Víctor Manuel Fernández

He was born in Alcira Gigena, in Córdoba Province. Fernández studied Philosophy and Theology at the major seminary of Córdoba. He was ordained a Roman Catholic deacon on 21 December 1985 and a priest on 15 August 1986 at Río Cuarto, where he spent most of his ecclesiastical career. In 1988 he obtained a degree in Theology with a biblical specialization at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and he obtained a doctorate in Theology at the Theology Faculty of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina in 1990, with a thesis about the relationship between knowledge and life in Saint Bonaventure. In Río Cuarto, he was director of catechesis and advisor of lay movements from 1989 to 1997, founder and rector of the Faculty of Sacred Sciences and Philosophy «Jesús Buen Pastor» and of the Diocesan Institute of Lay Formation from 1990 to 1993. He was priest of the parish of Santa Teresita from 1993 to 2000. He served as a trainer and study director of the Rio Cuarto seminary from 1988 to 1993 and from 2000 to 2007, and he was a delegate of ecumenism from 2003 to 2005.

In the late 1990s and recommendation of Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Bergoglio, he had rejected a proposal to settle in Colombia and lead a theological institute in Bogotá.

He was an expert of the Faith and Culture Commission and the Secretariat for the Permanent Formation of the Argentine Episcopal Conference, reader of the Commission of Catechesis of the Argentine Episcopate, member of the reflection team that advised the Argentine episcopate for the updating of the Pastoral Lines (NMA), and collaborator in CELAM in the field of pastoral theological reflection and also as a guest and expert in the Editorial Committee of the V General Assemply of the Episcopal Conference of Latin America in Aparecida in 2007.

He was professor of numerous subjects in several institutions. He taught at the Faculty of Theology of the PCUA, and also at the Franciscan Theological Institute of Saint Anthony of Padua.

He was co-director of several books published by the Faculty of Theology of the UCA and director of Theology Magazine from 2003 to 2008. He also presided over the Argentine Society of Theology from September 2007 to December 2009.

On 15 December 2009, after being nominated by Cardinal Bergoglio, he became rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina. He took his oath of office on 20 May 2011,[2] when his designation received confirmation from the Congregation for Catholic Education. He first had to answer objections to his appointment made to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).[3] Bergoglio resented this questioning of his judgment and Fernández found the process itself disrespectful when he traveled to Rome only to have the CDF cancel a meeting at the last minute.[1] He left the position of rector on 25 April 2018.[4]

Pope Francis named him titular Archbishop of Tiburnia on 13 May 2013,[5] and he was consecrated on 15 June 2013[6] in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires by the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Mario Poli, with the Archbishop of Santa Fe José María Arancedo, the bishop of Río Cuarto, Eduardo Martín, the bishop of Quilmes, Carlos Tissera, and the Archbishop of Corrientes, Andrés Stanovnik, as consecrators.[7] Fernández wore a pectoral cross Francis sent him from Rome.[8] He was the first rector of the University to be made an archbishop.[3] As Francis' first Argentine episcopal appointment, it was seen as a rebuke to the Roman Curia with which Francis as Archbishop of Buenos Aires had an occasionally antagonistic relationship, especially with the attempt of some in Rome to block Fernández appointment as rector of UCA in 2011.[1]

Pope Francis named him to the commission that drafted the concluding message (relatio) of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family, held in October 2014.[9]

Francis named him a member of the Fourteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2015[10] and appointed him to the drafting committee for the final report to be submitted to the synod participants for their votes.[11]

On 17 December 2016, he was named a consultor to the Congregation for Catholic Education.[12]

Following the election of Pope Francis, Fernandez was often mentioned as a candidate for an important post in the Roman Curia, such as head of the Congregation for Catholic Education or, more distantly, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.[13] Pope Francis named him Archbishop of La Plata on 2 June 2018 to succeed Héctor Rubén Aguer.[6] He said his program for the archdiocese would be "Evangelium gaudium, but seriously, not as a slogan", and that Francis has told him to look carefully at the archdiocesan seminary.[14] He was enthroned in his archdiocese on the following 16 June.

Hs relationship with Pope Francis dates to his work for the Argentine Bishops' Conference where he demonstrated his ability to incorporate different viewpoints in drafting group statements. As head of the drafting committee for the Aparecida Conference of CELAM in 2007, Francis relied on Fernandez' skill.[3] The résistance on the part of Roman Curia to Francis' selection of Fernández as rector of UCA is thought to have solidified Francis' support and prompted his naming Fernández an archbishop and giving him important assignments as well.[1]

Trusted by Pope Francis, he is commonly recognized as a contributor to the exhortation Evangelii gaudium.[15] He has also been credited with writing the encyclical Laudato Si'.

Called Francis' "trusted theologian", he is said to have been the principal author of Amoris Laetitia, the apostolic exhortation issued by Francis in 2016 following the two sessions of the Synod of Bishops on the Family.[16] In his own extended defense of Amoris, Fernandez argued for greater latitude when deciding giving Communion to the divorced and remarried. He wrote that "one cannot maintain those [sexual] acts in each and every case are gravely dishonest in a subjective sense. In the complexity of particular situations is where, according to St. Thomas [Aquinas], 'the indetermination increases'."[3] He has also said that "in many issues I am far more progressive than the Pope".[3]

He has also been called Francis' "primary ghostwriter"[17] and estrecho collaborador ("close collaborator").[18] Francis cited his essay "The good things of living in this time" in a talk to the clergy of Rome in February 2018.[19]