Cardinal Fernández, DDF prefect, warns against lack of intellectual humility
January 28, 2026
The prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith called for intellectual humility at the opening of the dicastery’s plenary session and linked the lack of such humility to the “excesses of the Inquisition, the world wars, the Shoah, and the massacres in Gaza.”
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández offered his remarks in a meditation, “Do Not Ask the Light, but the Fire,” delivered to the dicastery’s members.
“We cannot have a complete understanding of even a small part of this world, since that same part can be understood fully only in the light of the totality in which it is integrated, for everything is connected,” Cardinal Fernández said. “Consequently, we are incapable of interpreting all the meanings and nuances of a reality, a person, a historical moment, or a truth.”
“The more science and technology advance, the more we must keep alive the awareness of our limits and our need for God, so as not to fall into a terrible deception—indeed, the very same one that led to the excesses of the Inquisition, the world wars, the Shoah, and the massacres in Gaza: all of which rely on fallacious arguments for their justification,” the Argentine prelate continued. “The problem is that the same can happen in each of our lives. In fact, we repeat that deception by living too securely in what we think we know.”
Thus, “we must reflect, think, and analyze reality, but while also listening to others, welcoming their perspectives—which allows us to perceive other aspects of that same reality—and opening ourselves to other points of view,” Cardinal Fernández added. “For this reason, it benefits us to pay attention to the ‘peripheries,’ where things are seen differently.”
Cardinal Fernández said that the need for intellectual humility “applies all the more to the truths of the faith. Today, a theologian normally possesses knowledge limited to a single theological discipline or an isolated topic, whereas the mysteries of faith are interwoven in a rich hierarchy, in which the whole is especially illuminated by those central truths that constitute the heart of the Gospel.”
While calling for openness to perspectives from the peripheries, Cardinal Fernández offered strong criticism of bloggers who are far from the center of theological discourse:
Certainly, in a place such as this, where we have the possibility of giving authoritative answers, of writing documents that become part of the Ordinary Magisterium, and even of correcting and condemning, the risk of losing the brea[d]th of our perspective is greater. But the issue is even more serious since today, on any blog, anyone—even without having studied much theology—can express his or her opinion and condemn others as if speaking ex cathedra. That is why we must recover, throughout the whole Church, that healthy realism proposed by the Church’s great sages and mystics.
“What has been said about the limits of our mind applies to the whole of reality, both natural and supernatural, but above all to the profound depths of God,” the prelate said. Quoting St. Bonaventure, he concluded:
Negations are more appropriate than affirmations, and superlatives more appropriate than positive predications. And if it is to be experienced, interior silence is more helpful than external speech. Therefore, let us stop speaking, and let us pray to the Lord that we may be granted the experience of that about which we have spoken.
Praedicate Evangelium, the 2022 apostolic constitution on the Roman Curia, explains that “all the members of the Dicastery are convoked for the plenary session. It is to be held every two years ... Matters and questions of greater importance are reserved for the plenary session, according to the nature of the Dicastery. It is convoked, as needed, to deal also with matters of general principle or others that the head of the Dicastery deems necessary to address in this manner” (n. 26).
The dicastery’s website lists 20 members appointed to five-year terms in 2021.
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