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In his latest interview, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández again made a case for Fiducia Supplicans, defended his controversial book, and predicted that he will not be a source of controversy in the future.
Fernández said in the January 13 interview with the Spanish news agency EFE that the DDF is working on issues that will not cause any doctrinal controversies.
Defending Fiducia Supplicans, he explained that “in my conversations with the pope one thing became clear to me,” that
he wanted to reject blessings of irregular couples with rites or liturgical forms, but at the same time he wanted to avoid the impression of setting many conditions to giving a simple blessing in passing – on the street, on a pilgrimage – because he carries in his heart the value of popular pastoral care, which welcomes everyone.
“Deep down, Francis’ interest was in safeguarding the freedom and spontaneity of this other type of blessings that are the only priestly gesture we have to give to everyone,” Fernández explained:
[If] we cannot give them absolution, if we cannot give them the Eucharist, if we cannot bless them with a liturgical rite, yes we can give them a simple pastoral blessing: at least tell them “may the Lord bless you and protect you” and make a sign of the cross on each one’s forehead.
In the same interview, Fernández also sought to defend his book controversial 1998 book “The Mystical Passion: spirituality and sensuality.” It is “remarkable,” he said of the book, “because it is the result of research on the male and female orgasm that I had done with a group of married couples.”
“But something similar was done by two people greater and wiser than me: St. John Paul II and the holy abbess and doctor of the Church Hildegard of Bingen,” Fernández claimed.
Asked if he predicted future polemics around Francis’ papacy, Fernández said:
I must say that I do not think I will be in the news in the future because we do not have any issues planned in the dicastery that could be very controversial, like the recent ones. We are preparing a very important document on human dignity that not only includes social issues but also a strong criticism of moral issues such as sex change, surrogacy, gender ideologies, etc. In this sense, the most worried people will be able to rest.
