Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz was born in Paris, France, on October 27th born in 1944, son of a Spanish family exiled in France during the Civil War (1936-1939). He is the youngest of eight siblings. On the occasion of his birthday we make a brief review of his life.
He holds a degree in Physical Sciences from the University of Barcelona (1966) and in Theology from the Pontifical Lateran University (1969). He obtained his doctorate in Theology, in 1971, at the University of Barcelona (1966). University of Navarra. That same year it was ordained priest. In his first years as a priest, he dedicated himself especially to youth and university ministry.
He has been a consultor to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith since 1986 (when it was Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) and to the Dicastery for Evangelization since 2022 (previously, since 2011, to the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization). From 2003 to 2017 he was a consultor to the then Congregation for the Clergy.
In 1989 he joined the Pontifical Theological Academy. In the eighties, he was one of the professors who initiated the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Rome), where he was ordinary professor (now emeritus) of Fundamental Theology.
Some of his publications are: The mystery of Jesus Christ: a Christology and Soteriology textbook; Children of God in Christ. An introduction to a theology of supernatural participation.. Other volumes deal with theological and philosophical topics such as Loving with works: God and mankind; Nature, grace and glory, with a preface by Cardinal Ratzinger.
In 2013 a book interview by Rafael Serrano was published under the title. On God, the Church and the world. Among his works are two studies in philosophy: Marxism: theory and practice of a revolution; Voltaire: Treatise on tolerance.. He is also co-author of numerous monographs, and author of numerous theological and philosophical articles.
The Prelate is also, by virtue of his office, Grand Chancellor of the University of Navarra and the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. He is the fourth, after St. Josemaría (until 1975) -founder and first Chancellor of the University-, Blessed Álvaro del Portillo (1975-1994) and Javier Echevarría (1994-2016).
Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz has dedicated many years of study and work to theology. To the point that this activity has marked his way of being. He is a friend of reason, of logic and arguments, of clarity. He has published books and articles on God, the Church and the world, with that breadth of vision that a theological gaze provides.
He shows an open spirit in the debates: I have heard him say, for example, that «heresies are wrong solutions to real problems», thus encouraging to accept the existence of the problems, to understand those who detect them and to look for 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 how to listen. He has the patience of a good teacher, who every year has to start from scratch with students who arrive with little knowledge and many questions.
Much of the theological work of Fernando Ocáriz has been developed within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where he has been a consultor since 1986. For twenty years he worked closely with the then Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of that Congregation, on issues of dogmatics, Christology and ecclesiology. A work that requires science and also prudence. And, as usually happens to 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 teacher of university and Vatican consultant, Fernando Ocáriz has worked at the headquarters of Opus Dei, always in the field of theology, formation and catechesis. First with St. Josemaría, then with Álvaro del Portillo and finally with Javier Echevarría. He was the latter's closest collaborator for twenty-two years. In this sense it can be said that he knows well the reality of Opus Dei in the last half century.
In addition to these data of his profile, what is Fernando Ocáriz like? He has a serene character and an easy manner, friendly and smiling, he is not a friend of verbiage. From him you can learn something about the art of writing. He often says that in order to improve a text it is almost always best to shorten it, to prune the excess, repeated, imprecise words. Something similar has been written by the Italian writer Leonardo Sciascia.
It is not surprising to learn that the Congregation counted on his help for the publication of the Compendium of the Catechism, the Catholic Church, excellent synthesis of a much longer text. What is written in this article, he would have said it more briefly.
At his age, he still plays 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 García de Lomas, consultant and professor of the PUSC. Published in Nuestro Tiempo.
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