Pope Francis (pictured above) on Saturday announced his decision to appoint Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Reuters reported. The congregation is a Vatican department responsible for defending the Catholic doctrine as well as handling sex abuse cases. The announcement gains significance as the pope chose to not renew the church’s top theologian, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller’s, five-year tenure.
The development comes two days after Vatican Treasurer Cardinal George Pell, who is facing multiple child sex offence charges in Australia, was granted leave of absence to attend to the case against him.
Mueller, a German, is one of the several cardinals to have publicly opposed the Pope’s stand on making the church more inclusive. Pope Benedict had appointed the 69-year-old head of the Congregation in 2012, BBC reported. A more conservative Mueller had questioned Pope Francis’ decision to relax restrictions on “imperfect” Catholics, including those who are divorced.
The department was criticised for hindering internal investigations into allegations of sexual abuse against Catholic priests, BBC reported.
Spaniard Ladaria “speaks the same language” as the Argentinian Pope, a priest told the news agency. “Ladaria is someone who is meek,” the unidentified priest said. “He does not agitate the pope and does not threaten him.”
In January, Pope Francis had directed Catholic bishops across the world to maintain zero tolerance towards child sexual abuse by the clergy. In 2014, he had set up a commission, comprising a few sexual abuse victims, to advise local churches on how to prevent abuse. Pope Francis had also proposed to establish a Vatican tribunal to judge bishops accused of covering up sexual abuse, or even failing to prevent it.
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