Rome Newsroom, Dec 6, 2023 / 12:00 pm
The new head of the Vatican’s doctrine office gave a homily in the suburbs of Rome this week in which he encouraged Catholics not to be like “hard stones” unwilling to change but to be like clay, ready to be transformed by the Lord.
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, took possession of his titular church on Dec. 3 on the northern outskirts of Rome, the parish church of Sts. Urban and Lawrence at Prima Porta.
In his homily, the Argentine cardinal, known as Pope Francis’ longtime personal theologian and ghostwriter, reflected on the prophet Isaiah’s words, “O LORD, you are our father; we are the clay and you the potter: we are all the work of your hands,” on the first Sunday of Advent.
“When these words are spoken with the heart, it means that we let ourselves be shaped by the Lord, that we let ourselves be led by him, that we let ourselves be transformed by his grace,” Fernández said.