VATICAN CITY, APRIL 7, 2002 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II has appointed Dominican Father Joseph Augustine Di Noia undersecretary of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
«I am delighted I will be able to serve the Church universal in this assignment to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,» Father Di Noia said at the announcement Thursday. «I am grateful to our Holy Father for the appointment.»
Now the director of the Intercultural Forum for Studies in Faith and Culture at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C., Father Di Noia´s appointment is effective immediately and he will move to the Vatican at the end of this month.
«The Church in the United States has been greatly blessed by the extraordinary wisdom, incredible talents and exemplary fidelity of this wonderful priest and theologian,» said Catholic University of America´s president, Vincentian Father David O´Connell. He said that Father Di Noia will remain on the university board of trustees.
Father Di Noia, a member of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph, is a professor of theology at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington and an adjunct professor at St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers, New York.
In the past, he served as executive director of the secretariat for doctrine and pastoral practices of the then National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
He has been a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith International Theological Commission and is editor in chief of the Dominican scholarly quarterly The Thomist. Last autumn, Father Di Noia served as theologian to the secretary-general of the 10th Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome.
Born in New York on July 10, 1943, Di Noia made his first vows in the Order of Preachers in August 1964. He was ordained a priest June 4, 1970. In 1971, he received a licentiate in theology from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale University in 1980.
