By Gerard O’Connell
In an unexpected and highly significant move, Pope Francis has appointed the Argentine theologian and archbishop Victor Manuel “Tucho” Fernández as the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican announced today.
Pope Francis wrote a letter to the new prefect in which he told him in Spanish, “As prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, I entrust to you a task that I consider invaluable. It has as its main purpose to safeguard the teaching that comes from the faith ‘to give reasons for our hope, but not as an enemy who critiques and condemns.’ (Evangelii Gaudium, 271).”
“The dicastery that you will preside over in other epochs came to use immoral methods. Those were times when more than promoting theological knowledge they chased after possible doctrinal errors. What I expect from you is something without doubt much different,” Francis said.
The dicastery, previously a Vatican congregation, was long known as “La Suprema” among Vatican offices. It is entrusted with Catholic doctrine and discipline. Historically, particularly during the Inquisition but also in the 20th century, the congregation had a reputation for its free hand in censuring or silencing theologians, though under Francis its actions have been curtailed. The dicastery also oversees the majority of sex abuse cases referred to the Vatican, which today constitutes over 80 percent of its work.
In the letter (unofficial America translation below), Pope Francis asks the new prefect to promote theological thinking more than controlling it, and not to occupy himself so much with the abuse question, for which there is a disciplinary sector in the dicastery, so as to concentrate on the theological area that requires development. “Given that for disciplinary questions—related especially to the abuse of minors—there was recently created [in the dicastery] a specific section with very competent professionals, I ask you that as prefect you dedicate your personal commitment in a more direct way to the principal aim of the dicastery, which is ‘to safeguard the faith,’” Francis wrote.
Fernández, 60, is currently the archbishop of La Plata in Argentina. He succeeds the Spanish Jesuit theologian, Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, who has held the post since 2017 but at the age of 79 is long beyond the official retirement age of 75. Archbishop Fernández’s name had not previously been among those mentioned in the press as a candidate to replace Cardinal Ladaria.
Archbishop Fernández is the first Argentine that Francis has appointed to a senior post in the Roman Curia, the central administration of the Catholic church, during his ten-year pontificate. He is considered to be in harmony with the pope at both the pastoral and theological levels, and Francis’ choice of him is the clearest indication yet of the pope’s determination to continue on the path of theological and pastoral renewal of the Catholic church in the implementation of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council.
Born on July 18, 1962, in Alcira Gigena in the Córdoba province of Argentina, Fernández was ordained a priest on Aug. 15, 1986 for the diocese of Villa de la Concepción del Río Cuarto. He was then sent to study in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University, where he obtained a licentiate in theology with a specialization in biblical theology in 1988. Two years later, he earned a doctorate in theology from Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina (UCA).
He subsequently served in parish ministry in Río Cuarto and worked in the formation of seminarians and lay people. Author of many books and more than 300 articles, he has long been recognized for his close collaboration with Francis—sometimes being referred to as the pope’s ghostwriter.
When Cardinal Bergoglio appointed Fernández as rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina (UCA) in 2009, the cardinal initially encountered strong opposition from the Roman Curia. Fernández served as dean of the faculty of theology at the university from 2008-2009, then as rector from 2009 to 2018. When Francis became pope in 2013, he immediately named Fernández an archbishop. Francis then appointed him as archbishop of La Plata on June 2, 2018.
The Argentine archbishop was in Rome this past week, and accompanied the new archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Ignacio Garcia Cuerva, when the pope blessed the palliums (a symbol of authority worn by bishops that is given by the pope) in St. Peter’s Basilica on June 29, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. Fernández spent much of the time with Francis, as he revealed in a tweet that carried a photo of the pope and him on June 30. “I shared a week with Francis,” he wrote. “He works the whole day. He holds audiences and meetings in the morning and late afternoons. He works more hours than anyone in the Vatican. I saw him tired after 5 hours of dense events but after a siesta he was perfect and happy.”
Francis is expected to make Archbishop Fernández a cardinal at the next consistory, likely to be held before the end of this year.
