Joseph Augustine Di Noia

Biography

Born in the borough of the Bronx, part of New York City, Di Noia was baptized at the Capuchin-run Parish of the Immaculate Conception on Gun Hill Road. By the time he reached school age, his family had moved from that parish to the Parish of St. Anthony on Richardson Avenue.

Di Noia became a member of the Eastern Province of St. Joseph, Di Noia graduated with a bachelor's degree from Providence College in 1965. He went on to study philosophy at the order's faculty for philosophical formation at St. Stephen's Priory in Dover, Massachusetts, and then pursued his theological formation at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. He was ordained on 4 June 1970, and taught theology at Providence College from 1971 to 1974. He earned a doctorate of theology from Yale University in 1980 with a dissertation entitled "Catholic Theology of Religions and Interreligious Dialogue". He later taught theology for 20 years at the Dominican House of Studies and was editor of the theological review The Thomist. He was a founding director of the Intercultural Forum of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington D.C.. He holds four theology degrees or certificates.

Prior to Di Noia's work at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, he served for seven years as executive director of the Secretariat for Doctrine and Pastoral Practices of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (now the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops).

In 1994, Di Noia was a signatory of the document Evangelicals and Catholics Together. In 1998 he received from the Dominican Order the title of Master of Sacred Theology. From 1997 to 2002 he was a member of the International Theological Commission. For the academic year beginning Fall 2001 and ending Spring 2002, he was visiting professor at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, New York.

Di Noia was appointed Under-Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on 4 April 2002. On 16 June 2009, he became Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and was named the Titular Archbishop of Oregon City.

On 11 July 2009, the day after his 66th birthday, Di Noia received episcopal consecration from William Levada, Donald Wuerl, and Thomas C. Kelly at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, intended to assist in the consecration of the new secretary of his congregation, but visa difficulties did not allow him to board the plane in Rome. Kelly, who was already planning on attending, was Di Noia's spiritual director while he was a seminarian at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington.

The titular see to which he was appointed is that of Oregon City. This was, as a residential see, among the oldest metropolitan sees in the United States, after Baltimore, the first diocese (and, later, the first archdiocese) in the United States. It became a metropolitan archdiocese in 1850, but the see was transferred to Portland in 1928. Oregon City became a titular archdiocese in 1996, but Di Noia is the first bishop to whom it has been assigned as his titular see.

Di Noia is also a member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas.

On 26 June 2012, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him to serve as Vice-President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, serving under his former superior, Cardinal William Levada, who was its President because he served as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The commission is charged with overseeing the talks between the Holy See and the followers of the late, formally excommunicated, traditionalist Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (principally, inclined members of the Society of Saint Pius X, now led by Bishop Bernard Fellay).

On Saturday, September 21, 2013, Pope Francis named him to his present position as Assistant (Adjunct) Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Books