On July 1, hours after Pope Francis named Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández the new prefect of the Dicastery of the Doctrine for the Faith, Reuters published an article on the appointment entitled “Pope names Argentine bishop, author of kissing book, to top Vatican post.”
The “kissing book” is Sáname con tu boca: El arte de besar (Heal Me with Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing, 1995). An English translation is available online.
Heal Me with Your Mouth was published when Fernández was thirty-three, a decade after his ordination to the diaconate and nine years after his ordination to the priesthood in the Diocese of Río Cuarto in Argentina. Stating that “this book was not written so much from my own experience, but from the life of the people who kiss,” Fernández wrote that he hoped that the book’s pages would “help you kiss better, that they motivate you to set free the best of your being in a kiss” (p. 9). In the pages that followed, Fernández made manifold statements about kissing and offered theological reflections on kissing.
Of greater interest than Archbishop Fernández’s theological reflections on kissing is the future prefect’s foray, atypical for a cleric, into erotic poetry. Heal Me with Your Mouth includes four of Fernández’s own poems, two of them signed “Víctor M. Fernández,” and two of them signed “Tucho” (Fernández’s nickname). Five unsigned poems, which may or may not be Fernández’s, also appear in the book.
In 1960, fourteen years after his priestly ordination, the future Pope St. John Paul II wrote The Jeweler’s Shop, a three-act play on marriage — also an atypical literary foray for a prelate. That play surely merited the attention of journalists, scholars, and the faithful alike upon Karol Wojtyła’s subsequent election to the papacy.
Fernández’s erotic poems merit similar attention today, in view of his appointment as prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and elevation to the College of Cardinals. They deserve a close and attentive reading.
Fernández’s erotic poems: intended audience
Since his appointment as prefect for the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal-designate Fernández has defended Heal Me with Your Mouth — and by extension, the erotic poems he included in the book — and offered important information about the work’s intended audience.
“I was trying to reach the young people,” he recalled in a July 3 Facebook post. “Then it occurred to me to write a catechesis for them based on what the kiss signifies. I wrote this catechesis with the participation of a group of young people who gave me ideas, phrases, poems, etc.”
Two paragraphs later in his Facebook post, Archbishop Fernández referred to Heal Me with Your Mouth as “a catechesis for a youth group” (or “for a group of young people,” para un grupo juvenil) and as “a catechesis of a parish priest for novios from a youth group.” (Novios is an ambiguous term that comprises sweethearts, boyfriends and girlfriends, engaged couples, and newly married couples.)
Later, in an interview given for a July 17 Associated Press article, Cardinal-designate Fernández described Heal Me with Your Mouth as a “small youth catechism” (pequeño catecismo juvenil) and as “written in the manner of catechesis for adolescents” (catequesis para adolescentes).
Fernández has thus made clear that he published his erotic poems nor for a general adult readership, but as part of what he describes as a “youth catechism” for specific young people in his parish.
“As a youth, Víctor Manuel Fernández dreamed of being a poet, but life led him to work as a parish priest in a small Argentine locality where three decades ago he dedicated time to reflecting on kisses and the sensations they awaken,” the Associated Press article began.
From 1993 to 2000, Father Fernández, while holding various diocesan positions, was the first parish priest of Santa Teresita del Niño Jesús (Facebook, Instagram), a former chapel that Bishop Ramón Staffolani raised to the dignity of a parish. It is located in Río Cuarto, the diocesan see, in Argentina’s Córdoba Province. Far from being una pequeña localidad (“a small locality”), as the Associated Press reported, Río Cuarto is a city of over 150,000 with a university.
To help understand the intended audience of his erotic poems, it is helpful to turn to Google Maps and explore his parish and the area that surrounds it, even if the city has changed since Father Fernández’s pastorate. Within a block of the parish of Santa Teresita del Niño Jesús, one finds today an ice cream shop, a tire store, a paint store, and a liquor store. As one reads Cardinal-designate Fernández’s erotic poems, it is helpful to imagine specific young people, specific adolescents: people like the daughter of an ice cream shop owner, the son of a tire store salesman, the daughter of a janitor at a paint store, and the son of a worker at a liquor store.
Cardinal-designate Fernández’s statements about his intended readership shed light on other parts of the text as well.
For example, when Fernández wrote that he hoped that the book’s pages “help you kiss better, that they motivate you to set free the best of your being in a kiss” (p. 9), the “you” (te) he was addressing was not an unknown adult reader, but any of a number of young persons he knew in his parish.
When Fernández asserted that “a couple with much sex, much sexual satisfaction, but few kisses as a group, or with kisses that say nothing, are digging, with each sexual union, the tomb of love” (p. 21), he was not addressing an adult audience of readers, but young people he was catechizing.
And when Fernández wrote that “many prostitutes give themselves over to all type(s) of sexual games, but do not allow themselves to be kissed by anyone” (p. 55), he was passing along his knowledge not to a general readership, but to a specific group of young people he knew.
In the Associated Press article, Cardinal-designate Fernández appeared to modify his July 3 statement on Facebook that “I wrote this catechesis with the participation of a group of young people who gave me ideas, phrases, poems, etc.”
In the July 17 article, Cardinal-designate Fernández’s role was diminished from author (“I wrote this catechesis”) to redactor. The Associated Press reported that Heal Me with Your Mouth “was written in the manner of catechesis for adolescents, with the contributions that his young collaborators provided him, and the religious [i.e., Fernández] said that he improved ‘the expressions’ by contributing ‘a tiny bit of redaction.’”
If that is the case, then Fernández’s statements in his short youth catechism about the sexual satisfaction of couples and the sexual games of prostitutes may not have been written by him, but by the adolescents he was catechizing — young people like the daughter of an ice cream shop owner and the son of a tire store salesman. If that is the case, then Fernández simply made stylistic improvements, and cosmetic ones at that, to the young authors’ choice of words.
Fernández’s erotic poems: literary context
Fernández’s erotic poems appear in “Qué dicen los poetas” (“What the poets say”), the fourth section of Sáname con tu boca.
At the beginning of that section, Fernández quoted and commented upon poems about kissing by the classical Roman poet Catullus, the nineteenth-century Spanish author Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, the twentieth-century Spanish poet Miguel Hernández, the twentieth-century Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, and the now-deceased Uruguayan writer Mario Benedetti, who was alive when Fernández published his work.
“In order to continue motivating your kisses, I give you a few pieces of different poems, by various authors,” Father Fernández wrote next for the youth of his parish. “They all spoke about the kiss as if there were no more beautiful way to sing to love” (p. 37). Fernández then included selections of poems by
- María Monvel, a twentieth-century Chilean poet
- Mila Oyarzún, a twentieth-century Chilean poet
- Ben Suhayd (i.e., Ibn Shuhayd), an 11th-century Spanish-Arab poet
- Marwan Ben Abd [i.e., the Umayyad prince Marwán ibn Abderrahman (d. 1009)]
- J. Dicenta (i.e., Joaquín Dicenta), a Spanish journalist and poet who wrote at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries
- the Nicaraguan writer Rubén Darío, a contemporary of Dicenta
- M. Ugarte (i.e., Manuel Ugarte), a twentieth-century Argentine writer
- R. Pérez de Ayala (i.e, Ramón Pérez de Ayala), a twentieth-century Spanish writer
- Delmira Agustini, an early twentieth-century Uruguayan writer
- J. Carrera (i.e., Jorge Carrera Andrade), a twentieth-century Ecuadorian poet
- Homero Aridjis, a contemporary Mexican poet
- Víctor M. Fernández (i.e., himself)
- Tomás Segovia, a now-deceased Mexican poet who was alive when Fernández published Heal Me with Your Mouth
Even while acknowledging the possibility that Fernández was relying on inaccurate or alternative editions of the authors’ poems, one can assert with confidence that Fernández did not always quote these poets accurately. While many of Fernández’s changes were minor and can be attributed to carelessness, at other times Fernández showed a surprising lack of respect for the integrity of the texts, repeatedly splicing together sections of different lines and even different parts of poems to form new lines, and going so far as to alter the poets’ words.
For example, Fernández, in quoting Delmira Agustini’s “Otra Estirpe” [from her 1913 work Los cálices vacíos (The Empty Chalices)], appears to have altered the original text in several places (cf. p. 39). Agustini invoked Eros, the blind Father (“Eros yo quiero guiarte, Padre ciego”). Fernández, however, quoted Agustini as invoking the God of love (“Dios del amor”) — a phrase that appears nowhere in Agustini’s text and makes the Uruguayan poet sound like a priest praying at Mass.
In striving to “continue motivating” the kisses of the adolescents of the parish of Santa Teresita del Niño Jesús by quoting poets who “spoke about the kiss as if there were no more beautiful way to sing to love,” Fernández manifested an interest in suggestive and even prurient poems. As he compiled his short youth catechism, the future prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith selected excerpts from Monvel’s “En un cuarto de hotel” (“In a Hotel Room”), Marwán’s “La hermosa en la orgía” (“The Beautiful Woman in the Orgy”), Dicenta’s “Lujuria” (“Lust”), and Aridjis’s Perséfone (Persephone), a poem set in “a raucous brothel, where customers and prostitutes alike crazily paw and grab one another and copulate in frenzy” (review in Publishers Weekly).
The Bruja (Witch) Poem
In this context, Fernández’s first erotic poem appeared (p. 40). At least two translations of this poem have already been published (1, 2); here is another. (The three dots in the third stanza — as in subsequent poems — are not an ellipsis that signifies the omission of text; rather, they appeared in Fernández’s original text.)
You, clueless,*
do not realize it.
Your lips murder.
And your eyes, distracted,
do not notice,
the eyes, wandering,
that are detained
before the divine flesh
of your mouth.
And you, pensive, pass
with that open mouth
while the crazy ones, the delirious,
stay behind.Come down, dear,
before I wake you
all of a sudden —
some desperate man
with a terrible hickey.How was God
so ruthless
as to give you that mouth. . .
It is impossible to resist,
witch,
hide it (Víctor M. Fernández).*Distracted, confused
In this poem, the poet Víctor M. Fernández contemplates the mouth and lips of a woman with whom he has been in the throes of passion: indeed, she has given him a “terrible hickey” before she fell asleep.
The woman is “clueless” — in the sense of distracted or confused, Fernández tells us — about her own lips’ power. Her eyes look elsewhere, perhaps as she drifts off to sleep. But he is awake, and he longs for her to be awake again.
Some words are ambiguous. Who, or what, are the “crazy ones” in the first stanza? Are they her delirious eyes, which crazily do not fix upon her own lips? Or are they crazy men, who are too delirious to notice her beauty?
In the last stanza, Fernández addresses the woman as a bruja, whose meaning has been a point of controversy: the word typically means “witch, sorceress,” but can also mean “b—-.” The online English translation rendered bruja as the latter; Fernández insisted he had been mistranslated.
The Roman poet Catullus, whom Fernández quoted earlier in Heal Me with Your Mouth, repeatedly showed both infatuation and contempt toward Lesbia, the pseudonym of the woman with whom he was having an affair. An erotic poet who followed in Catullus’ footsteps could well have intended bruja to mean “b—-.”
But the word’s context in the poem strongly supports Fernández’s contention that he was simply addressing the woman as a witch. Far from being contemptuous toward her, Fernández is besotten, and he sees himself as powerless in the face of the spell she has cast over him.
As Adam, after he ate of the forbidden fruit, blamed God for giving him Eve to be his companion, so Fernández blames God for creating the mouth that he finds impossible to resist. Indeed, the priest-poet calls God despiadado — merciless, ruthless, cutthroat, pitiless, cold-blooded, savage — for doing so.
The Juego Peligroso (Dangerous Game) Poem
Having selected writings from thirteen poets, including himself, who could “continue motivating your kisses” and who “all spoke about the kiss as if there were no more beautiful way to sing to love,” the future prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith then sounded a different tone.
“But I invite you also to read stanzas where it seems that a kiss is a font of sorrow,” he continued, as he addressed the young people he was catechizing in his parish. “When it feels that a kiss is not the reflection of a love strong, sincere, respectful, and sound; when the other takes ownership of us without pity. Then, the kiss is converted into a hidden martyrdom or into the worst lie. Therefore, even if it is lived as a necessity, or as a psychological unloading, it is not a true affective satisfaction” (p. 41).
In this context, Fernández chose selections of poems from four twentieth-century poets: the Spanish poet Vicente Aleixandre, the Uruguayan poet Juana de Ibarbourou, J. Gil de Biedma (i.e, the Spanish poet Jaime Gil de Biedma), Víctor M. Fernández (i.e., himself), and Tucho (i.e., himself). Two of them (Aleixandre and Gil de Biedma) are known for their homoerotic verses.
Fernández’s next erotic poem has two stanzas (p. 43). One translation has already been published; here is another.
It makes an impression on me,
this deceitful mix
of love and disappointment,
of desire and refusal,
of hope and of fear.
And also this dream
that I do not desire to fulfill.To wish with all one’s soul
and to discover all of a sudden
that now I do not desire so much,
that now I am not able
to bear the burden
of an immense passion,
that infinite risk,
that deadly leap,
the dangerous game
that begins on your lips
and afterwards
who knows… (Víctor M. Fernández).
In this poem, the poet Víctor M. Fernández describes his experience of a mixture of love and disappointment, desire and rejection, hope and fear — and this mixture makes an impression on him. At first, one wonders: is he describing his own tangled emotions, or the emotions of the woman in the poem, or both?
Because the mix is “deceitful,” one suspects that he feels deceived by the woman’s emotions, rather than by his own. Perhaps the refusal is hers, even if the love, disappointment, desire, hope, and fear are his. Perhaps, on the other hand, he wishes to reject her, and he finds himself surprised and deceived by the storm of emotions in his own soul. (But if he wishes to reject her, why does he also experience hope and fear — presumably the hope that she will love him in return, and the fear that she will not?)
In the second stanza, Fernández explains that he has desired the woman with all his soul and then suddenly no longer desires her so much. He no longer can bear the weight of the immense passion that begins on her lips. On the woman’s lips, an infinite risk, a deadly leap, a dangerous game all begin.
Fernández helps his readers interpret this poem by telling us that the poem is among five in which “it seems that a kiss is a font of sorrow,” “when the other takes ownership of us without pity. Then, the kiss is converted into a hidden martyrdom or into the worst lie. Therefore, even if it is lived as a necessity, or as a psychological unloading, it is not a true affective satisfaction.”
The infinite risk, the deadly leap, the dangerous game, it seems, is that if Fernández succumbs to the “necessity” of kissing her despite his wavering desire, she will take ownership of him. He will become a hidden martyr, his spirit crushed by an immense passion. As in the earlier bruja poem, Fernández confesses that he is almost powerless before the woman’s lips.
Fernández thought highly enough of this poem to republish it seven years later, with an additional stanza, in ¿Por qué no termino de sanarme? (Why Don’t I Finish Healing Myself?, 2002, p. 13); in that work, he entitled the poem “Amor sin rumbo” (“Love without Direction”).
Neither Heal Me with Your Mouth nor ¿Por qué no termino de sanarme? was included in the Holy See Press Office’s list of the prefect’s works.
The Loba (She-Wolf) Poem
Immediately after the juego peligroso poem, a three-stanza poem appears (p. 44). One translation has already been published; here is another.
You ask me
what happens to my skin
when I look at you,
and to my lips,
which tremble like crazy men.
Above all, love happens to my lips,
which do not quiet down,
which do not calm down —
love,
which suffocates.Fear–
that happens.
The dread of touching you
another time
with my mouth,
and to feel that I die.
Because it is terrible,
crazy,
to become weak again
in a sacred kiss,
knowing that it is over,
that it ends,
that it is not eternal–
that blessed relief,
that one’s lukewarm craziness
will die…Therefore, you should not ask
what is happening to my mouth.
Kill me once and for all
with the next kiss,
drain me of blood, completely,
she-wolf,
give me back peace
without pity (Tucho).
In this poem, Tucho addresses a loba: a word that means she-wolf, fox (attractive woman), b—-, slut, or prostitute, much as lupa, the Latin word from which it is derived, means prostitute when it refers to a woman. Philologist Carmen Fernández Martín of the University of Cádiz notes that loba also “refers to a woman devouring a man, i.e. a man-eater, exactly as a wolf does with a lamb” (“Comparing Sexist Expressions in English and Spanish,” ES: Revista de filología inglesa, 2011, p. 82).
Earlier in Heal Me with Your Mouth, Fernández quoted from Catullus’ fifth poem. The loba poem evokes two other poems that the Roman poet wrote about kissing: the “you ask” at the beginning of Tucho’s poem recalls the beginning of Catullus 7, and the loba at the conclusion of the poem recalls the lupa of Catullus 99. In view of Fernández’s literary knowledge, these similarities could have been conscious or unconscious.
Whether the loba is a “man-eater,” a prostitute, or another meaning of the word, Tucho has touched her previously with his mouth. She looks at him, and he looks at her; she sees his skin and lips trembling, and she asks him what is happening (or “what is the matter”).
What is happening, what is the matter, is that Tucho is overcome by love and fear: a love that he describes as suffocating, a fear that he will die if he touches her again with his mouth. He explains that “it is terrible, crazy, to become weak again in a sacred kiss,” when he knows that the liaison is temporary and that the kiss merely provides “blessed relief” from the tibia locura — the lukewarm craziness (or indifferent madness) — that he truly senses towards her.
Why, the reader wonders, does the priest-poet invest his encounter with the she-wolf in sacral language? Why does he describe the act of kissing the she-wolf as sagrado, sacred? Why does he describe the inner relief that follows as bendito, blessed?
Fernández appears just as powerless in the presence of the she-wolf in this poem as was in the presence of the bruja and the woman in his preceding poems. But then the third stanza takes an unexpected and violent turn: “Drain me of blood, completely, / she-wolf, / give me back peace / without pity.”
It is as if Tucho wishes to become the victim of a bloody sacrifice, a lamb pitilessly slain by the she-wolf. If Tucho is the sacrificial victim, then the loba is the sacrificial priestess; and his intention in offering himself to her as her sacrificial victim is not atonement or reconciliation, but the regaining of his own inner peace.
Fernández has already told his readers that the poem is among five poems in which “it seems that a kiss is a font of sorrow,” “when the other takes ownership of us without pity. Then, the kiss is converted into a hidden martyrdom or into the worst lie. Therefore, even if it is lived as a necessity, or as a psychological unloading, it is not a true affective satisfaction.”
Even if Tucho has achieved peace by becoming a sacrifice, the young people of the parish of Santa Teresita del Niño Jesús for whom he published this poem could thus understand that the kiss of Tucho and the she-wolf, even though “sacred,” and the relief that followed, even though “blessed,” do not constitute “true affective satisfaction.”
The Misterio Infinito en tu Piel (Infinite Mystery in Your Skin) Poem
Following the loba poem, Fernández wrote a sentence fragment: “Though we are not able to stop saying that the kiss always makes us vulnerable” (p. 45) — apparently to qualify what he has earlier said about certain kisses being a font of sorrow. He added, “Because in order to be authentic, the kiss demands a commitment to the other and a risk; it is much more than a contact of the flesh.”
To illustrate his point, Fernández offered his last signed poem (p. 45). One translation has already been published; here is another.
I seek the simple consolation
of this light breeze.
In it, I have faith,
I trust in its caress.
There are no treacheries, nor deceit.
It aspires to nothing.
It only encounters
my skin
and it is enough.Before it, I am able
to expose myself completely,
to fling myself, secure,
and to let it pass over me.
Nothing more.But it does not have what your lips give me.
That pleasant fragrance,
the infinite mystery
which hides in your skin.
That abyss which I fear —
but that flame,
and that trembling
which I hope for… (Tucho).
In contrast to the “commitment to the other” and the “risk” involved in the act of kissing the woman in this poem, Tucho feels secure in the gentle presence of a light breeze and seeks “simple consolation” from it. He has faith in the breeze, he trusts in its caress, and he finds satisfaction as it meets his skin.
The breeze, he tells us, has “no treacheries, nor deceit” — presumably unlike the woman. The breeze “aspires to nothing” — again, presumably unlike the woman. He feels he can expose himself completely to the breeze, throw or fling himself at the breeze, and let it pass over him.
In his encounter with the breeze, Tucho finds the consolation for which he longs: “it is enough … nothing more.” There is no commitment, no risk.
And yet, Tucho tells the woman, the breeze does not have what her lips can give him. Nor does the breeze have the fragrance that the woman’s skin has. Turning again to sacral language — indeed, using language theologians reserve for God Himself — the priest-poet speaks to the woman about the “infinite mystery” in her skin.
The act of kissing the woman carries a “risk”: Tucho fears an abyss, but hopes for flame and trembling. The flame for which he hopes is presumably the flame of passion; the trembling for which he hopes recalls the trembling of his lips in the first stanza of the loba poem.
What is the abyss that he fears, but is willing to risk for the sake of the flame and the trembling? The abyss is surely not hell. Is it perhaps the utter loss of control to which he has alluded in the other poems?
In this poem, as in his previous poems, the priest-poet, absorbed in his own emotions, is remarkably unconcerned about the woman’s hopes, concerns, fears, and desires. Fernández’s eros is an eros without agape, an eros bereft of caritas.
Unsigned Poems and Artwork
In addition to the other material in his short youth catechism for young people in his parish, Fernández included five poems that he attributed to no one.
The poems appear on pages 13-14, 25, 27, 54, and 78 of Sáname con tu boca and begin with the words “En un puro presente,” “No te detengas más,” “Tu boco canta,” “Este llamado interior,” and “Despacito, no te apures.” In the online English translation, these poems begin with the words “In a pure present,” “Don’t hold back,” “Your mouth sings,” “This inner calling,” and “Slowly, don’t rush.”
The first of these poems is almost identical to the final six lines of Viviana Degano’s undated “Ante Vos, Este Presente.” “En un puro presente” thus presents a literary mystery:
- Did Fernández quote from Degano’s work with her permission, and simply fail to acknowledge her as the author?
- Did Fernández commit plagiarism and quote Degano’s work without her permission?
- On the other hand, was Fernández, and not Degano, the original author of the work? If so, did Delgano expand upon Fernández’s text with or without his permission?
There is no similar evidence that “Don’t hold back,” “Your mouth sings,” “This inner calling,” and “Slowly, don’t rush” were written by others.
The evidence for Fernández’s authorship is perhaps strongest in the case of “Your mouth sings” (“Tu boca canta”). He republished the poem in expanded form in ¿Por qué no termino de sanarme? (2002, p. 36). There, he gave the poem the title “Beso” (“Kiss”). Far from being a matter of passing interest to Fernández in 1995, kissing continued to be of concern to the theologian into the twenty-first century.
Sáname con tu boca: El arte de besar includes thirty-three photographs. (The online English translation has far fewer.) Not a single image was published with attribution.
The majority of the images in Sáname con tu boca are photographs of statues. Fernández appears to be particularly fond of a statue of Cupid and Psyche: twenty of the photographs are headshots of Cupid and Psyche kissing, and another two are photographs that include more of the statue. The statue appears to be L’Amour et Psyché à demi couchée (1787-93) by the Neoclassical Italian sculptor Antonio Canova.
Sáname con tu boca also includes images of statues of nude couples making love (pp. 10, 18), a black-and-white image of The Kiss (1907-08) by the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, an odd cartoon image (p. 53), and images of babies kissing, children kissing, young lovers kissing, rabbits kissing, and Pope St. John Paul II kissing a baby. Readers with knowledge of the provenance of the statues of the nude couples making love are invited to share their knowledge in the comments section.
Implications
Pope Francis has entrusted the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, led by its prefect, with the crucial task of helping “the Roman Pontiff and the Bishops to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world by promoting and safeguarding the integrity of Catholic teaching on faith and morals” (Praedicate Evangelium, Art. 69). Reporting to the prefect, and subordinate to him, are the staff of the dicastery’s doctrinal section and the disciplinary section, the latter of which addresses the sexual abuse of minors and other serious canonical crimes committed by clerics. In his July 1 letter to Archbishop Fernández, Pope Francis wrote that the disciplinary section is composed of “very competent professionals.”
Members of the faithful who wish to gain a sense of how Cardinal-designate Fernández will address doctrinal questions have only to explore his prolific writings, from the works included in the list of the prefect’s works published by the Holy See Press Office, to works such as Sáname con tu boca and ¿Por qué no termino de sanarme? that were omitted from the list.
Members of the faithful who wish to gain a sense of how Cardinal-designate Fernández will address the sexual abuse of minors have only to consider how he addressed abuse allegations against Father Eduardo Lorenzo when Fernández was archbishop of La Plata (Argentina).
In a letter published by El Día in February 2019, Archbishop Fernández questioned the motives of parents and others who raised concerns about Father Lorenzo, a priest who had been accused of sexual abuse in 2008. The local prosecutor had determined at the time that there was insufficient evidence to press charges against the priest; still, parents raised concerns a decade later about Fernández’s decision to transfer Lorenzo to a parish with a school.
In July 2019, Archbishop Fernández learned of two new abuse allegations against Father Lorenzo; one man, Julian Bartoli, offered public testimony. Despite the new allegations, Archbishop Fernández permitted Father Lorenzo to remain as pastor of his parish for an additional four months, until November 2019, when the priest took a leave of absence, according to a timeline of the case published by BishopAccountability.org.
Juan Pablo Gallego, the attorney for the victims, recently told the Associated Press that Archbishop Fernández “worked quickly” to “interfere in the judicial investigation” into the allegations against Lorenzo, who committed suicide in December 2019.
Looking back on how he addressed the allegations, Cardinal-designate Fernández appeared to admit mistakes in a July 9 interview with the Associated Press, but clarified in a July 17 interview with The Pillar that “I did not admit ‘errors,’ because I followed the procedures that were in force at that time, and always in consultation with the dicastery. What I admitted is having acted ‘insufficiently.’” (It is hard to imagine the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith directed Archbishop Fernández to question the motives of parishioners concerned about sexual abuse.)
While Cardinal-designate Fernández’s published works and the manner in which he handled abuse allegations against Father Lorenzo offer insight into how the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith might address doctrinal and disciplinary concerns under Fernández’s leadership, his erotic poems have additional implications.
For the past two decades, parish volunteers in many places have received regular, and even monthly, in-person and virtual training designed to help prevent the sexual abuse of minors.
As part of this formation, thousands of volunteers have been trained to become alert to certain warning signs, including the sharing of certain materials and the content of certain conversations with young people–red flags that would make parish volunteers feel duty bound to report a priest to the bishop or another diocesan official, even absent any suspicion that the priest has committed sexual abuse.
If a parish priest published erotic poems for the youth he was catechizing, discussed the sexual games of prostitutes with the parish’s adolescents, incorporated into his youth catechesis photographs of statues of nude couples making love, or published a small youth catechism for the purpose of helping his young parishioners become better kissers, thousands of volunteers would sense that something was amiss and would feel duty bound to report the priest to his bishop.
With the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors now part of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (Praedicate Evangelium, Art. 78), Archbishop Fernández’s work as the dicastery’s prefect and his elevation to the College of Cardinals suggest that nothing is really amiss with these actions, and thus call such abuse-prevention training into question.
If it is acceptable for the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to publish his own erotic poems as part of catechesis for young people at the parish of Santa Teresita del Niño Jesús in Río Cuarto, Argentina, why should any of the world’s other 407,000 priests feel constrained from doing so?
If a prelate’s forthright admission that he published his erotic poems as catechesis for his parish’s adolescents is not a barrier to elevation to the College of Cardinals, why should any priest face the slightest correction from his bishop for similar actions?
The appointment of Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández as prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith is thus an important moment in the history of the Church’s response to the sexual abuse of minors. Whether members of the College of Cardinals and the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors react with silent acquiescence or with principled concern to what Fernández describes as his “short youth catechism” will be a matter of interest to the faithful in the weeks and months ahead, and to historians in the years and decades to come.
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#1. Fernandez’ obsession with kissing and its eroticism is nothing short of a perversion.
#2. Can we now petition this Vatican to charge Fernandez with writing an exegesis on the works of Catullus for its contribution to progressive theological thinking? Or how about something from him on Moll Flanders?
You heal me with your analysis.
He-Wolf
You give me back my peace.
Writing without mercy. (God’s Fool)
💋
From my seat in the peanut gallery – This guy gives me the creeps, and the fact that he will soon be a Cardinal scares the you-know-what out of me.
But
We’ll get through this.
Okay, well, umm, you guys hear about that soccer game last night?
It was sad seeing those normal Argentinian seminarians beat the He!! out of the top French TLM guys. I hated to see Argentina score with “ la mano de Dios.” Ah well, I’m sure they will find a way to forgive themselves the next day.
At the Synod, I wonder if anyone will be on Cardinal Müller’s team?
Thank you SO much, dear ‘John Smith’ for this thorough exposé of a disturbed & dangerous man, whose ungodly works would alarm even a hardened prison warder.
Matthew 7:15 – “Beware of false prophets (that is lying teachers of religion) who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will be able to tell them by their fruits.”
How could the present occupant of Saint Peter’s Chair have elevated this worldly, demonically obsessed person to a position of honor and influence in our Church?
What other signs would anyone need to recognize the authentically prophesized ‘man of sin’? These are revelational times, indeed.
Keep watching & praying all you faithful followers of our LORD Jesus Christ.
Ever seeking obedience to the Apostles’ witness; love & blessings from marty
Impressive work. Has anyone tried to contact Viviana Degano?
This is a shameless attack on the new Prefect by a preying vulture making a big deal and unnecessarily connecting the young priest’s pastoral writings with the archbishop’s theological qualifications and competence to take the helm of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith. This is a case of making a mountain out of a molehill with the aim of questioning Pope Francis’ decision in choosing the theologian to lead the Vatican department. Papal bashers like this writer will do anything to tarnish the papacy of Francis. But here, this writer is not good enough. He should take a lesson from Bishop Joseph Strickland.
How is talking about this pervert’s “poetry” an attack on him? The guy is a well known fruitcake, theologically speaking. He is not qualified. The only reason he is being put in the DDF is because he is a homosexualist.
I would agree. Attacks concerning inconsequential matters are uncharitable. However, this used to be the highest office in the Church. And if Fernandez’ writings are now “too old” to merit concern, which one might assert, why does the Vatican omit them from among his publications and does Fernandez defend them so? They do this because the “old” writings and new appointment deserve rebuke. Furthermore, Fernandez’ grave errors in judgment and failure to better understand the faith resurface in infamous works like Amoris Laetitia’s Chptr 8, a chapter on divorce and Holy Communion which Fernandez is widely believed to have written.
Fr. Gerald Murray offered this reflection yesterday at “The Catholic Thing”:
“Dietrich von Hildebrand published The Devastated Vineyard in 1973, a pointed analysis of the troubled state of the Church fifty years ago. He asked, “how should we respond in the present situation when the vineyard of the Lord is devastated?” His response is instructive: “[I]t would be thoroughly false to say: since God allows it, it must be according to His will, and so we have nothing to do but say, ‘Thy will be done,’ even if this devastation breaks our heart.”
Hildebrand continued:
As St. Paul says, God allows these evils in order to test us. But it is a deadly and radically false notion to think that, because God allows heresies to be readily spread, we should not fight against them but should go along with them in a spirit of resignation. This is a false interpretation of resignation to God’s will. The devastation of the vineyard of the Lord should instead fill us with the deepest pain, and mobilize us for the fight, to be fought with all legitimate means, against everything which is evil and offensive to God, against all heresies.” See article titled: “The Worsening Crisis”
Paul Nathan: Discussing the words and writing of the new Prefect is appropriate. The fact that you see the discussion of the Prefect’s published works as an “attack” on Francis just shows how inappropriate his writings are. Moreover, the man was 33 years old when he wrote this stuff. He was a full grown man! It might be “young” for a priest, but most men at that age are married, raising kids, leading in their jobs, starting businesses or in my case was serving and leading as an officer in the Army. Most of us know that it’s totally inappropriate (to say the least) to write kissing guides/erotic poetry for teens. The new prefect should be held to account.
Amen! These neo-ultramontanes and fellow travelers seem to see just about any discussion of Pope Francis’ style, decisions, or writings as tantamount to “attacks” on his papacy. Yet, they never address the substance of any of their critics. It might be comical if the salvation of souls were not at stake.
My thoughts exactly.
Theological qualifications? What evidence do you see that his current capacity for idiotic statements are significantly differnt from those of his youthful past?
No, what is really shameless, is this man is a priest and archbishop soon to be Cardinal who will make serious decisions about sexual abuse cases around the world! That is what is shameless. It is shameless that Francis has a history of promoting and surrounding himself with people who abused people created in God’s image and likeness. He has yet to punish Fr. Rupnik who raped over 20 sisters! Sisters who could be our sisters, our daughter’s! If only Francis had some shame! Open your eyes! Actions speak louder than words, and Francis’ actions speak very loudly on many issues, from abortion, to homosexuality, to abuse, to the Catholic Faith. Forget his words. It’s his actions that are disturbing. His actions are indefensible!
The Pope is concerned with much weightier matters, such as crushing the TLM and appeasing China.
‘Pope’ signifies ‘Father’; and Jesus taught us to distinguish the real from the false by their fruit. Are Catholics a fatherless family right now?
Dr. Rice,
The short answer is, yes. I remember a story about a couple who were once picking apples. Pope Francis has not yet finished picking the fruit. By the time this papacy comes to an end, we shall not recognize our Church.
It all comes down to Christ’s crucifixion with the good thief on his right and the bad thief on his left (Love the irony of that). He forgives the good thief sins but not the “sin” itself. The bad thief not only wants forgiveness for his sin but also the “sin” itself. He asks Christ to step down from the cross to serve him and all sinners. He wants it both ways.
You can’t have it both ways. You don’t get to write books of erotic poetry for children no less and become the new Dicastery of the Doctrine for the Faith.
But I’m just a simple-minded 2nd generation Irishman who takes a man at his word. The good archbishop is as he has defined himself. Not a man of Faith.
Projection and darkness…pray for the eyes to see and ears to hear and the soul to discern the evil fruits…because in the Light who Judges the living and dead it is too late and His Logic of Eternal armoris Laetitia shall not save nor heal but otherwise.
Well commented, dear ‘Padre Peter’.
Saint James is of that mind: “. . God cannot be tempted by evil and God does not tempt anyone. We are tempted by our own desire, being lured & enticed by it, then, when the desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. Do not be deceived, my beloveds.” (see James 1)
This is the most serious reality every good Catholic understands but seems hidden from such devil-blindfolded, spiritual babies as have somehow risen to media prominent ‘leadership’ in the Church at this time. May God preserve us.
Ever following The Lamb of God; love & blessings from marty
I remind you that there was an open investigation, a file on Fernandez who mysteriously disappeared when he was promoted!
It is entirely unseemly and vulgar to the highest degree for a priest to offer this as ‘catechesis’. It is nothing of the sort. It is self- indulgent erotica and bad poetry.
I really wish people would stop saying this guy was young when he wrote this garbage or this is a part of his youthful past. He was a full grown man in his 30’s. Only in the Church can an ordained, adult man with university degrees and in a leadership position be seen as young.
Yeah – at 33, no only had Alexander the Great conquered a hefty chunk of the known world, he had been dead for a year.
Not even to mention Our Lord’s age…
With the Fernandez appointment, Pope Francis has shot himself in the foot. Almost makes us wonder what “walking together” is all about…
He has indeed, although it’s simply the latest such wound. No doubt there will be many more.
Given how quickly he restored Rupnik, and then lied about it, I know of no reason to believe that he does not take continuous pleasure in insulting anyone who hopes for sober decision making in whom he elevates nor does he care about negative reactions.
I would encourage the courageous, well-educated, highly perceptive, and fervently Catholic “John Smith” to write a companion article similar to this one about the fellow Argentinian who named Fernandez a cardinal and appointed him as prefect of the Vatican dicastery charged with the defense and protection of the Faith.
After reading these selections I think there’s a reason we hadn’t heard of him being recognized as a poet. It’s pretty dreadful stuff, even disregarding the subject matter.
You assume Fernandez is talking about women in his poetry. He is not, he is talking about his gay lovers. The whole book is thinly disguised homosexual longing. No straight man writes such things. They are foreign to all straight men. This is a homosexual talking about his deep longings.
“Cardinal-Designate”, or “Cardinal-Degenerate”?
That’s exactly what I too, feel. Heterosexual men neither talk nor write about women in this way.
If this man is not a homosexual then nobody is.
Any sensible parent would not allow him to be in the same room as their children.
His elevation is deeply disturbing. Most disturbing is that he is promoted by the Pope. Francis should not count on any credibility whatsoever after his appointments of a clearly perverted Bishop. And as we have seen it is not the first time.
A faithful Catholic observation, dear Cecilia.
Maybe the ‘Lilac Mafia’ cancer has metastased higher up than any want to admit ?
If so, the radical question faced by the whole Church is: “In obedience to The Apostolic witness, how do we isolate the cancerous tissues before they invade the whole Body . . ?”
Logically, that’s the FIRST question a contemporary catholic synod must address.
1 Corinthians 5:5 – “you are to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of The LORD.”
Revelation 2:14 – “But I (Christ in Glory) have a few things against you (the Church): you have some there who hold to the teachings of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel, so that they would eat food sacrificed to idols and practice fornication.”
It is King Jesus Christ alone who rules all things in heaven & on earth, including the Church and all the churches. He is with us always & has the power & the right to deal with every ungodly leader, if we, His servants, prayerfully request it.
So that’s THE question: “Are we Catholics sufficiently alert to cancers in the Church? Do we care enough? Do we have faith as to where help is to be found? Are we willing to persevere in prayer to our Glorious King that He cleanse the Body from all of this soul-killing disease that has suddenly flared up?
Always following The Lamb; with love & blessings from marty
I was happy to read this essay; many thanks. I had looked forward, at the end, to reading the author’s ‘bio’, and to learning how practiced or educated his Spanish is.
The Song of Songs, the Theology of the Body, and Heal Me with Your Mouth
https://www.catholic365.com/article/30328/the-song-of-songs-the-theology-of-the-body-and-heal-me-with-your-mouth.html
The author describes the effects of phenomenology “let loose, wandering wildly, doing terrible damage”, to paraphrase Chesterton’s view of virtues isolated from the coherence of the entirety of the Faith.
The suppression of Thomism at, or after Vatican II was not without consequence. The Thomistic personalism of St. Pope John Paul II offers a corrective to the “impersonal manuals” as well as the “abstract ideas vs. concrete realities” mentality of the past decade…https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2016/05/16/st-thomas-aquinas-and-st-john-paul-iis-theology-of-the-body/
Apparently Weigel’s “ticking time bomb” that is the Theology of the Body, “set to go off this century”, will take a little longer.
If I were a betting man, I would bet that most members of the College of Cardinals and the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors will react with “silent acquiescence.” I hope I am wrong, but I would not bet on it. Any “principled concern” would be seen as being a rigid and traditionalist enemy of Pope Francis.
I can’t help but wonder if mandatory celibacy combined with certain streams of Catholic mysticism leads to this type of “sex spirituality”. It’s an oft repeated pattern and uniquely Catholic phenomenon (yes, abuse exists in many communities but the over spiritualization of sexuality is a very Catholic problem). For example the extremes and graphic misrepresentations found in certain presentations of the Theology of the Body. It’s creepy and has often been used by abusers (i.e. Vanier, Rupnik to name just two).
A most helpful observation, dear ‘Anon’.
First, we have always had many excellent religious nuns and priests, who fight the good fight and know how to deny access to their imaginations by spirits of lasciviousness & lust. They guard their heart above all things.
When a person sincerely commits their life to Christ it’s like a blazing light to all the numerous, unseen spiritual forces of evil in this world. If religious are not trained in how to survive & overcome in spiritual encounters, they will be led into reading & watching more & more pornographic material. From there it is a downhill slide into one form of sexual immorality or another, together with all the lying, cover-ups, self-justifications, and collusions that spell the end of their honestly cross-carrying after Jesus.
A sickening sort of positive feedback sucks them deeper & deeper into the maelstrom. Some depart the Church; many continue as pretend Catholics, adept actors.
Both this dire spiritual reality and God’s solution are made clear in Ephesians 6:10-18. God’s solution requires complete dedication, a deeply prayerful life, and a joyful realization of our victory in Christ over monstrous evils. I’m speaking from several decades of practical experience in my own life and in helping many others, both clergy and lay.
As our LORD Jesus Christ repeatedly & graphically taught, following Him is the ultimate test; we trivialize it at our eternal peril.
Ever seeking more of Christ’s obedience & of His love; blessings from marty
Given that the church’s forays into sexuality ( the priest sex abuse crisis) has been an unmitigated disaster on so many levels, why put a priest who is obsessed with the topic of sex into a position of authority? I am no judge of poetry, but the topic alone, taken in this depth, is well inappropriate and borderline scandalous for any priest to have written. It most certainly looks odd and it will feel off-kilter and inappropriate to most any lay person. I prefer my priests WITHOUT a side of sexuality, of any sort. Lay people know that secular society is drowning in this stuff; we do not need it from the clergy too.
I have yet to see this pope do anything that seems traditional or strengthening to the church.He appears to be only for loosening standards of morality. I can only pray that the next Pope is not cut out of the same cloth as this one and can reverse the damaging effects we have seen these past several years.
Well stated, dear LJ. Amen! & Amen! to that.
Who knows, in the (everlasting) day to day life of paradise the sure – if not the only way – of expressing love to God is conjugal love? And as at the time of Paul, why not God moving the strings to reveal this secret along with hitherto discovered others (over the milleania) of Kingdom of God?
HUH? Do you want to try again?
Dear ‘SomeOne’,
Your paradise is of this world, contra the Paradise our LORD Jesus Christ promises His followers – check out Luke 20:36. [If you don’t have a New Testament, just google this verse.]
A worldly paradise is what all the hypocrites in the Church, and all the unbelievers outside the Church, are working for and depending on.
2 Peter 3:10-14 gives a prophetic view of the hellish fate that awaits those who trust the ways of this world. Verses worth googling and meditating on. Interestingly, this is consonant with a quantum cosmological understanding of the heat-death fate of this space-time/energy-matter universe,
If all this is too complex to understand, let’s simply follow Jesus Christ to our best ability (He always helps us) & we’ll be eternally safe!
‘Tis much easier (& infinitely more enjoyable) than the world’s deceitful pr allows!
Love in The Lord; blessings from marty
Unlike you, my Lord is God the only existing reality, incarnated as Jesus, not somebody named as Jesus but titled as Lord trusting on else one’s faith. Needless to say, the merciful God prevents the sinners from knowing the Truth so as to avoid them gnashing their teeth (and weeping) for the rest of their life if they realise they do not enter through the narrow door/ eye of the needle.
As a matter of fact, not just Quantum mechanics, but any theory proposed by those who was proved beyound any doubt to the Lord God of their longing to remain in original sin is facilitated for just that: as a refugee from discovering the Truth. Considering the talents given to those pseudo intellectuals they were expected to be much more truthful thus preventing our Lord from revealing the Truth and they died as fools. In any case, any one who honestly accepts that there exist a god will try not to die and seek the way for everlasting life. So the faith given by our Father, as a proof of justification (that is free of the curse of death) may be tested as true, otherwise like many you may keep confused the treasure (Kingdom of God) with fool’s gold, viz intellectual exercises which only help to justify oneselves.
Sorry, dear ‘SomeOne’, to read what seems to be a sort of an un-Christian, non-Catholic, somewhat Hinduistic idea about God, in need of clarification. This ‘god’ has no power to save anyone from their sins . . .
When you write: “Needless to say, the merciful God prevents the sinners from knowing the Truth so as to avoid them gnashing their teeth (and weeping) for the rest of their life . .” You’ve forgotten that, thro’ the mediation of Jesus Christ (who is One with Father God) we believers receive The Holy Spirit of God who is The Spirit of Truth. The Holy Trinity is an effectual reality!
By His Holy Spirit, God allows genuine believers to come to know the truth of our sins. Then, by faith, – having hearts full of The Living One, King Jesus Christ our Atoning Redeemer – we find our way to confession, repentance, & reparation (as is possible) by the unlimited cleansing power of The Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, The Lamb of God. (See, e.g. – 1 John 1:7-10)
Without friendship with Jesus Christ, The Resurrected One, sins remain unforgiven. It is that truth that inspires the compassionate, love of all true Catholics who energetically invite non-believers to trust in Christ, so they can find forgiveness, & come to eternal joy with us in The New Jerusalem.
God’s revealed logic is rock-solid. God has provided A Way for all to be saved.
All are freely invited to STAND ON the Rock of Salvation for, otherwise, it will eventually fall on top of them! The choice is ours.
Take care precious soul. Keep seeking The Truth. Love & blessings from marty
I know. It is impossible for God to be an idiot.
Of course there is one sure way that the misguided Archbishop could heal all of us with his mouth, and it does not require a kiss, erotic or otherwise. Simply call a news conference and announce that upon further reflection and for the good of the Church, he is withdrawing his acceptance of the appointment as head of the DDF.
Alas, such wisdom is highly unlikely, but there is always hope.
Our Lady of Fatima said, “The dogma of the Faith would be preserved in Portugal. (If it did not approve abortion.) That being said, one can say the “dogma of the Faith” would NOT preserved elsewhere. The appointment of this archbishop is another fulfillment of the Fatima Apparitions. Our Lady has a perfect score on her prophecies from Fatima. They all have continued to come to true. One other deduction from her prophecy. It is obvious Heaven takes preservation Dogma an important thing which is contrary to the messages come from the current occupants of the Vatican.
Appointing this guy is madness.
Is ‘lilac mafianess’ . . ?
For a helpful, ancient understanding of how to think of the papacy, warts and all, read Cardinal Burke on The Two Bodies of the Pope:
From 2023: https://www.cardinalburke.com/presentations/discipline-and-doctrine
From 2017: https://www.mariancatechist.com/developing-lives-of-peace-after-the-heart-of-mary/
For more and amazing Catechism resources, see the work founded by the saintly Jesuit, Fr. Hardon:
https://www.mariancatechist.com/
https://www.mariancatechist.com/cardinal-burke/presentations/
I read somewhere (a reliable source, I think) that Pope John Paul II elevated Archbishop Theodore McCarrick to the status of Cardinal of Washington, D.C., even though Pope John Paul knew that Theodore McCarrick had been having seminarians sleep in his bed. Pope John Paul reportedly accepted McCarrick’s claim that there was no sexual conduct involved, and that this bed-sharing was merely fraternal in nature. Theodore McCarrick has since be laicized after the extent of his sex crimes became known.
And so the garbage continues to pile up and to fester and sweat it’s perverse juices on the souls of innocents!!! When I Lord, will our exile be ended?
After reading this, would you let your kids anywhere near this guy if he was a local parish priest? I wouldn’t. So much for Francis’s vaunted “zero tolerance” policies. No wonder he did a “Francis” and split up the DDF’s jurisdiction so our theological prodigy doesn’t have to deal with priestly pervert discipline.
Samton909, Cecilia, LJ, and John Grondelski have broken the code ! What we are witnessing here is the reconstitution of “The Lavender Mafia” . Only this time we don’t have a bumbling Octogenarian like McCarrick at the helm we have the Pope’s “right hand man” his protege in sheep’s clothing, and anyone who thinks this guy is “straight” needs to read Father Lavers’ Interview re: All Apostles Seminary or Bill Donohue’s book on Sexual Abuse by Homosexual Priests. He’s a slick cover artist who’s only 59 years old and will be an elector who by the time he’s through will vote for many more Francis types who will perpetuate the new South American, Socialist leaning Church. This Pope has centralized power like no other. and American Prelates like Mc Elroy, Gregory, Cupich and Tobin along with the likes of Jesuits like James Martin and Sosa will perpetuate the concept of The Radical American Church.
God of Mercy , save our Church!