Dicastery

It's one of the most important dicasteries in the Roman Curia, and it was created in the midst of a religious and political upheaval.

EWTN News' Brian Schumacher takes a closer look at the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith.

While the name of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith dates back just a few years, its history goes back centuries, to the time of the Protestant Reformation.

In 1542, Pope Paul III established a commission of six cardinals who were tasked with watching over matters of the faith.

He called it the Congregation of the Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition, or Congregation of the Holy Office, and it focused only on issues of heresy and schism in the face of the Protestant Reformation then challenging the Church.

In 1965, Pope St. Paul VI changed the name to the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith.

His pontificate and that of Pope St. John Paul II saw the institution's purpose change from prosecuting heresies to the defense and positive promotion of the faith.

Finally, in 2022, Pope Francis gave it the name it now uses, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The religious orders provide essential services either in places where there is little other provision or for people for whom there is little other support.

In addition to the operational functions assigned to it, The Dicastery for Communication of the Vatican also deepens and develops the properly theological and pastoral aspects of the Church's activity in the field of communication.

In this sense, it also works on the level of training in order that communication not be reduced to purely technological and instrumental concepts.

With the support of the Hilton Foundation, the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication has initiated a project called aimed at building a dynamic global network of the voices of sisters within the framework of the Vatican media.

This Pentecost project of the Dicastery for Communication is meant to happen while at the same time demonstrating how sisters are contributing to the work of the Church.

There are so many facets to the project, but one of the ways in which the Dicastery for Communication is doing this is by offering the sisters a three-month immersion or internship at the Vatican Media in Rome.

During these three months at the Vatican Media, the religious sisters and all others that attend the course are helped to navigate the digital highways and thus effectively communicate the good news on social media.

My name is Bezawit Assefa.

It also continues to offer a paradigm for guiding the church's pastoral and theological choices at a time when divisions prevail over dialogue, religious freedom is constantly violated, and the name of God is betrayed and used to, to legitimize violence and terrorism.

For this reason, on the 60th anniversary of this brief yet bold conciliar declaration, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, and the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue have published a note entitled "A Journey of Hope".

The document retraces the essential stages of dialogue since Nostra aetate, assessing its challenges and achievements and outlining prospects for the future.

The relatively short note of some 60 numbered paragraphs recalls the history of Nostra aetate from its origins as a response to the Shoah, the Holocaust, through developments by the papal magisterium in the decades following its publication, even to our own day.

But again, it's how to try and make that land amongst that community.

That was the president of Catholics in Fundraising, John Green, speaking there to Vatican Radio's Linda Bordoni.

[upbeat music]Pope Leo today addressed participants in a conference entitled "21st Century: A New Age of Martyrs?" The conference was organized by the Commission on the New Martyrs at the Dicastery for the Saints.

That commission was established by Pope Francis in 2023 and has the task of gathering testimonies concerning the lives of those who have given their lives for Christ, independently, independently of the canonization process.

which certainly came then across in those interviews that Jacqueline did for the film with both, well, all three of those cardinals that she interviewed in the film.

That sort of discomfort with her even, you know, at one point I think, Cardinal Channey, she interviewed the Canadian Cardinal, who at the time was Prefect of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development.

He even said to her, you know, you're outside of the church.

You know, you're asking these questions from outside of the church.

I mean, of course, in Italy, in Spain, it's a bit different.

In Poland, you can't even talk about it.

And yet some of those, it's interesting because the film does have a brief clip, an interview with that Italian nun, Sister Alessandra Smerilli, I think, who at the time was secretary of the Dicastery, you know, working under Cardinal Ciani.

And since then, since your film under Pope Leo, she's now been appointed to become the prefect of that dark history.

Both had these missionary hearts, both religious, one a Jesuit, one an Augustinian.

On January 30th, 2023, Pope Francis appoints Bishop Prevost as the prefect for the Dicastery of Bishops.

It's a pretty high-ranking position in the life of the Church.

This is the person who advises the Pope most directly on who will become a bishop.

Poblio is not a smash and grab, go fast kind of a guy.

There's a methodical, intentional slowness to much of what he's doing.

whether it's appointments for various dicastery positions, it should be noted, a new head of the Dicastery for Communications, starting in November, the first laywoman to ever head a dicastery, Monse Alvarado, friend of our show, he has not appointed a new Secretary of State, has not appointed a new head for the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, So methodical and slow in some areas, and very revolutionary in others.

And he's being intentional with the people that he's appointing, with the positions that he's filling, hasn't changed the team all the way, not because he doesn't necessarily maybe want to at some point, but because he recognizes not just continuity between him and Francis, but stability.