Pope Francis names consultants to Vatican doctrine office, including controversial theologian

Pope Francis meets with members of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) on Friday, Jan. 26, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Sep 23, 2024 / 11:45 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has named 28 new consultors to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, including moral theologian Father Maurizio Chiodi, who has expressed opinions contrary to Church teaching.

Chiodi, a moral theologian, has come under media scrutiny in recent years for suggesting contraception use in marriage could be morally permissible in some circumstances.

In a 2017 lecture in Rome, the priest also said that homosexual relationships “under certain conditions” could be “the most fruitful way” for those with same-sex attraction “to enjoy good relations.”

Chiodi was made a theology professor at the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and the Family Sciences in 2019 following its refounding by Pope Francis. He has also been a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life since 2017.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office responsible for issues of doctrinal orthodoxy in the Catholic Church and the investigation and prosecution of sex abuse by priests, has been under the leadership of Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández since September 2023. 

In the past year, the DDF has faced internal and ecumenical fallout from Fiducia Supplicans, the dicastery’s declaration permitting nonliturgical blessings for same-sex couples. It has also published a document on human dignity, Dignitas Infinita, that addresses growing concerns over gender theory, sex changes, surrogacy, and euthanasia in addition to abortion, poverty, human trafficking, and war.

In May, the dicastery also issued new norms on judging alleged Marian apparitions, subsequently approving Marian devotion at a number of spiritual sites, including most recently at Medjugorje.

The nearly three dozen new external consultants — experts in theology, canon law, and Scripture — will meet with existing DDF consultors to advise the dicastery’s leadership and members at regular intervals.

The 28 new appointments are mostly Italian priest-theologians but also include six women — two religious sisters and four lay theologians — and two lay male theologians.

The full list of new consultors is below:

Bishop Antonio Staglianò, president of the Pontifical Academy of Theology

Father Giovanni Ancona, theology professor

Father Giacomo Canobbio, scientific director of the Catholic Academy of Brescia

Father Carlo Dell’Osso, secretary of the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archeology in Rome

Father Basilio Petrà, theologian

Father Bruno Fabio Pighin, canonist

Father Mario Stefano Antonelli, rector of the Pontifical Lombardo Seminary of Sts. Ambrogio and Carlo in Rome

Father Pasquale Bua, theologian

Father Maurizio Chiodi, theologian

Father Massimo Del Pozzo, canonist

Father Aristide Fumagalli, theologian

Father Federico Giuntoli, biblicist

Father Pier Davide Guenzi, moral theologian

Father Franco Manzi, theologian

Father Massimo Regini, theologian

Father Raffaele Talmelli, superior general of the Congregation of the Servants of the Paraclete and exorcist

Father Denis Chardonnens, OCD, theologian

Father Armando Genovese, MSC, theologian

Father Juan Manuel Granados Rojas, SJ, biblicist

Father Dominic Sundararaj Irudayaraj, SJ, biblicist

Mario Bracci, theologian

Sister Giuseppina Daniela Del Gaudio, SFI, director of the Observatory for Apparitions and Mystical Phenomena regarding the Virgin Mary in the World

Sister Benedetta Rossi, Missionaries of Mary, biblicist

Donatella Abignente, theologian

Claudia Leal Luna, theologian

Sandra Mazzolini, theologian

Ignazia Siviglia, theologian

Emanuele Spedicato, canonist