Cardinal Muller Discovers New Role for Cdf under Francis.

By Grant Gallicho
dotCommonweal
April 10, 2015

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTracker/Cardinal%20M%C3%BCller%20discovers%20new%20role%20for%20CDF%20under%20Francis.

In an interview with La Croix this week (English translation here), Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, suggested a new area of work for the Holy Office: theological architecture. The cardinal was asked how he viewed his role under Pope Francis, especially given that Benedict XVI was a theologian. "The arrival of a theologian like Benedict XVI in the chair of St. Peter was no doubt an exception," Muller replied. "But John XXIII was not a professional theologian. Pope Francis is also more pastoral and our mission at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is to provide the theological structure of a pontificate." If that's how the cardinal views his role, that might explain why he's given more interviews than any of his predecessors, according to Andrea Tornielli at La Stampa.

Of course, as Tornielli notes, providing the "theological structure" of a pontificate has never been part of the CDF's job description. “The proper duty of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is to promote and safeguard the doctrine on faith and morals in the whole Catholic world," as John Paul II wrote in Pastor bonus, his apostolic constitution on the Roman Curia. Until the pontificate of Paul VI, Tornielli reminds readers, the CDF was run by the pope. That's because he is "supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful," as canon law puts it. In other words, the work of building a theological structure for a pontificate finally falls to one man: the pope.