Pope appoints bishop from his native Argentina to lead Vatican office that enforces church doctrine

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. Francis named Monsignor Victor Manuel Fernández, the archbishop of La Plata, Argentina, as the prefect, or chief, of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Dicastery is the Vatican department that enforces orthodoxy of church teaching and disciplines theologians deemed to have strayed from Catholic doctrine in their lectures or publications. The department also evaluates and processes sex abuse allegations against clergy. Fernández has been nicknamed the “pope’s theologian,″ since he is widely believed to have helped author some of Francis’ most important documents.