(OSV News) — The Vatican’s doctrinal leader informed OSV News that a contentious book he authored over 25 years ago is “inconvenient by modern standards …” and “did not possess the practicality” he had anticipated when he wrote it.
In an email dated Feb. 2, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the leader of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, addressed multiple inquiries from OSV News concerning “La pasión mística: espiritualidad y sensualidad” (“Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality“), released in 1998 when he was still serving as a priest in Argentina.
The DDF prefect informed OSV News that he acquired “the limited copies that were found in a few bookstores and disposed of them.”
The book presented itself as “a call to explore the realm of fervent love that resides in the core of our existence.”
Three chapters of the book specifically address orgasms, with the concluding chapter named “God and the couple’s orgasm.” Additionally, another section narrates the experience of a 16-year-old girl’s “intense meeting with Jesus,” where she touches him on the beach and kisses his lips.
Issued while then-Father Fernández was serving as a consultant to various Argentine bishops’ commissions, the 94-page book — published by Mexico’s Ediciones Dabar — examines what the writer refers to as “the divine pathways of mystical communion, culminating in a moment where we appear to approach the unattainable.”
Cardinal claims he set his book ablaze.
Soon after the initial Spanish text reappeared online in early January, two survivors of sexual abuse — who stressed that they were not blaming the cardinal for any misconduct — informed OSV News that they found the content, excerpts of which they had reviewed in translation, upsetting.
Clerical abuse survivor Faith Hakesley, writer of “Glimmers of Grace: Moments of Peace and Healing Following Sexual Abuse,” described the book as “utterly revolting.”
Teresa Pitt Green from Spirit Fire, a Christian restorative justice network collaborating with the Catholic Church, expressed to OSV News her concerns regarding Cardinal Fernández’s depiction of the unidentified adolescent in his publication, which she stated suggested “a degree of improper behavior that is quite alarming.”
OSV News provided Cardinal Fernández with a link to the complete text of its discussion with Hakesley and Pitt Green, inquiring about the cardinal’s particular views on their issues.
Writing in Spanish, he responded, “I concur that according to today’s norms it is a problematic book. In reality, I recognized this 25 years ago, shortly after its release, and requested that it be retracted because it appeared to me that it lacked the practicality I had anticipated, and that both very young or very elderly individuals might become perplexed.”
“Additionally, I purchased the limited copies found in several bookstores and subsequently destroyed them,” the cardinal noted. “This is precisely why I lament that the ultra-conservative factions who refuse to acknowledge me have utilized this book and disseminated it extensively. This is entirely against my wishes, and it serves no beneficial purpose. Presently, I would compose something entirely different.”
Cardinal Fernández stated that “the information regarding male and female orgasm was sourced from scientific literature. However, nowadays we favor having lay individuals conduct this research rather than priests.”
“Throughout the years, we have gained a lot of knowledge, particularly in recent decades,” he noted.
Concerning the unnamed 16-year-old female mentioned in his book, the cardinal remarked that “the account this individual shared with me, which I detailed in the book, was her own decision and I, naturally, had no desire to probe into it.”
He mentioned that “conversely, the individual’s age was fictitious, since this took place in a small parish in the rural region of the country, and I wished to ensure that no one could figure out the identity of the person.”
The cardinal refrained from addressing two topics referenced by OSV News concerning matters brought up by Hakesley and Pitt Green: the similarity of the book’s explicit content to the material utilized by spiritual-sexual abusers aiming to desensitize victims to violations of sexual boundaries, and whether the book — as Pitt Green pointed out — is likely to contravene the existing guidelines set by the U.S. bishops for preventing abuse (the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” referred to as the Dallas Charter).
