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Pope Francis has appointed Spanish Jesuit Luis Ladaria Ferrer as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), succeeding German Cardinal Ludwig Müller after a series of disagreements.
Pope Francis has not renewed the appointment of Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller as head of the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) after his first term ended on Friday.
The pontiff informed the German cardinal of his decision at their weekly meeting on Friday, an audience that was unusually listed on the pope's official agenda in a sign of the significance of the meeting.
Never in its recent history has a CDF prefect left his post before retirement age. Nor was Cardinal Müller, 69, appointed to any other position, although it appears that he may have rejected several offers from Pope Francis.
It is clear, however, that disagreements between Pope Francis and Cardinal Müller had been accumulating for months. During the Synod on the Family, Cardinal Müller opposed the pope's plans to ease the Church's discipline in regard to remarried divorcees.
After the publication of the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, Müller made no effort to conceal his sympathy for four dissident cardinals and criticized the implementation of the document, despite the fact that it had been approved by the pope himself.
Under Cardinal Müller's leadership, the CDF also faced criticism over its alleged slowness and inaction in the fight against sexual abuse.
The crisis peaked in late December 2016 with the dismissal by Pope Francis of several officials, including the head of the CDF disciplinary office, who was replaced by an official intent on implementing the "zero tolerance" policy previously adopted by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
"The is no recent precedent for the non-renewal of a prefect of the Holy Office," commented Italian vaticanista Andrea Tornielli.
"However, it is also true that we have never seen a prefect act in this way before," he added.
Cardinal William Levada, who was prefect from 2005 to 2012, was always perfectly discreet while Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as head of the CDF, never publicly raise topics that would have placed him at odds with Pope John Paul II.
It seems clear that Cardinal Müller's attitude was due to the reticence of the pope, who is believed to have held back from firing Cardinal Müller so as not to offend Benedict XVI, whose complete works are in the process of being edited for publication by the German cardinal.
As replacement for Cardinal Müller, Pope Francis has appointed Spanish Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer, 73, who was also close to Pope Benedict, who made him secretary of the CDF in 2008.
Originally from Majorca, Archbishop Ferrer, is the first Jesuit to head the CDF and has a solid background in theology.
Educated in Madrid and Frankfurt, he defended a doctoral thesis on Hilary of Poitiers in 1975 at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Later, he taught in Spain and Rome before becoming vice-chancellor at the Gregorian.
He also worked closely with then-Cardinal Ratzinger, initially as a member of the International Theological Commission and later as its Secretary General.
The two men also collaborated closely on a paper studying the concept of limbo as the "place" for dead unbaptized children, concluding that this was an "over-restrictive view of salvation".
Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 entrusted Archbishop Ladaria with overseeing theological discussions with the Lefebvrists. In fact, a final agreement with the Society of Saint Pius X is expected to be high on the priority list for the upcoming year.
Archbishop Ladaria also enjoys the confidence of the current pope. Francis appointed him to the commission to simplify procedures for annulments of marriage and to head the commission studying the role of deaconesses during the early centuries of Christianity.
During the Synod debates on family issues in 2014, he also insisted on placing conditions on access to sacraments for remarried divorcees. Archbishop Ladaria recommending that they "separate from their new partner and reconcile with the one they originally separated from" or "live together as 'brother and sister'".
In a rare interview in 2008, the archbishop admitted to being a "moderate conservative" in the Italian magazine 30 Giorni.
"I do not appreciate extreme positions whether they are progressive or traditionalist," he said.
"I think that there is a middle path, which is also shared by most theology professors here in Rome as well as the Church in general," Archbishop Ladaria stated.
"In my opinion, the moderate path is the one to follow."
The achbishop refused to discuss details on his work with the CDF.
"Our congregation acts with discretion and speaks exclusively through its actions," he said.
Such discretion will no doubt please Pope Francis.
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