VATICAN CITY
Sky News Australia
The Pope has named Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Mueller to head the Vatican’s all-important orthodoxy office, tapping a German theologian like himself to head the congregation he presided over for nearly a quarter-century enforcing Catholic doctrine.
The 64-year-old Regensburg bishop replaces American Cardinal William Levada, who turned 76 last month and is retiring after seven years at the helm of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the former Holy Office.
While Mueller is considered a staunchly orthodox, conservative theologian – he has penned some 400 academic articles and founded an institute to publish all the pope’s writings – some of his positions have raised eyebrows in Rome and abroad.
Chief among them is his friendship with the Reverend Gustavo Gutierrez, the Peruvian priest considered the founder of liberation theology, the Marxist-influenced theology advocating for the poor.
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