From Whispers in the Loggia:
Anticipated
for months, it's finally official -- at Roman Noon this Monday, the
Pope named Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller of Regensburg as prefect of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, accepting the retirement of
Cardinal William Levada a year after the highest-ranking American in
Vatican history reached the canonical age of 75.
With the
appointment of the 64 year-old theologian -- the editor of the
still-in-production "Complete Works" of Joseph Ratzinger -- Germans now
occupy two of the Vatican's top three posts: a level of dominance
that, until now, has been enjoyed only by Italians.
Made an
archbishop on the move, by seniority Müller will be the first cardinal
created by Benedict at his next consistory, which could come in Spring
2013, barring one exception: namely, should the pontiff appoint a new
Secretary of State before then who hasn't already received the red hat.
Early last month, the most definitive sign of the impending appointment came when the Pope appointed Müller
as a member of the Congregation for Catholic Education and the
Pontifical Council for Christian Unity -- a combination that, among the
Curia's senior members, has been held only by Levada. As early as
January, however, German reports noted that the bishop had been taking refresher courses in Italian.
Once
the "supreme" dicastery of the Roman Curia, the roots of the
modern-day CDF date to 1542, when Pope Paul III established it as the
Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition. In the post-Vatican
II reforms of Paul VI, the "Holy Office" was given its current name,
with a rebooted mandate to encourage and promote theological study
beyond its traditional function as the global church's lead guardian of
orthodoxy.
A priest of Mainz, the new prefect spent most of his
priesthood as a theology professor in Munich before his appointment to
Regensburg in 1992. He has served as a member of the congregation
since 2002.
Read the entire piece. Bishop Müller, by the way, is the author of Priesthood
and Diaconate: The Recipient of the Sacrament of Holy Orders from the
Perspective of Creation Theology and Christology, published in English by Ignatius Press in 2002.