CNS on Di Noia Appointment

Here are some excerpts from CNS's take on the appointment of Fr. Augustine Di Noia as new Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, which contain a few comments by Fr. Di Noia himself:

U.S. Dominican theologian named secretary of worship congregation

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has named U.S. Dominican Father J. Augustine DiNoia an archbishop and secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

"I am happy the pope has entrusted to me an area that he considers so important," the archbishop-designate told Catholic News Service June 16, shortly after the Vatican announced his new assignment.

"I think the liturgy should give us a sense of the heavenly liturgy; it's about God, not us," he said.

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Regarding his appointment to the Vatican office overseeing matters concerning the liturgy and sacraments, he said, "My understanding was that the pope was looking for someone with a broad theological background."

While his studies and his ministry as a priest have been heavily theological, for Dominicans "theology and liturgy go together," he said.

His episcopal ordination will be July 11 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington; U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the doctrinal congregation, will preside at the liturgy, he said.

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Looking at liturgy today, Archbishop-designate DiNoia said, "The great danger is when the focus is on the celebrating community" rather than on God.

Like auxiliary bishops, Vatican nuncios and the other archbishops serving as secretaries of Vatican congregations, he has been assigned a "titular see" rather than a diocese.

The New York City native will be the first titular archbishop of Oregon City, Ore., which he said was the oldest metropolitan see in the United States after Baltimore, the first U.S. archdiocese. Oregon City became an archdiocese in 1846, but the archdiocese was transferred to Portland in 1928. Oregon City became a titular archdiocese in 1996, but no archbishop had been assigned the title until now.

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