongs to the Jesuit order. For the Catholic Church in German-speaking countries, it was significant that Ladaria, who comes from Mallorca, studied at the Jesuit University of St Georgen in Frankfurt and speaks good German. His five-year term ended in June 2022, and speculation about his successor at times focused on Hildesheim Bishop Heiner Wilmer.

Oldest Dicastery of the Roman Curia

Today's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith was founded in 1542 by Pope Paul III (1534-1549) as the "Congregation of the Roman and General Inquisition". It is thus the oldest authority of the Roman Curia. Pope Paul VI (1962-1978) renamed the authority, which in the meantime had been called the "Holy Office", the "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith", and since Pope Francis' reform of the Curia it has been called the "Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith".

The dicastery's mission is not only to guard the Catholic faith, but also to promote and develop its teaching. This applies "especially in view of the questions raised by the progress of science and social development", as stated in a decree published by the Pope in 2022 on the structure of the faith authority. Accordingly, the aim is to facilitate the transmission of the faith in evangelisation.

The Dicastery for the Faith consists of two departments: The first is to guard and promote Catholic doctrine of faith and morals. Since a change by Pope Francis in February 2022, the dicastery's third section, previously independent and headed by the Austrian priest Johannes Fürnkranz, which is responsible for special marriage procedures, has been assigned to the first section. The second section of the Dicastery for the Faith is responsible for disciplinary matters, especially proceedings of suspected abuse by clerics. The entire dicastery is headed by a prefect. Since 2017, this has been the Spanish Curial Cardinal Luis Ladaria.

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