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In 1587, Pope Sixtus V establishes an office whose holder has an unusual mission. He is to say no. Whenever the Church wants to canonize someone, this lawyer must argue against it. His official title is Promotor Fidei, “Promoter of the Faith.” Ordinary people call him something else: Advocatus Diaboli, the devil’s advocate. The institution is an early and remarkably rigorous answer to what the Team Principle of Dissent describes: the more a team agrees, the more urgently it needs someone who disagrees.
An Office for Doubt
Situation
The officeholder was a canon lawyer appointed by the Church itself. Such an examiner is mentioned even earlier, in the canonization proceedings for Lawrence Justinian under Pope Leo X, who reigned from 1513 to 1521. The task was clearly defined. The Promotor Fidei examined the candidate’s life and the miracles attributed to them. He challenged the evidence and set out everything that weighed against canonization. Opposite him stood the Advocatus Dei, “God’s advocate,” who spoke for the candidate.
Connection to the team principle
In a canonization, approval runs especially high. People venerate the candidate, parishes and religious orders campaign for them, and anyone with objections quickly comes across as petty. It is precisely here that the Church built in dissent. It did not wait for someone to find the courage. It made dissent a duty.
Why the Role Takes the Pressure Off
Situation
Dissent was the job of the office, not the personal opinion of the officeholder. The lawyer did not have to wish the candidate ill. He might even venerate the candidate himself. In the proceedings, he still had to represent the other side. The institution existed in this form for almost 400 years. The term has long since passed into everyday language. It describes someone who takes the opposing position in order to test an idea.
Connection to the team principle
The role takes the personal element out of dissent. No one can accuse the devil’s advocate of being disloyal or difficult. He is doing what he was appointed to do. That is the strength of the institution: the dissenting voice does not depend on one person’s character. It is built into the process, and everyone knows it. For your team, this means dissent needs a fixed place and must not be left to chance.
The 1983 Reform
Situation
In 1983, Pope John Paul II overhauled the procedure with the apostolic constitution “Divinus perfectionis Magister.” The office’s power and role were sharply curtailed; the Encyclopædia Britannica writes that the Promotor Fidei carried little weight afterward. Since then, critical scrutiny has rested with a “Promotor iustitiae,” a promoter of justice. According to Wikipedia, John Paul II canonized 483 people during his pontificate from 1978 to 2005. Critical voices are still heard. In the beatification process for Mother Teresa, the author and avowed atheist Christopher Hitchens was questioned as a critic.
Connection to the team principle
Whether the reform increased the number of canonizations has not been established. The connection seems plausible, but it does not prove cause and effect. Something more modest can be said: the Church changed the form of dissent but did not do away with it entirely. In Christopher Hitchens, it heard someone who truly meant his criticism. That points to the limit of the old office.
What a Role Cannot Do
Situation
Research tempers expectations of role-played dissent. In a 2001 experiment, Charlan Nemeth, Keith Brown and John Rogers compared groups with a genuine dissenter and groups with a member who argued the opposing position only as an assigned role. Authentic dissent stimulated more and better solutions. The role-played devil’s advocate tended instead to make the others shore up their initial opinion.
Connection to the team principle
A role is no substitute for conviction. When everyone knows the objection is just part of the ritual, they listen differently. They check it off and feel even more certain afterward. The finding comes from an experiment with short-lived groups and cannot simply be transferred to a church procedure with files and witnesses. Still, it serves as a warning for your team: an appointed dissenter can be a start. Better still is someone who genuinely disagrees and is allowed to say so.
Key takeaways
Key Lessons
- Give dissent a fixed place in your process. For important decisions, set aside a dedicated agenda item: What are the arguments against it?
- Rotate the opposing role. That way no one becomes the permanent critic, and everyone practices putting objections into words.
- Don’t settle for the role alone. Actively look for people who genuinely think differently, and invite them in.
- Check whether your counterarguments still change anything. If a decision is never adjusted after an objection, the objection has become a ritual.
- Aim dissent where enthusiasm runs highest. That is where the least scrutiny happens.
Summary
For centuries, the Catholic Church tasked a lawyer with arguing against every canonization. The devil’s advocate made doubt a fixed part of the process and took the personal element out of it. Since 1983 the office has been sharply curtailed. At the same time, research shows the limit of the idea: role-played dissent is weaker than the real thing. For the Team Principle of Dissent, two things follow. The more a team agrees, the more urgently it needs someone who disagrees – ideally someone who actually means it.