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WASHINGTON (September 6, 2000) -- Dominican Father J. Augustine Di Noia, Executive Director of the Secretariat for Doctrine and Pastoral Practices at the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, will leave the NCCB in mid-February to be Director of the newly established Intercultural Forum at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, Washington, D.C.
Father Di Noia joined the NCCB staff in July of 1993.
Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, President of the NCCB and Bishop of Galveston-Houston, Texas, praised Father Di Noia's contribution to the Conference.
"Father Di Noia has made an enormous contribution to the Bishops' Conference," Bishop Fiorenza said. "He has enjoyed the full confidence and esteem of the Bishops as our theological adviser, a position which is at the heart of our efforts. We wish him well in his work at the new John Paul II Cultural Center."
Msgr. Dennis M. Schnurr, NCCB General Secretary, also noted Father Di Noia's contributions.
"Father Di Noia has given extraordinary service to the bishops of this country in the more than seven years that he has served as their principal theological adviser," he said. "His scholarship and wisdom have been vital during these years when the Church has sought to apply
theological teachings to rapidly developing scientific and technological developments. We will miss him at the bishops' conference but we commend the brand new cultural center for starting out with so talented a theologian."
"At this time I also wish to thank the Province of St. Joseph -- the Eastern Dominican Province of the Order of Preachers for permitting Father Di Noia to be a part of the NCCB," he added.
During his tenure at the Bishops' Conference, Father Di Noia served as staff to the Committee on Doctrine, which dealt with a wide range of theological and moral issues, and the Committee on Pastoral Practices, which published "Guidelines for the Celebration of Sacraments With Persons With Disabilities" and launched the preparation of a preaching guide linking the Catechism of the Catholic Church with the lectionary. He also served as staff for the Ad Hoc Committee on Health Care Issues and the Church.
Father Di Noia was ordained in 1970, earned a doctorate from Yale University and has had a distinguished career in theology. While at the NCCB he also has been a professor at the Dominican House of Studies and an adjunct professor at the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Studies. He is a member of the International Theological Commission, an advisory board of theologians to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He also is a member of the American Academy of Religion and the Catholic Theological Society of America.
Father Di Noia has written extensively and is editor in chief of The Thomist, a quarterly review of the theological system of St. Thomas Aquinas. He is author of The Diversity of Religions: A Christian Perspective and a co-author of The Love That Never Ends: A Key to the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Veritatis Splendor and the Renewal of Moral Theology.