Pope Appoints Extreme Leftist to Doctrine Office
“By far the worst personnel decision in Francis’s ponticate.”
Pope Francis has once again caused controversy with his new pick to lead the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s investigative and doctrinal office. The Vatican officially announced that Argentine Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández would be the new head of the DDF, a role previously held by the likes of Pope St. Pius V and, in more recent times, cardinals Alfredo Ottaviani and Joseph Ratzinger. The announcement has caused a significant stir for numerous reasons, but chief among them are Fernández’s heterodox views, lack of experience, and personality.
Fernández is known as a progressive protégé of Pope Francis’. Catholic author, scholar, and former university professor Dr. Peter Kwasniewski gave The American Spectator the bottom line, saying, “The appointment of Víctor Manuel Fernández is by far the worst personnel decision in Francis’s pontificate.… His written work, preaching, and activities show him to be a nominalist, relativist, consequentialist, and progressivist.”
Eric Sammons, a well-known Catholic writer, publisher, and editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine, concurred, telling The American Spectator, “In my view, this might very well be the most scandalous appointment in a long line of scandalous appointments during the Francis pontificate.”
