Pope Francis has named an Argentine theologian and prolific writer who many years in the past wrote a e book on the therapeutic properties of kissing to be the Catholic Church’s new doctrinal chief, one of many Vatican’s prime posts.
A Vatican assertion on Saturday mentioned Francis had chosen fellow Argentine Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez to be the top of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF).
The DDF, modern-day successor of the infamous Inquisition which persecuted heretics, is tasked with selling and safeguarding doctrine on religion and morals. It displays theological work to ensure it adheres to Church doctrine and points steerage, clarifications, and corrections.
In an obvious reference to the Inquisition, identified for torture and executions in Medieval occasions, Francis mentioned in a letter to Fernandez that previously the division had used “immoral methods” and itself made doctrinal errors.
The highly effective submit of DDF prefect was held by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger for 23 years earlier than he grew to become Pope Benedict in 2005.
Fernandez, 60, has written about 300 books and articles and is a previous rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, the place he was additionally dean of its theology division.
In 1995, as a 33-year-old priest, he wrote a e book referred to as “Heal Me With Your Mouth – The Art of Kissing,” which was revealed in English in 2017.
He writes within the introduction “that this book was not written based on my own experience, but based on the lives of people who kiss” and that he additionally needed to give attention to what poets had written about kissing.
“The kiss is a meeting of the two in a moment in which there is nothing else besides them, and nothing else matters,” Fernandez wrote within the e book.
The Vatican didn’t point out the e book within the partial record of his publications it issued with the appointment announcement.
The prefect of the DDF is historically a cardinal, that means Francis is more likely to increase Fernandez to that rank someday after he takes up his new submit in September.
Francis succeeds Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria, a Spanish Jesuit, who’s on the finish of his mandate. — Reuters
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
