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Then-Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, now Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, giving a homily in March 2023 at the Cathedral of La Plata in La Plata, Argentina. (Image: YouTube)

By Peter Kwasniewski, Crisis Magazine, Jan. 5, 2024

Dr. Peter A. Kwasniewski is a writer and speaker on traditional Catholicism. He is the author or editor of many books, most recently Good Music, Sacred Music, and Silence: Three Gifts of God for Liturgy and for Life (TAN Books, 2023). Visit his Substack Tradition & Sanity and his personal website.

 

In many ways, the clarification published by Cardinal Fernández is even worse than the original document it purports to clarify, Fiducia Supplicans.

In many ways, the clarification published by Cardinal Fernández on January 4, 2024, is even worse than the original document it purports to clarify, the Declaration Fiducia Supplicans of December 18, 2023.

Peter KwasniewskiFernández doubles down on the idea of “non-liturgical blessings,” but this frankly makes no sense. A priest is a minister of God who, when he makes the sign of the cross over someone or something, is doing a religious, ministerial, efficacious, and, yes, ritual act. It doesn’t really matter how long it takes (“about 10 or 15 seconds” he says, with a grainy hands-on approach) or how simple it is (a model is suggested: “Lord, look at these children of yours, grant them health, work, peace and mutual help. Free them from everything that contradicts your Gospel and allow them to live according to your will. Amen”). …

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