The Pope has appointed Bishop Fernando Ocáriz as Prelate of Opus Dei. The Prelate is also, through his position, Chancellor of the University of Navarra. He is the fourth Chancellor, after Josemaría Escrivá, Álvaro del Portillo and Javier Echevarría. In addition, Fernando Ocáriz is a former student of the University of Navarra, where he received the doctorate in Theology in 1971.

The new Prelate was born in Paris in 1944, studied physics in Barcelona and has been working in Rome for fifty years. If I had to summarize his profile in a few words, I would choose these: theologian, university professor, with a deep sense of the Church. Fernando Ocáriz has devoted many years of study and work to theology. In my opinion, this activity has marked his way of being. He is a friend of reason, logic, arguments, clarity. He has published books and articles on God, the Church and the world, with that breadth of vision that a theological gaze provides. sample an open spirit in debates: I have heard him say, for example, that "heresies are wrong solutions to real problems", thus encouraging us to accept the existence of problems, to understand those who detect them and to seek acceptable alternative solutions.

In addition to being a theologian, he is a university professor. A professor since he was very young, those who have attended his classes affirm that he usually achieves the most difficult thing: to make the complex understandable. He knows how to explain and he knows how to listen. He has the patience of a professor who, every year, has to start from scratch with students who arrive with little knowledge and many questions.

A large part of the theological work of Fernando Ocáriz has been developed in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where he has been consultant since 1986. For 20 years he was able to work closely with Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of that Congregation, on issues of dogmatics, Christology and ecclesiology. The work of that Congregation requires knowledge and also prudence. And, as is often the case with those who work in the Vatican, the work of consultant brings a deep ecclesial sense. Rome is a vantage point from which the Church is known in breadth and depth. One of the documents he presented at the Vatican was precisely the one dedicated to the Church as communion, in 1992.

In addition to being a university professor and consultant of the Vatican, Fernando Ocáriz has worked at the headquarters of Opus Dei, always in the field of theology, training and catechesis. First with St. Josemaría, then with Álvaro del Portillo and finally with Javier Echevarría. Of the latter he was the closest partner for 22 years. In this sense, it can be said that he knows well the reality of Opus Dei over the last fifty years.

In addition to these data of his profile, what is Fernando Ocáriz like? What personality does he have? He has a serene character and attention easy, kind and smiling, he is not a friend of verbiage. From him I was able to learn something of the art of writing. He usually says that to improve a text it is almost always better to shorten it, to prune the excess, repeated, imprecise words. Something similar has been written by the Italian writer Leonardo Sciascia.

I was not surprised to learn that the Congregation counted on his financial aid for the publication of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, an excellent synthesis of a much longer text. What I say in this article, he would have said much more briefly. At 72 years of age, he continues to practice sports, especially tennis. He maintains the qualities of the sportsman: no matter the effort, noblesse oblige, it is not worth giving up. Theologians can also have a sporting spirit.
From the University of Navarra we have conveyed to him our desire to support him in whatever way we can. In the end, almost everything in this life is a team effort.

Juan Manuel Mora Vice President of Communication University of Navarra
CEDDA