For the first time, a priest of the UGCC joins the International Theological Commission of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
This is reported by the UGCC Information Department.
The new composition of the International Theological Commission includes priests: Fr. Edouard Adé, president of the Catholic University of Burkina Faso; Alberto Cozzi, president of the Higher Institute of religious sciences in Milan (Italy); Marek Jagodziński, associate professor of Theology at the Catholic University of Lublin (Poland); Víctor Ronald La Barrera Villarreal, vice-rector of the Biblical and Pastoral Center for Latin America in Bogota (Colombia); Jorge José Ferrer, director of the Theological School of the Pontifical University in Puerto-Rico; Simon Francis Gaine, professor at the Pontifical Angelicum University in Rome; Etienne Emmanuel Vetö, Associate Professor of Theology at the Gregorian University in Rome; Josée Ngalula, Associate Professor of Theology at the Catholic University of the Congo; professors Robin darling young, associate professor of Theology at the Catholic University of Washington (USA); Reinhard Huetter, associate professor at The Washington School of Theology (USA); Isabel Naumann, Associate Professor president of the Catholic Institute in Sydney, Australia.
Today, 28 scientists from different countries of the world are members of the International Theological Commission, and Fr. Piero Coda, theologian and philosopher, associate professor at the Sofia Theological Institute in Luppiano (Italy). Father Coda is a well-known expert in the field of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, the author of many theological books of international significance.
A representative of the UGCC joined the International Theological Commission for the first time. Father Yuriy Avakumov was born in St. Petersburg. He studied at St. Petersburg State University, the St. Petersburg Orthodox Theological Academy and the Catholic University of Munich, where he received the degree of Doctor of Theology.
Author of numerous scientific works in the field of the history of medieval theology and the history of the UGCC in Ukraine and Russia. He received his priestly ordination from the hands of Bishop Julian Voronovsky in 1992 in Lviv. 1995-2007, pastor of Russian-speaking Catholics in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising in Germany. Since 2007, he was Dean of the Faculty of Humanities of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. In 2008, Fr Yuriy Avvakumov was appointed a member of the Council of permanent experts of the theological department of the Patriarchal Curia of the UGCC.
The International Theological Commission is an institution that helps the Congregation for the doctrines of faith study the most important doctrinal issues. The commission is headed by Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrines of the Faith. Members of the commission meet annually in plenary session and present to the Holy Father the results of theological research on topical issues of the Doctrine of Faith of the Catholic Church.
