Congregation For The Doctrine of The Faith - Recent Opinions and Publications

Recent Opinions and Publications

• Doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious
• Dominus Iesus (Declaration on the unicity and salvific universality of Jesus Christ and the Church; with comments from Congregation officials; August 6, 2000; one of the Congregation's most controversial and debated documents)
• Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons (2002)
• (24 November 2002), arguably the basis for the comments by Cardinal George Pell and those by Archbishop Barry Hickey in June 2007 in Australia to Catholic politicians on their votes on therapeutic cloning legislation.
• In an April 2007 address to chaplains, Archbishop Amato denounced same-sex marriage and abortion and criticized the Italian media's coverage of them, saying that they are evils "that remain almost invisible" due to media presentation of them as "expression of human progress."
• On September 28, 2007, Gaston Hebert, the then apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Little Rock stated that (per the July 11 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) 6 Arkansas nuns were excommunicated for heresy (the first in the diocese's 165-year history). They refused to recant the doctrines of the Community of the Lady of All Nations (Army of Mary). The 6 nuns are members of the Good Shepherd Monastery of Our Lady of Charity and Refuge in Hot Springs. Sister Mary Theresa Dionne, 82, one of 6, said they will still live at the convent property, which they own. The sect believe that its 86-year-old founder, Marie Paule Giguere, is the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary.
• On April 5, 2008, as a result of "grave reservations" by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith about the Mormon practice of posthumous rebaptism, Catholic dioceses throughout the world were directed not to give information in parish registers to the Mormons' Genealogical Society of Utah for microfilming or digitizing.
• Doctrinal Note on Some Aspects of Evangelization (with press conference transcript; December 3, 2007)
• Responses to Certain Questions of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Concerning Artificial Nutrition and Hydration (with commentary; August 1, 2007)
• Note on the banalization of sexuality, Regarding certain interpretations of "Light of the World" (December 22, 2010)
• Circular Letter to the Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences regarding the association Opus Angelorum (October 2, 2010)
• Dignitas Personae (on bioethical questions, with summary and press conference transcript; September 8, 2008)
• Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church (June 29, 2007)
• Notification on the works of the Reverend Father Jon Sobrino, S.J. (with an explanatory note; November 26, 2006)
• Notification regarding the book "Jesus Symbol of God" of the Reverend Father Roger Haight, S.J.
• Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the collaboration of men and women in the Church and in the world (May 31, 2004)
• Doctrinal Note on some questions regarding the participation of Catholics in political life (with two commentaries from Their Eminences, Cardinals Joachim Meisner and Giacomo Biffi; November 24, 2002)
• Note on the Force of the Doctrinal Decrees Concerning the Thought and Work of the Reverend Father Antonio Rosmini Serbati (July 1, 2001)
• Notification regarding certain writings of the Reverend Father Marciano Vidal, C.Ss.R.

(with comments; February 22, 2001)

• Notification on the book "Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism" by the Reverend Father Jacques Dupuis, S.J. (with commentary; January 24, 2001)
• Notification concerning some writings of Professor Dr. Reinhard Messner (November 30, 2000)
• Ardens felicitatis (instructions on prayers for healing; September 14, 2000)
• Note on the expression "sister churches" (June 30, 2000)
• Documents regarding "The Message of Fatima" (June 26, 2000)
• Notification regarding Sister Jeannine Gramick, SSND, and the Reverend Father Robert Nugent, SDS
• Considerations on The Primacy of the Successor of Peter in the mystery of the Church (October 31, 1998)
• Formula to be used for the profession of faith and for the oath of fidelity to assume an office to be exercised in the name of the Church with the Illustrative doctrinal Note of the conclusive formula of "Professio fidei" (June 29, 1998)
• Notification concerning the writings of the Reverend Father Anthony De Mello, S.J. (jUNE 24, 1998)
• Notification concerning the Text "Mary and Human Liberation" by the Reverend Father Tissa Balasuriya, O.M.I. (January 2, 1997)
• Notification on the writings and activities of Mrs. Vassula Ryden (October 6, 1995)
• Responses to questions proposed concerning uterine isolation and related matters (July 31, 1993)
• Some considerations concerning the response to legislative proposals on the non-discrimination of homosexual persons (July 23, 1992)
• Decree on the doctrine and customs of the Association Opus Angelorum (June 6, 1992)
• Communionis notio (Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on some aspects of the Church understood as Communion; May 28, 1992)
• Instruction on some aspects of the use of the instruments of social communication in promoting the doctrine of the faith- The Second Vatican Council (March 30, 1992)
• Note on the book "The Sexual Creators, An Ethical proposal for Concerned Christians", (University Press of America, Lanham-New York-London 1986), by the Reverend Father André Guindon, O.M.I. (January 31, 1992)
• Donum veritatis (Instruction on the ecclesial vocation of the theologian; May 24, 1990)
• Orationis formas (Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on some aspects of Christian meditation; October 15, 1989)
• Note regarding "The moral rule of "Humanae vitae" (Pope Paul VI's encyclical, On the Regulation and Control of Human Birth) and the pastoral duty" (February 16, 1989)
• Observation of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) II's "Salvation and the Church" (November 18, 1988)
• Formula to be used for the profession of faith and for the oath of fidelity to assume an office to be exercised in the name of the Church (July 1, 1988)
• Donum vitae (Instruction on respect for life in its origin and on the dignity of procreation; February 22, 1987)
• Homosexualitatis problema (Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons; October 1, 1986)
• Notification on the book "Pleidooi voor mensen in de Kerk" (Nelissen, Baarn 1985) by the Reverend Father Professor Edward Schillebeeckx, O.P. (September 15, 1986)
• Letter to György Bulányi on certain writings attributed to him (September 1, 1986)
• Letter regarding the suspension of the Reverend Father Professor Charles Curran from the teaching of theology (July 25, 1986)
• Libertatis conscientia (Instruction on human freedom and liberation; March 22, 1986)
• Notification on the Book "Church: Charism and Power. Essay on militant Ecclesiology" by the Reverend Father Leonardo Boff, O.F.M. (March 11, 1985)