Pope Francis has named among the members of the International Theological Commission (ITC) Brother Simon Francis Gaine, OP, a friar of the Dominican Province of England who currently teaches at the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome.
The ITC is composed of no more than 30 theologians coming from diverse schools and nations, who are nominated by the Holy Father for a term of five years after having been proposed by the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation and after consultation with the Bishops’ Conferences. The members of the Commission are noted for their knowledge and faithfulness to the Magisterium of the Church. As a member of the commission, Br. Francis is to assist the Holy See and primarily the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in examining doctrinal questions of major importance.
Brother Simon entered the Order in 1995 after completing doctoral studies at the University of Oxford. He has been for many years a Lector and Fellow at Blackfriars in Oxford, where he has taught fundamental and dogmatic theology. He has served the Province as prior of Blackfriars as well as Regent of Studies for the past eight years. He likewise served as Provincial Promoter of the Priestly Fraternities of St. Dominic and was instrumental in forming the inaugural group of diocesan priests in the Province.
He currently holds the Pinckaers Chair in Theological Anthropology and Ethics for the Angelicum’s Thomistic Institute. The Chair was named after the noted Dominican moral theologian, Servais-Théodore Pinckaers, OP, who was instrumental in the 20th century for recovering an approach to ethics characterized by the search for happiness, virtue theory, and an understanding of human freedom grounded in the notion of teleological flourishing. As Pinckaers Chair, Br. Simon promotes understanding and research pertaining to the human person, grounded in the theological and philosophical wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Among Brother Simon’s works are “Will There Be Free Will in Heaven? Freedom, Impeccability and Beatitude” (London and New York: T and T Clark, 2003) and “Did the Saviour See the Father? Christ, Salvation and the Vision of God” (London: Bloomsbury T and T Clark, 2015).
