2023-07-01 21:09:00
July 1, 2023 / 2:09 p.m.
Pope Francis addressed this Saturday, July 1, a letter to Mons. Víctor Manuel Fernández, Argentine archbishop whom he has appointed as the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, replacing Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer.
Below is the full text of Pope Francis’ letter:
To His Most Reverend Excellency
Msgr. Victor Manuel Fernandez
Dear brother,
As the new Prefect of the Department for the Doctrine of the Faith, I entrust you with a task that I consider very valuable. Its central purpose is to guard the teaching that springs from faith to “give reason for our hope, but not as enemies who point out and condemn”.
The Department that you will preside over in other times came to use immoral methods. They were times where, rather than promoting theological knowledge, possible doctrinal errors were persecuted. What I expect of you is undoubtedly something very different.
You were dean of the Faculty of Theology of Buenos Aires, president of the Argentine Society of Theology and you are president of the Commission of Faith and Culture of the Argentine Episcopate, in all cases voted for by your peers, who have thus valued your theological charism. . As rector of the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina, you encouraged a healthy integration of knowledge. On the other hand, you were parish priest of “Santa Teresita” and until now archbishop of La Plata, where you knew how to put theological knowledge in dialogue with the life of the holy People of God.
Given that a specific section with very competent professionals has recently been created for disciplinary matters —especially related to child abuse—, I ask you, as Prefect, to dedicate your personal efforts more directly to the main purpose of the Dicastery, which is “ keep the faith.”
In order not to limit the meaning of this task, it must be added that it is about “increasing intelligence and the transmission of faith at the service of evangelization, so that its light is a criterion for understanding the meaning of existence, especially in the face of to the questions raised by the progress of science and the development of society. These questions, welcomed in a renewed proclamation of the evangelical message, “become instruments of evangelization”, because they allow us to enter into conversation with “the current context in what is unprecedented in the history of humanity”.
What’s more, you know that the Church “needs to grow in its interpretation of the revealed Word and in its understanding of the truth” without this implying to impose a single way of expressing it. Because “the different lines of philosophical, theological and pastoral thought, if they allow themselves to be harmonized by the Spirit in respect and love, can also make the Church grow”. This harmonious growth will preserve Christian doctrine more effectively than any control mechanism.
It is good that your homework expresses that the Church “encourages the charisma of theologians and their effort for theological research” as long as “they are not content with a desktop theology”, with “a cold and hard logic that seeks to dominate everything”. . It will always be true that reality is superior to the idea. In this sense, we need Theology to be attentive to a fundamental criterion: to consider “inadequate any theological conception that ultimately questions the omnipotence of God and, especially, his mercy”. We need a thought that knows how to convincingly present a God who loves, who forgives, who saves, who liberates, who promotes people and calls them to fraternal service.
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This occurs if “the advertisement focuses on the essential, which is the most beautiful, the largest, the most attractive and at the same time the most necessary”. You know very well that there is a harmonious order between the truths of our message, where the greatest danger occurs when the secondary issues end up overshadowing the central ones.
In view of this richness, your task also implies special care to verify that the documents of the Dicastery itself and of others have adequate theological support, are consistent with the rich humus of the perennial teaching of the Church, and at the same time accept the Magisterium. recent.
May the Blessed Virgin protect you and take care of you in this new mission. Please don’t stop praying for me.
Fraternally,
FRANCESCO
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