Protestant Bible scholar, friend of the Pope, takes up chorus of modernist praise for Tucho Fernandez

Protestant theologian and biblical scholar Marcelo Figueroa has no doubts. The unexpected appointment of Archbishop Víctor Manuel "Tucho" Fernández as head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith - the former Holy Inquisition, one of the most important "ministries" of the Roman Curia, which became known last Saturday and caused a lot of noise in the Vatican - means "fresh air for the non-Catholic Christian world", as well as "a before and an after".

"For me these will be important winds of change, which will take time. But I feel very confident, very happy and very hopeful. As a Protestant, Fernández's appointment has been extremely encouraging news," Figueroa, a priest of the Presbyterian Church in Argentina, former general director of the Argentine Bible Society and a personal friend of Jorge Bergoglio, told LA NACION.

Figueroa, who together with Rabbi Abraham Skorka and the then Cardinal Bergoglio, participated in and produced for almost three years an interreligious television programme Biblia, diálogo vigente, which was later transformed into a book and won a Martin Fierro prize, spoke on the sidelines of the presentation at the Vatican of the Spanish version of his latest book, Diversity Reconciled. A Protestant in the Pope's newspaper.

The book, which testifies how for the first time in more than 160 years a Protestant was able to become a columnist for L'Osservatore Romano, the Pope's newspaper, something unprecedented, was presented on Tuesday at the new headquarters of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America (PCAL). The author was joined by Monsignor Lucio Ruiz, number two of the Dicastery for Communication; Emilce Cuda, secretary of the PCAL, who also signs the introduction to the book; Gabriela Sacco, director of the Institute for Global Dialogue and the Culture of Encounter in Argentina; and Franco Bartolacci, rector of the National University of Rosario.

As a biblical scholar and theologian, how do you interpret the appointment of the outgoing Archbishop of La Plata Víctor "Tucho" Fernández as head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith?

On a personal note: I have known "Tucho" Fernández for 25 years, as a Biblical scholar, and we have travelled together giving conferences on the Bible. He is a theologian and an exquisite biblical scholar. He taught me a lot, I read him all the time, we have met and from the biblical and theological point of view, his deep knowledge of the Catholic faith, his ecumenical sense, his writings, have helped me to understand Pope Francis better. For me, he has been an indispensable tool. Obviously, his role in the Aparecida Conference (2007) was fundamental, so I took the appointment of Víctor Fernández as something natural, to have a theologian, a man with such a deep formation and such a profound knowledge of Francis and Bergoglio and his thought as no one else. I was pleasantly surprised. I think he is a man of God with a capacity, a commitment, a lifelong understanding of Francis' thought and a biblical scholar of indispensable reference, for me, for 25 years.

In the letter the Pope wrote to him on the day of his appointment, he told him that he expected from him "something very different" from what the DDF was in the past, which came to use immoral methods and which, instead of promoting theological knowledge, pursued doctrinal errors. In this historical sense, what do you, as a Protestant, think of the appointment of an open prelate like Fernández?

Clearly he is going to be in a place where, as Francis' letter clearly states, the ex-Holy Office has been used and known to the world for control and condemnation. I don't see myself authorised to speak on behalf of Protestants, but I, as a Protestant, can say that it gives me a lot of hope and a lot of joy to know that Fernandez is now in a place, the Doctrine of the Faith, where it is really going to be a before and an after with what it has to do with the relationship of the Protestant and Orthodox Christian churches. It is a breath of fresh air for the non-Catholic Christian world. For me it will be an important wind of change, which will take time, but I feel very confident, very happy and very hopeful about it. As a Protestant, it has been extremely encouraging news.

I truly believe that the ultra-conservative and fundamentalist sectors of all kinds will always take a dim view of these gestures by Francis. I think it was to be expected, let's not be naïve, but the truth is that Fernández has always received this kind of criticism for being close to Francis, for his way of working in the seminary, as archbishop of La Plata, for his way of clearly defending Francis at times when he was criticised most harshly in Argentina. So, Fernández's pen was an inspiration for many of us who were not able to find a way out of this situation.

You will have seen that from your blogs, the ultra-conservative sectors reacted badly... 

Truly, I believe that the ultra-conservative sectors and fundamentalists of all kinds will always look badly at these gestures of Francis. I think it was to be expected, let's not be naive, but the truth is that Fernández has always received this type of criticism for being close to Francis, for his way of practicing in the seminary, as Archbishop of La Plata, for his way of clearly defending Francis in the moments when in Argentina he was criticized more harshly. So, Fernández's pen was inspiring for many of us who perhaps did not find such deep arguments, not to defend him because Francis should not be defended, but to seriously argue some false things that were said. And the attack that he personally received was for that kind of defense. He is used to. 

 Do you think that in the Vatican, previously more Vatican-centric and Eurocentric, there is somehow a certain sense of superiority of everything that is European in terms of theology, which, good or bad, despises what comes from South America? 

Unfortunately, I have the impression that yes, that there is something of that. It seems to me that in general the Eurocentric vision continues to exist, but I am confident that these great gestures such as the appointment of Fernández, the first Argentine that Francis appoints in ten years at the head of a key position in the Roman curia, the first Latin American in the DDF and all that it has planted, the situation will greatly improve. Because he brings with him a whole baggage from a reading of the doctrine of faith from a peripheral vision, from Latin America, from Argentina. In other words, he is bringing the air of the periphery of Francis to the Vatican and this is extremely important, and even more so considering that he is a person with an excellent, exquisite formation. But his glasses are from a Latin American look, strongly rooted and I think that will help. How did you see Pope Francis? 

I was with him, just handing him the book officially and, frankly, I saw him very well, even thinner than the last time I saw him, in March. I saw him in a good mood, calm, in a good mood, healthy. Obviously he is a big person, who comes from having had an important operation and so on, but I saw him much better than what my little faith told me. I am very happy with how I saw him, lucid as always.

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