Three many years ago, when he was a parish priest in Argentina, the person named by Pope Francis to be the Catholic Church’s recent guardian of doctrinal orthodoxy wrote a brief book about kissing and the sensations it evokes.
Some conservative sectors within the church are using the reflections in “Heal Me with Your Mouth. The Art of Kissing” to criticize the designation of Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández to guide the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, a body once often called the Holy Office that for hundreds of years was liable for persecuting heretics, disciplining dissidents and enforcing sexual morality.
“These are ultra-conservative sectors that deeply hate the Argentine pontiff (Francis),” Fernández, the archbishop of La Plata, a city 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Buenos Aires, told The Associated Press.
“They take a phrase from the book and say: ‘Look at the extent of this theologian. How can a one who uses these expressions be the prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith?’” said Fernández, who dreamed of being a poet when he was younger.
The 80-page book, published in 1995 but not longer in print, has emerged as a key point used to blast the appointment of the 60-year-old archbishop commonly often called “Tucho” to considered one of the Vatican’s strongest offices.
The book highlights the importance of kissing in human relationships, defining them as expressions of absolute love. “In English, ‘Kiss,’ in Italian, ‘bacio,’ in French, ‘baiser,’ in German, ‘kuss,’ in Portuguese, ‘beijo.’ Depending on the way it’s done, additionally it is often called ‘peck,’ ‘sucking,’ ‘drilling,’ etc.,” the book says.
An article published earlier this month on Catholic news agency Zenit said that “everyone seems to be talking about Monsignor Víctor Manuel Fernández … and above all about his kisses.”
Criticism of the archbishop, whose appointment was seen by some as an try and break with the past, has come from conservative religious figures within the United States.
“Pray that he returns to the Catholic faith,” Joseph Strickland, bishop of Tyler, Texas, wrote on social media.
Fernández, who has long had a detailed relationship with the pope, a fellow Argentine, said he rejected later offers to reprint the book.
“I used to be already older, and I believed it is a book concerning the kiss … so I said, ‘No, no, no, please, don’t reprint it, let’s leave this prior to now.’ But well, now it’s my karma,” Fernández said with fun.
One of the excerpts from the book reads: “A pair with plenty of sex, plenty of sexual satisfaction, but few kisses which are real or with kisses that say nothing is digging the grave of affection with each sexual encounter, creating routine, fatigue, and weariness until considered one of them finds something more human.”
Fernández argued he can’t be accused “of anything” since the work in query “accommodates no heresy or error.” He stressed that the strategy of his critics is to “quote phrases” from the book repeatedly to query the pope for appointing someone with “such superficial theology and street language” to a key position.
The book features a poem written by Fernández: “How was God so ruthless to present you that mouth… No one can resist, witch, hide it.”
The cardinal complained on social media that critics mistranslated “bruja,” or “witch,” as “bitch.”
Fernández said he wrote the book together with a bunch of young people when he was a parish priest within the Argentine town of Santa Teresita, within the central province of Córdoba. He said it was written as a catechesis for teenagers, with the contributions of his young collaborators, and he improved them by providing “slightly editing.”
In the book’s introduction, Fernández wrote that the book was not written from his personal experience and that his goal was to summarize what “mortals” experience after they kiss.
Fernández says he has written dozens of texts since then and his critics should cite ones he has published in “top-level” journals. He has been the rector of the Catholic University of Argentina and head of the Argentine Society of Theology. He was recently named a cardinal.
“But they take this little youth catechism, from a poor parish priest from the countryside, and take phrases out of context,” Fernández said.
In Argentina, Fernández has received some criticism on social media but has the support of the church in his homeland.
“He has given a wonderful and clear explanation of the problem,” said Máximo Jurcinovic, director of communications for the Argentine Episcopal Conference.
Fernández said the pope told him his task as head of the doctrinal office can be “guarding the teaching that stems from faith” so as to “give a reason for our hope, but not as enemies who point fingers and condemn.”
The book will not be the one piece of controversial writing Fernández has done prior to now.
He has acknowledged that a few of his writings were sent to the Vatican, anonymously, after then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio appointed him as rector of the Catholic University of Argentina in 2009. The controversy resulted in a two-year delay in his being cleared for the job.
Fernández wrote concerning the ordeal soon after Bergoglio was elected Pope Francis, recounting that a newspaper article he had penned about gay marriage had been included within the anonymous dossier and that an unnamed Vatican “congregation” – believed to be the one liable for Catholic education — repeatedly refused to receive him to elucidate himself.
He has also needed to acknowledge mistakes in his handling of a 2019 case involving a priest accused of sexually abusing minors. The case has drawn allegations by critics that Fernández tried to guard the priest, a charge that he has denied.
“Today I would definitely act very in another way and definitely my performance was insufficient,” he told AP after celebrating Mass in La Plata.
By appointing Fernández to move the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Francis looked as if it would indicate a desire for a break with the past.
“The Dicastery over which you’ll preside in other times got here to make use of immoral methods. Those were times when, somewhat than promoting theological knowledge, possible doctrinal errors were pursued. What I expect from you is actually something very different,” the pope wrote in a letter to Fernández.
German Cardinal Gerhard Müller, who served as prefect of the office until Francis fired him in 2017, said the brand new directives are misplaced considering the mission of that department was to “protect and promote the revealed faith.”
“This will not be a theological academy or a chat show where everyone can express their opinion,” Müller said on conservative U.S. broadcaster EWTN.
Fernández has characterised himself as a reformist who doesn’t wish to “break with every part,” but advocates for a church that’s “more inclusive, more respectful of alternative ways of living and considering.”
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Associated Press journalist Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.
