New Appointment in Argentina -- Pope Bergolio and ++Fernandez’s Silence at Jewish Slanders

(Buenos Aires)  Pope Francis is to raise the rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, Victor Manuel Fernandez to archbishop on Monday.

The appointment came as a surprise. The rector of the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Ayres”,  from now on UCA, was awarded  with the dignity of a titular bishopric of Tiburnia by the Pope. The designation is unique. Fernandez was particularly close in the  Argentine Church to Pope Bergoglio. The Pope wants him there at the head and to strengthen  the University.  There are about 20,000 students  currently enrolled there.

The Rector of the Catholic University will be Archbishop Fernandez

Rector Fernandez was born born on 18 July 1962 in Alcira Gigena in the province of Cordoba. In 1986 he was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Villa de Concepcion de Rio Cuarto, he graduated from the Gregorian University in Rome in 1990 and then his Master's degree at the UCA  and the doctorate with a dissertation on St. Bonaventure.

Fernandez worked from 1991 to 2007 in parish ministry (1993-2000) as pastor of Santa Teresita) and taught at the Seminary of Rio Cuarto, then at the Faculty of Theology at the UCA. He was Deputy Dean of the Faculty of 2002, and in 2008  Dean of the same, where taught as professor of moral theology. From 2003 to 2005, the theologian was ecumenical officer of the Diocese of Rio Cuarto. Pope Francis knows him primarily through the Charismatic Renewal. Fernandez was the diocesan ecclesiastical assistant of the Movimiento de Renovacion Carismática.

Imposed by Archbishop Bergoglio 2009 as Rector

Fernandez was taken as Peritus in 2007 to the Argentine Bishops' Conference of the so-called Conference of Aparecida, the 5th General Assembly of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean. He was instrumental in the formulation of the final document, which was prepared under the direction of the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires.  In 2009 Cardinal Bergoglio prevailed for Fernandez against conservative resistance as rector of the university.

Under his Rectorate a Faculty of Social Sciences was established at the UCA. With the Coordinación de Compromisos Social, Fernandez launched a connection  of  the involvement of the university in the social network of the city of Buenos Aires desired by Archbishop Bergoglio, including the slums Villas miseries in the suburbs. The participation opportunities at the University have been rearranged, field offices were expanded and further established.

Interfaith celebration For 50 years of the Council Beginning with an Honorary Doctorate for Rabbi

However, his Rectorate includes his silence, as when the Pontifical University of the Catholic Church was attacked. On 11October 2012   he was suspected at the UCA in the presence of the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Bergoglio, the Apostolic Nuncio and the Papal preacher, Fr Raniero Cantalamessa,  house of the 50th Anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. Although the memorial  concerned a central event of the recent Catholic Church history, it became the part of an inter-religious celebration. As part of this celebration, the rabbi of Buenos Aires, Abraham Skorka, a personal friend of the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires, had a conversation with the Cardinal in a book published in 2010, at which an honorary doctorate from the University was awarded at the suggestion of Cardinal Bergoglio.  Rabbi Skorka is an advocate of the legalization of gay "marriage" in Argentina.

"Undignified spectacle": Church to Church representatives applauded defamation by Rabbi

As Pagina Catolica wrote, “it is an unworthy spectacle that the highest representatives of the Catholic Church  allowed the highest representatives of Judaism in the country to appear at the Pontifical University". In his acceptance speech for the highest academic honor conferred by the University, the rabbi compared the Catholic Church with Nazism, describing its anti-Semitism explicitly as a product of Catholic theology ("tuvo raíces en la teología que se fue desarrollando en la Iglesia Catolica") .  On the contrary no one suggested a contradiction. At the end of the speech Rector Fernandez, Cardinal Bergoglio, the nuncio present, Father Cantalamessa and the current Archbishop of Buenos Aires Mario Poli applauded the awarding of the honorary Catholic doctorate to the rabbi.

The Episcopal Ordination on is to be held on the 15th of June at the Cathedral of Buenos Aires.  The principal consecrator will be appointed shortly after he is selected by Pope Francis' successor as archbishop of Buenos Aires Mario Aurelio its policy, who has  also taken over the office of the Grand Chancellor of the UCA from Cardinal Bergolio.

Fernandez was awarded the Titular Diocese of Tiburnia which refers to city of Teurnia in 600 before it was sacked by the Avars on the Lurnfeld in Upper Carinthia (Austria). The Celtic founded city was established as a Roman city and had a Bishop at least by the 4th century. The Archdiocese went down with the city in the early seventh Century. The early Christian three-nave episcopal church  was uncovered during excavations in the 80s.

Link to Katholisches...