Focus on faith at heart of doctrinal office restructuring, cardinal says

By Justin McLellan

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis' restructuring of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has allowed the Vatican department to deepen its study of doctrinal questions and directly respond to inquiries about the Catholic Church's teachings, said the dicastery's prefect, who is one of the church's newest cardinals.

Speaking with Catholic News Service after the Sept. 30 consistory in which the pope created 21 new cardinals, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández said that the reorganization of the Vatican's doctrine arm requested by the pope has been "extremely useful" in allowing it to dedicate time and resources for the study of questions on the Catholic faith.

The dicastery is currently divided into a doctrinal section for addressing questions on matters of faith and a disciplinary section that primarily deals with cases of abuse, each with their own secretary. In a letter to then-Archbishop Fernández published with the announcement of his nomination as the dicastery's prefect in July, the pope asked that the Vatican's new doctrinal chief entrust the disciplinary section to the "very competent professionals" already installed there and dedicate himself to the "main purpose of the dicastery," that of keeping the faith.

Since formally assuming his role as prefect Sept. 11, Cardinal Fernández said the dicastery's doctrinal section has been meeting at least twice a week.

"Before, the meetings were almost exclusively about matters of abuse, so the other subjects were practically left relegated, there wasn't time," he said. But in recent weeks the doctrinal section has been able to "move forward with a good rhythm in deepening many issues."

"When we need to respond to someone, we can do it with a bit more study and discussion," he said.

The new cardinal said the dicastery will soon make more documents public and referenced as an example the four-page letter it issued Sept. 25 to the bishop of Como, Italy, explaining its decision not to formally pronounce as "supernatural" the alleged apparitions seen by an Italian man although the dicastery recognized "certain signs of the Spirit in action in the midst of this experience." Cardinal Fernández said the case "helped us clarify how to treat these issues in the future."

Cardinal Fernández used to use Facebook to respond directly to people with whom he disagreed on theological points; "now I have to be a bit more careful," he said.

"Of course, if questions or inquiries about someone reach me, I can't respond to them directly," he told CNS. "There is a rather democratic system in handling matters. Everything has a series of steps," in which decisions pass through teams of theologians and bishops before reaching the pope, "who can sometimes say, 'study it more.'"

"It's not that the prefect in all his brilliance makes decisions," he explained.