Bronx-born Archbishop DiNoia Named to Newly Created Vatican Post

In an effort to aid reconciliation attempts with traditionalist Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI has named U.S. Archbishop J. Augustine DiNoia, 68, to fill a newly created post of vice president of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei.”

“The appointment of a high-ranking prelate to this position is a sign of the Holy Father’s pastoral solicitude for traditionalist Catholics in communion with the Holy See and his strong desire for the reconciliation of those traditionalist communities not in union with the See of Peter,” the Vatican said in a written statement June 26.

The statement, released by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which oversees “Ecclesia Dei,” said the Bronx-born Dominican is a respected theologian who has devoted much time and attention to the doctrinal issues under review in current talks with the breakaway traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, led by Bishop Bernard Fellay.

The society rejects some of the teachings of Vatican II as well as the modernizing reforms, especially to the liturgy, that followed in its wake.

Archbishop DiNoia told Catholic News Service June 26 the Vatican needed to help people who have strong objections to the council see “that these disagreements don’t have to be dividing or keep us from the same Communion table. It is possible to have theological disagreements while remaining in communion with the see of Peter,” he said.

Archbishop DiNoia, who was secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments since 2009, said his reassignment from the worship congregation after only three years had left him “flabbergasted.” He will be replaced in that job by Bishop Arthur Roche of Leeds, England, the Vatican announced.

Archbishop DiNoia grew up in the Wakefield section of the Bronx, where he served as an altar boy at St. Anthony’s parish on Richardson Avenue.

A graduate of Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, he was ordained a Dominican priest in 1970.

He taught theology at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie for a year as a visiting professor before moving to the Vatican in 2002 when he began his duties as undersecretary of the doctrinal congregation.

—CNS