Vatican doctrinal chief warns against condemnations, urges humility in the Church

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, warned Tuesday about a culture of “ex cathedra” condemnations online and called for greater humility in the Church to avoid repeating “the same deception that led to the excesses of the Inquisition.”

“Today on any blog, anyone — even without having studied much theology — expresses an opinion and condemns as if speaking ex cathedra,” the cardinal said as he opened the dicastery’s plenary assembly, being held Jan. 27–29 at the Vatican with more than 70 participants, including cardinals, bishops, and experts.

Fernández cautioned that those working in the dicastery — which issues authoritative responses and drafts documents that can become part of the ordinary magisterium — face a particular risk of “losing the breadth of perspectives,” especially given its role in “correcting and condemning.”

From the department that inherited the historical function of the former Holy Office, Fernández urged participants to be “more aware of our limits.”

He also stressed that the Church’s work requires analysis grounded in listening. “We must reflect, think, analyze reality, but by listening to others, welcoming their perspectives, which allow us to perceive other aspects of reality itself through other points of view,” he said. Employing a favorite term of the late Pope Francis, the cardinal urged more attention to the “peripheries,” where he said things are seen differently.

Fernández said a fuller understanding ultimately requires God’s light: “To understand everything fully, we need to be illuminated by God — we need to invoke him, pray, listen to him, and allow ourselves to be guided by him amid the shadows.”

He pointed as well to a recent line from Pope Leo XIV: “No one possesses the whole truth; we must all seek it with humility, and seek it together.”

The cardinal noted that in theology, the mysteries of the faith form an “organic unity” that cannot be fragmented without losing meaning — and that even powerful technologies cannot give the human mind exhaustive knowledge of reality in all its dimensions. “This is only possible for God,” he said.

Fernández concluded by warning that, in an era of rapid scientific and technological development, failing to keep a living sense of human limits can lead to the same kinds of deceptions that have fueled grave evils in history, including wars and mass atrocities.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.