Cardinal Victor Fernandez, who has been head of religious authority at the Vatican for about a month, will also advise in the future on the interpretation of the Church’s legal texts. As announced this Saturday by the Vatican press office, Pope Francis appointed the 61-year-old Argentine as a member of the “Dicastery for Legal Texts”.
At the same time as Fernández, Francis also appointed the head of the clergy authority, South Korean Cardinal Lazarus You Heung-Sik, to the influential body. Furthermore, Giuseppe Salvati, former director of the Mater Ecclesiae Institute for Religious Studies in Rome, was appointed prelate secretary of the Pontifical Theological Academy.
Fernandez is an ex officio voting member of many important governing bodies of the universal church. The Dicastery for Legal Texts, to which he has now been appointed, plays a crucial role in the binding interpretation of legal texts, similar to comparable state institutions in Italy or France. But it is not exactly comparable to a constitutional court. In addition to the interpretation of existing canon law in controversial cases, the development and revision of canonical legal norms are also part of the competence of the Dicastery. The decisive body for issues of fundamental importance is the so-called plenary, which is made up of ten cardinals and bishops.
(Vatican news/kap/kna – jo)