Pope appoints bishop from his Argentine homeland to lead powerful Vatican doctrinal watchdog office

By FRANCES D’EMILIO and NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has chosen a bishop from his Argentine homeland for one of the Vatican’s most powerful positions — head of the watchdog office that ensures doctrinal orthodoxy. Monsignor Victor Manuel Fernández, now serving as archbishop of La Plata, Argentina, is tapped to head the Dicastery, or department, for the Doctrine of the Faith. The new doctrinal prefect, or chief, has been nicknamed the “pope’s theologian,″ since he is widely believed to have helped author some of Francis’ most important documents. The office enforces orthodoxy of church teaching and disciplines theologians deemed to have strayed from Catholic doctrine. It has taken on considerably more importance in recent decades to rank-and-file faithful as the stain of pedophile priests spread across the globe.