As a circuit judge, he would obey the letter and spirit of controlling doctrine, including the Supreme Court's abortion decisions.
The Roman Inquisition, an agency established in 1542 to combat heresy, was more successful in controlling doctrine and practice than similar bodies in those countries where Protestant princes had more power than the Roman Catholic Church.
Even after the Supreme Court lays down controlling doctrines in these areas, district and appellate courts retain substantial discretion to resolve the ordinary disputes that come before them.
"We're exiting two papacies characterized by the return to great discipline and the control of doctrines," Mr. Boff, 74, a former Franciscan priest, wrote during the pope's visit.
The powers of legislation, adjudication, enforcement, taxation, war-making (and the less familiar right of control of normative doctrine) are connected in such a way that a loss of one may thwart effective exercise of the rest; for example, legislation without interpretation and enforcement will not serve to regulate conduct.
As manager of more than 600 of the country's hospitals and more than a thousand elder and long-term care facilities, church doctrine controls the care patients receive.
The latest changes add a sentence saying that religious organizations, societies and associations have sole control over their doctrines and teachings on marriage and that organizations do not have to provide insurance and benefits to spouses of same-sex employees.
In 1925 he gained full control over what doctrines would be taught in Watch Tower Society publications, overruling the refusal by the five-man Editorial Committee to publish his article, "Birth of the Nation", which contained significant doctrinal changes.
But it has been extremely vocal on "religious liberty" - protesting the Obama administration's mandate that required Catholic schools and hospitals to carry insurance that provides birth control, forbidden by church doctrine, for free.
