Pope Leo XIV increases lay appointments to International Theology Commission
Pope Leo XIV appointed new members to the International Theology Commission for its 2026–2031 term. Women’s representation rose from five to eight, including five laywomen; lay membership doubled from the previous term to eight. The 30-member commission advises the Holy See, particularly the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, on theological questions and publishes advisory documents. Pope Leo asked the new members and six returning members to focus on tradition and the enculturation of the faith. The commission brings together scholars from around the world across fields including biblical studies, patristics, dogmatics, and moral theology.
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Pope Leo XIV has appointed a new cohort to the International Theological Commission for 2026–2031, increasing both women’s representation and the number of lay members. The commission will focus during the new term on the meaning of tradition and the enculturation of the faith. 1 2
Announced on Oct. 19, the appointments bring the commission’s women members from five to eight. Five of the eight are laywomen, while lay members overall now number eight—twice the total in the previous term. 1 2
The newly appointed lay members are Teresa Hyeon Soon Choi of South Korea, Maria Teresa Fattori of Italy, Claudia Leal Luna of Chile, Sara Parvis of Scotland, Anne-Sophie Vivier-Muresan of France, Boyd Taylor Coolman of the United States, and Jan-Heiner Tück of Austria. Reinhard Huetter, a visiting professor at Duke Divinity School, returns for a second five-year term, bringing the lay-member total to eight. 1 2
Their academic backgrounds span areas including early Christianity, medieval and early modern Catholic history, dogmatic and Trinitarian theology, social morality, theology of religions, and the development of canon law. 1 2
Founded by Pope Paul VI in 1969, the 30-member commission assists the Holy See, particularly the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, with theological questions and advisory documents. It meets annually for a week and draws scholars from around the world, including Asia, Africa, and South America. 1 2
Leo has asked the new members and six returning members to address tradition and the enculturation of the faith during the term. The commission has published 33 documents with the approval of its president, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. 1 2
The article also notes that some appointees have publicly expressed views it describes as conflicting with established Church teaching, including on women’s ordination and the theology of salvation. 1 2
Theological authority, lay participation, and cultural adaptation in Catholic tradition
Catholic tradition holds together three realities that can be mistaken for rivals: the Church’s teaching authority, the active participation of the whole People of God, and the need to express the faith within changing cultures. The Magisterium serves the revealed faith rather than replacing it; laypeople are not merely passive recipients but share in receiving and living the faith; and cultural adaptation is legitimate when it gives the Gospel a fitting expression without altering its apostolic substance. These principles work together within the Church’s communion.
Catholic theology begins not with the authority of a particular theologian or cultural era, but with God’s revelation in Christ, transmitted through Scripture and apostolic Tradition. Scripture, Tradition, and the Church’s Magisterium are therefore connected: the Magisterium has the task of authentically interpreting the Word of God, but it serves the Word entrusted to the Church rather than standing above it.
That distinction helps explain why the Church’s teaching office is both authoritative and ministerial. It is authoritative because the Church needs a reliable way to preserve and interpret the apostolic faith; it is ministerial because its purpose is to safeguard and expound what it has received. The International Theological Commission describes Tradition as the Church’s living reception of the Word, sustained by the Holy Spirit and transmitted through the successors of the apostles.
Theological opinions and schools of thought do not all have the same authority as revealed truths or definitive doctrinal formulations. Catholic theologians may reason from different philosophical and theological approaches, and they may disagree about how best to explain a doctrine. That legitimate plurality does not mean that every interpretation is equally sound; nor does an argument that a view is mistaken automatically mean it is heretical.
The laity’s role is more than listening to instruction. The International Theological Commission says that the whole Church—laity together with hierarchy—bears responsibility for mediating the revelation contained in Scripture and apostolic Tradition through history. The faithful are “living and active subjects” in the Church, and their life of faith contributes to the articulation and development of Christian belief.
A key concept here is the sensus fidei: the supernatural sense of the faith given to believers. It is not simply a personal intuition or a poll of public opinion. Pope Benedict XVI, summarizing Lumen gentium, describes it as a characteristic of the whole body of the faithful when they manifest universal consent in matters of faith and morals, “from the bishops to the last of the faithful.” He also cautions that the authentic sensus fidei cannot be invoked as a device for contesting the Magisterium; it grows through participation in the Church’s life and responsible adherence to the deposit of faith.
This guards against two opposite errors. One is treating laypeople as if they had no meaningful part in discerning or handing on the faith. The other is treating a popular preference, a majority opinion, or a cultural trend as though it were automatically the voice of the Holy Spirit. The sensus fidei belongs to the whole Church in communion, not to opinion detached from the Church’s worship, teaching, and shared life.
Catholic tradition is living, not static. The International Theological Commission describes it as the continuing expression of the unity of faith in different languages and cultures, and says that it ceases to be Tradition if it “fossilises.” Growth in understanding is possible because the Church continues to receive and reflect on what has been handed down, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
But “Tradition” should not be confused with every custom or practice that has existed in the Church. The Commission distinguishes the apostolic Tradition from particular traditions associated with specific periods, regions, communities, religious orders, or local churches. Such traditions can express the faith fruitfully, but they can also be examined and corrected. The purpose of that examination is not to discard the apostolic faith, but to test whether a particular practice truly expresses it in its setting and to renew that practice where needed.
This distinction makes both continuity and reform intelligible. A local custom may be ancient and cherished without being an unchangeable element of the faith. Conversely, a new form of expression is not wrong simply because it is new. The question is whether it faithfully communicates the apostolic deposit or obscures it.
The Church’s universality requires the Gospel to be expressed across different cultures. The unity of faith does not require every culture to adopt identical customs, vocabulary, or intellectual frameworks. Tradition itself has been expressed in a variety of languages and cultures, while remaining accountable to its apostolic origin.
Cultural engagement therefore calls for discernment rather than either blanket rejection or uncritical acceptance. A scholarly account of Church-culture dialogue describes an approach that is neither defensive nor acquiescent: the Church can receive what is good in a culture while refusing what is incompatible with the Gospel. This is a theological proposal rather than a magisterial definition, but it captures the discernment implied by the Church’s task of evaluating particular traditions and cultural expressions in the light of the faith.
The test is not simply whether an idea or practice is familiar, popular, or culturally influential. It is whether an adaptation serves the Gospel while preserving what the Church has received. The Commission accordingly describes Tradition as involving Scripture, liturgy, catechesis, the lives and teaching of witnesses to the faith, practical love of God and neighbor, ecclesial ministry, and the Magisterium’s service to the Word. Cultural adaptation belongs within this larger life of the Church; it is not a license to detach Christian belief from its apostolic roots.
These themes correct one another. Teaching authority protects the Church’s unity in the faith, but it must remain service to revelation. Lay participation helps the faith take root and be lived throughout the Church, but it is not reducible to opinion or detached from communion. Cultural adaptation makes the Gospel intelligible in particular places and times, but it must remain open to criticism whenever a local or historical tradition distorts the faith.
The result is neither uniformity in every cultural expression nor unrestricted pluralism in doctrine. It is a unity grounded in the apostolic faith, lived by the whole People of God, and expressed in forms that can develop. Catholic tradition can therefore be faithful and adaptive at once: faithful because it receives rather than invents its foundation, and adaptive because that received faith must be understood, celebrated, and lived anew in every age and culture.