An influential Catholic organization is asking Pope Francis to dismiss a top Vatican official after sexually explicit books he wrote decades ago have resurfaced.
The John Paul II Academy for Human Life and Family released a statement calling on Pope Francis to dismiss Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez of Argentina from his position as Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The statement follows news reports that surfaced about sexually explicit, out-of-print books Fernandez wrote in the 1990s featuring reflections on “spirituality and sensuality.” Fernandez, made a cardinal by Pope Francis last September, is behind the Vatican’s recent document, Fiducia Supplicans, approving priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples.
In one of the books, Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality, Fernandez wrote about a supposed mystical erotic encounter between Jesus Christ and a teenage girl. Fernandez has since expressed regret for his earlier writings, suggesting he was young when they were published. Having pulled it from the presses, he said he would not authorize those writings to be republished.
The John Paul II Academy for Human Life categorizes itself as a lay organization that works to study and uphold Catholic Church teachings related to marriage and family. It consists of former members of the Pontifical Academy for Life, founded by St. John Paul II, who were dismissed by Pope Francis in 2016.
Thomas Ward, the president of the John Paul II Academy for Human Life and Family, expressed concern that “Cardinal Fernandez has limited himself to stating that he would not have published them today and that he has prohibited their reprinting.”
Ward described the books, whose titles translate in English to Heal Me With Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing and Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality, as “scandalous books of an erotic nature which border on pornography and which contain passages that clash with the traditional teaching of the Church.”
Specifically, one portion of the book Mystical Passion declares, “God’s grace can coexist with weaknesses and even with sins, when there is a very strong conditioning.”
“In those cases, the person can do things that are objectively sinful, without being guilty, and without losing the grace of God or the experience of his love,” Fernandez wrote in the book. Another passage from the book describes “a kind of fulfilling orgasm in our relationship with God, which does not imply so much physical alterations, but simply that God manages to touch the soul-corporeal center of pleasure.”
Additionally, the book explained that while “a woman […] is less attracted than a man to watching photos containing violent sexual scenes, orgies, images, etc,” “this does not mean that she feels less aroused by hardcore pornography, but rather that she enjoys and values this less.”
The book also contained a description of a mystical encounter recounted to him by a 16-year-old girl who claimed that she saw Jesus bathe in the Sea of Galilee before she kissed His entire body as the Virgin Mary looked on with approval.
“The sensical-mystical literature for which the cardinal has a particular propensity is one of the worst evils of our time to the extent that under the pretext of secularity, it, in reality, does nothing but justify the worst excesses of the sexual revolution that is deeply corrupting our society and leading our youth to the abyss,” Ward said.
“[T]he Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office published an instruction entitled De sensuali et de sensuali-mystico litterarum genere explicitly condemning mystical-sensual literature.”
Ward stated that the document, created during the pontificate of Pope Pius XI, who served from 1922-1939, warns against works that “embellish the pasture of a sickly sensuality with sacred things, mixing immodest loves with a certain piety towards God and an entirely false religious mysticism” and fail to ensure that readers are “caught in nets by the bait of these impure pages” and “perverted in their minds and depraved in their hearts.”
“These scandalous episodes show that Cardinal Manuel Victor Fernandez does not have the necessary minimum qualities required to fulfill the role of defender of the faith,” he concluded. “For this reason, this Academy formally asks the Holy Father to dismiss him and appoint in his place a competent theologian faithful to the moral teachings of the Church.”
While Ward’s statement did not mention “Fiducia Supplicans” by name, his call for Fernandez’s resignation comes as the leader of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith finds himself under the microscope for publishing the Dec. 18 declaration authorizing priests to bless same-sex couples.
The document declared that “a blessing may be imparted that not only has an ascending value but also involves the invocation of a blessing that descends from God upon those who — recognizing themselves to be destitute and in need of his help — do not claim a legitimation of their own status, but who beg that all that is true, good, and humanly valid in their lives and their relationships be enriched, healed, and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit.”
At the same time, the declaration stated that “one should neither provide for nor promote a ritual for the blessings of couples in an irregular situation.” While some Catholics considered progressive on LGBT issues praised “Fiducia Supplicans” as a “step forward,” others denounced it as “self-contradictory” due to Church teachings forbidding homosexuality and same-sex relationships.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
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