Pope Francis met with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the department over which Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger presided for years.
The congregation is responsible for proposing Catholic doctrine and ensuring there are no deviations.
POPE FRANCIS
“I appreciate your delicate service, which responds to the particular link between your dicastery and that of the ministry of St. Peter's successor, which is called to confirm brothers and sisters in the faith and the Church in unity.”
Together with the pope, the dicastery reviewed current issues that it's handling – for example, the ethical implications of Christian anthropology in the economic and financial world or euthanasia.
The pope said it's unfortunately normal for euthanasia to be promoted “when a life isn't evaluated based on dignity, but on its efficiency and productivity.” Therefore, Pope Francis reminded that “the human life, from conception until natural death, possesses an intangible dignity.”
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is one of the Vatican's most prestigious departments. In the past, it was known as the Inquisition.
The anecdote from the encounter was this slight stumble by the pope, which luckily was only a scare.
