By Almudena Martínez-Bordiú
Vatican City, Dec 11, 2024 / 07:00 am
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), the Vatican body responsible for questions of doctrinal orthodoxy in the Catholic Church, has a group of outside consultants. What is the role of these experts in one of the Roman Curia’s most prominent dicasteries?
This past September, Pope Francis appointed 28 new consultants for the dicastery, headed since July 2023 by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández.
The majority of the latest crop of DDF consultants are Italian priests-theologians, experts in canon law and Scripture, as well as six women — two religious and four lay theologians — and two lay male theologians. Among those appointed is a Jesuit priest who holds a doctorate in sacred Scripture, Father Juan Manuel Granados Rojas.
Speaking with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Granados, a Colombian, explained the details of the new role that he is taking up as “a humble service” to the Catholic Church and the Holy Father.
Granados explained that on Dec. 2, he and his fellow recently appointed consultors took the oath for their new service in a “simple ceremony” where they committed themselves “to safeguard the faith received from the apostles and to keep the pontifical secret.”
The event, said the professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute and member of the Catholic Biblical Association, was presided over by the cardinal prefect (Fernández) and took place in a private chapel of the dicastery. Pope Francis was not present.
During the ceremony, the experts recited the Creed in Latin and read “a series of personal commitments to the Catholic Church,” added the Jesuit priest, who is also a member of the team of translators of the Bible of the Church in America (BIA, by its Spanish acronym).
“Consultants are appointed for a period of six years,” Granados explained, “and our role is to respond as quickly as possible to the questions that the dicastery sends us.
