In all honesty, not much surprises me anymore about the crazy stuff that the sitting pope, Francis Bergoglio, promotes. Whether it is the Pachamama idols, suppressing traditionalists who differ with him, or the recent document allowing for informal "blessings" of same-sex couples, Francis has become a magnet for controversy. I am frankly very disappointed in the Pope right now, and as I am a convert to the Church, I am sure like other converts have done, I have started to second-guess my decision for reverting back to the Catholic Church. However, I am also reminded that Francis is not the Church, and as Pope he is also a fallible human being and that we are not obligated to take anything he says as gospel. That being said, I want to say something up-front just for clarification, as it will preface the entire discussion.
I am not a sedevacantist by any means, and despite my own misgivings about Francis, he is a validly-appointed Pontiff. That being said, he has failed in the duties of his office, and perhaps it is time for him to step aside because he is creating more discord than he is providing spiritual guidance, and this cannot go on forever. This discussion is not so much a commentary on Francis as it is on one of his henchmen who has recently garnered some attention for a series of writings, and that person is Victor Cardinal "Tucho" Fernandez.
Victor Fernandez (born 1962) is an Argentine-born Cardinal and theologian who currently heads the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith, which effectively places him as a sort of second-in-command to the Pope. This is a serious situation given Fernandez's office, and it makes things even more complicated. Unfortunately, unlike Francis who is an octogenarian, Fernandez is also still relatively young (at 61, he is 7 years older than me right now). In the event of Francis either abdicating the Chair of St. Peter, or his passing, this guy would be the front-runner for the next Pope. However, the problem with Fernandez is that essentially he is somewhat weird - he is essentially Alfred Kinsey in a cassock, in all honesty. I don't think since probably the emergence of Pierre Tielhard de Chardin has there been a more dangerous prelate in such a position of power, and the reason for this is his radical ideas on human sexuality. He was the one, after all, who drafted Fiducia Supplecans, the controversial document that was released last month which allows now for the "blessing" of same-sex relationships in an informal setting. Compared with some of his earlier stuff though, Fiducia is benign at least in its language! That is what we want to delve into now, as recently one of his earlier books was disclosed and it is, well, graphic - Hugh Hefner would be using it to train his Playboy girls at his mansion, I will just put it that way. So, let us get into that, shall we?
Cardinal Victor "Tucho" Fernandez
The book that stirred so much controversy recently was a book Fernandez wrote in 1998 with the translated title Mystical Passion. The really problematic part of this book focuses on three chapters, 7 through 9, and is perhaps the most graphic in language. It talks about masturbation, gay sex, orgasms, and it also seems to have a fixation with the word "clitoris." The text of those chapters is so graphic as a matter of fact that many podcasters who are reporting about it refuse to directly quote anything from it in fear endangering their own souls with mortal sin - that is pretty bad, in all honesty! This book preceded Mystical Passion by three years and was titled Heal Me With Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing, which was published initially in 1995 and many are speculating that it was somewhat autobiographical in the way he described his experiences. Any way you look at it, stuff like this has definitely caused some commotion, and rightly so. So, what are the problems with the books that Fernandez penned? Let us first clarify a few issues.
Sex is in reality a beautiful gift of God, and it belongs solely within the context of a loving, monogamous, heterosexual (one man and one woman) union of holy matrimony. A man and woman who are in a loving marital union should fully enjoy being with each other, and the gift of sexuality is something beautiful in that context. However, because it is a special bond meant for only one particular type of relationship, Satan has found ways to exploit, cheapen, and abuse sex in many ways to corrupt and confuse humanity. This corruption takes several forms - solo masturbation, sex outside of marriage, adultery within a marriage, homosexual relationships, polygamous and other "group sex" arrangements, pornography, child sexual abuse, prostitution, bestiality, rape, fetishism, and lewd language that cheapens sex to a joke and makes sexuality a comedic act. And, while in proper context there are good Christian books out there on sex and marriage (Tim LaHaye's The Act of Marriage and Ed Wheat's Intended for Pleasure are two excellent ones) that can discuss the topic with candor, these books by Cardinal Fernandez do not do that. On the contrary, they seem to glorify the wrong ideas on sexuality, and they are perhaps a little too graphic to be used for religious instruction. And, that is the core issue. Oddly, I have seen Cardinal Fernandez's ideas in print before, and what they seem to echo is even more sinister. Let me talk about that now.
The original Spanish edition of "Mystical Passion," Cardinal Fernandez's quasi-pornographic sex book he published in 1998
The other more-nuanced graphic book of Fernandez, "Heal Me With Your Mouth," published in 1998
As many who are reading this know, I am currently working on my Ph.D. dissertation, and the topic I am actually addressing is the ideological influences upon the Nazis and what the Nazis evolved from. Of those four areas that I touch on in my research, two of them - the occultic worldview of the predecessors of the Nazis and the open acceptance (and later implementation) of Darwinian eugenics by many influential precursors to the Nazis - intersect and deal with sexual deviance in a very positive light. The one person who has figured prominently in my research is the former (defrocked) Cistercian priest and occultist Jorg Lanz von Liebenfels (1874-1954). In 1905, Liebenfels authored and published a very odd text entitled Theozoology, and in it he justifies things such as polygamy and even homosexual acts in the name of "racial superiority," and he uses graphic (indeed, almost pornographic) language in doing so. Since part of his whole ideology was viewing different races of humanity as different species, he used the Biblical training he had as a former priest to radically redefine terms such as "sodomy." Essentially, what Liebenfels did was say that homosexual acts between two people of the same sex, as long as they were the same species, was good (this echoes Karl Heinrich Ulrichs' idea of the "evolving third sex" theory in regard to homosexuals, which was later appropriated by Magnus Hirschfeld and also to a degree incorporated by individuals such as Simone de Beauvoir - the modern transgender ideology more or less possesses a version of this thinking), but he defined "sodomy" as the male of one species having relations with another male of a different species (here he means race). Therefore, while bestiality would be discouraged by Liebenfels, he radically altered the perception to say that a relationship between two people of different races was a form of bestiality. However, sexual relations between any two individuals of the same species was fine, and he even encouraged promiscuity as a way to propagate and multiply the "master race." This was an idea which was codified into policy by Himmler for his SS men, who were encouraged to father as many "pure Aryan children" as possible. The thing to note here is that Liebenfels couched all this in Biblical language, and he even attributed a sacramental dimension to such behavior. Eerily, this is exactly the same thing I saw Fernandez doing in the more controversial chapters of Mystical Passion, and it is that very thing that makes this more disturbing. I know people will probably read it and on first glance say nothing is wrong with Fernandez's work, but when he talks about French-kissing witches of all things in his books and also comparing erotic sexual intercourse to the Eucharist, that raises some questions. And, this is why things are so controversial with anything this prelate writes.
When I watched Dr. Taylor Marshall's podcast addressing this earlier, he made a very important observation that bears serious consideration. Marshall said that heresy, schism, and sexual immorality feed upon each other, and one will inevitably lead to the others. If you want an example of that, just look at the Mormon Fundamentalists in the west like Warren Jeffs and the Kingstons - they used a schism of a schism (Fundamentalist Mormons are a branch of the official Mormon Church, which in turn was a heretical sect that arose out of Campbellite Restorationism in the early 19th century) to quickly justify child sexual molestation and trafficking in the name of "plural marriage." Jeffs molested his own daughter as a matter of fact, and he is serving a very long prison sentence due to the perversity he embraced and forced on others. Fernandez unfortunately is probably closer to Warren Jeffs in his views than he is to great Catholic leaders like Pope St. Leo XIII, and with his open endorsement of perverts such as "Father" Rupnik and "Teddy" McCarrick, Fernandez is himself only a step away from being the leader of a sex cult that would be in schism from the true Catholic Church. And, in using many of the same Scripture-twisting eisogetical hermeneutical tricks as Liebenfels, Fernandez is treading on very dangerous soil right now. The impact of that on his own soul is serious enough, but what is tragic is who he will take down with him. Just like "Father" James Martin, the "Rainbow Jesuit" who prances around at pride parades like a drunk ballerina, Fernandez is scandalizing the Church. When the Protestant Fundamentalists read Fiducia Supplicans for instance, it will be a "gotcha" moment for them as it justifies all of their allegations against the Catholic faith, and therefore Martin, Fernandez, and even Francis himself are doing great damage to the Church's evangelization efforts. So, what is a faithful Catholic to do?
If many of the great saints and visionaries are accurate in what they saw coming over the centuries, I am fairly certain that a schism in the Church is coming, and at this rate it could be really soon. The confusion caused by a misreading and misinterpretation of Vatican II, followed by the recent sex scandals of the past 20 or so years that rocked the Church, and now all this crazy garbage Francis is serving up - first, he denied essential Catholic dogmas such as the Immaculate Conception by saying Mary was "born in sin," then he attacked Biblical creationism and instead opted for the Tiehardian view of theistic evolution. And, if that was not enough, there were the Pachamama idols in the church in Rome, followed then a couple of years later by Traditiones Custodis, which restricted the Traditional Latin Mass. Then, there were his vindictive actions against Fr. Frank Pavone, Bishop Strickland, and Cardinal Burke. And, finally, we have Fiducia Supplecans, thanks to his henchman Fernandez, which further muddied already turbulent waters. I know I will probably incur the wrath of sincere but ignorant Catholics who have a misplaced loyalty in Francis, but let's please be honest - Francis is a failure as a Pope, and he seems to be proud of that, even bragging about "dividing the Church" at the beginning of his pontificate. Thankfully though, the true Church still is there, and it belongs to Christ, and nothing Francis, Fernandez, or any other wayward hierarch does will change that. If a schism does happen, it will be they who are the schismatics, not us - I will always be on the side of the true and orthodox expression of our faith personally, as should you as a faithful Catholic. This is the silver lining - we know the end of the story - God wins! Therefore, instead of a mass exodus of faithful Catholics to the ranks of sedevecantism or the more conservative/traditionalist episcopi vagantes of the Old Catholic movement, let us dig in and wait this out, and remain faithful to the true faith. If we do that, then it will all work out. Fortunately for me, I belong to a very solid, orthodox parish with a wonderful priest who loves God and also loves the faith, so I am blessed with that. It is my hope that many of my readers here will be as fortunate. Thank you, and God bless.
