Cardinal behind Vatican's same-sex blessing expresses regret for writing erotic story about Jesus, teenage girl
The prefect of the Vatican's doctrinal office recently suggested that he regrets writing a book in the 1990s that featured explicit reflections on "spirituality and sensuality" and recounted a supposed mystical erotic encounter between Jesus Christ and a teenage girl.
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, 61, who was made a cardinal by Pope Francis last September, said today he "certainly would not write" his 1998 book Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality, according to an interview with Crux.
The book is replete with explicit commentary that reflects on the differences between the male and female sexual response, describes divine love as "mystical orgasm," and suggests someone can engage in homosexual behavior "without being guilty."
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"Let us remember that God’s grace can coexist with weaknesses and even with sins, when there is a very strong conditioning," he writes in one chapter. "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."
In a chapter about "God in the Couple’s Orgasm," Fernández claimed there can be "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."
In another part of the book, Fernández explores the difference between male and female sexuality as it relates to pornography, noting that "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," he added.
Fernández also recounted a mystical encounter supposedly told to him by a 16-year-old girl who claimed to have watched Jesus bathe in the Sea of Galilee before she kissed his entire body while the Virgin Mary looked on approvingly.
Fernández, who has headed the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) since last summer and serves as a theological advisor to the pope, maintained to Crux that he was young when he wrote the book, though he was 36 when it was published.
Saying he intended it for young couples “who wanted to better understand the spiritual meaning of their relationships," Fernández said he "never allowed it to be reprinted" after pulling it from the presses after he realized it "could be misinterpreted."
“That’s why I don’t think it’s a good thing to spread it now," he said. "In fact, I have not authorized it and it is contrary to my will."
Fernández has come under scrutiny amid multiple declarations from the DDF signed off by him regarding contentious doctrinal issues that have caused an eruption of controversy among theologically conservative Catholic prelates worldwide.
Most recently, the "Fiducia supplicans" guidance, which was issued on Dec. 18 and permits priests to "bless couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples" without formal approval, prompted pushback from bishops, most of whom are in Africa and Eastern Europe.
Fernández issued a five-page clarification last week in the wake of the fallout, claiming bishops' conferences globally "cannot be interpreted as doctrinal opposition because the document is clear and definitive about marriage and sexuality."
