The Holy See’s press service reported on Jan. 25 that Pope Francis had appointed nine new members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, including two women.
First of all, the Holy Father appointed the Spanish priest Andres Maria Garcia Serrano, currently a professor of New Testament at San Dámaso Ecclesiastical University in Madrid (Spain).
In addition, the Pope appointed p. Marcin Kowalski, Professor of the New Testament at the Catholic University of Lublin (Poland), at p. Blažej Štrba, professor at Comenius University of Bratislava, Badín (Slovakia) and Fr. Philippe Lefebvre, OP, Professor of Old Testament at the University of Friborg (Switzerland).
Likewise, three current professors of the Pontifical Biblical Institute of Rome will be members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission: Fr. Federico Giuntoli, professor of Old Testament; The P. Paul Béré, SI (Burkina Faso) and P. Henry Pattarumadathil, SI, (India).
Later, the Pope also appointed two lay teachers: Bénédicte Lemmelijn, Professor of Old Testament at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) and Maria Armida Nicolaci, Professor of Holy Scripture at the Pontifical Faculty of Theology of Sicily San Giovanni Evangelista, Palermo (Italy).
The Pontifical Biblical Commission is chaired by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who is assisted by a Vice President (Secretary).
Members of the Bible Commission, including the secretary, are appointed by the Holy Father for a renewable term of five years at the proposal of the Cardinal President.
The body known today as the Pontifical Biblical Commission was founded by Leo XIII with the apostolic letter “Vigilantiae studiique” of October 30, 1902.
At that time, the Holy Father assigned a threefold function to the new institution: to effectively promote Bible study among Catholics; to contrast with science means to misunderstand the question of the Holy Scriptures; study and highlight the issues discussed and emerging problems in the biblical field.