Saint of the Day for January 10: St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335 – 395)
January 10, 2024A Sanctity of Human Life Month Like No Other, by Art Ally
January 10, 2024
By Nicole Winfield, The Independent, January 9, 2024
The Vatican’s new doctrine chief is raising eyebrows over a book he wrote as a young priest describing orgasms in graphic terms.
The out-of-print, Spanish-language book penned by now-Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, entitled “The Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality,” is similar in tone to another Fernandez book that sparked scandal soon after he was appointed, “Heal Me With Your Mouth. The Art of Kissing.”
The Argentine theologian had been known as Francis’ theological ghostwriter and has already shaken up the Catholic Church with a flurry of official decrees on issues such as allowing transgender people to serve as godparents.
Neither title was included in the list of publications the Vatican provided when Pope Francis named Fernandez as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and gave him marching orders to radically change the office’s course.
“The Mystical Passion,” published in Mexico in 1998, is a short expose about mystical-sensual experiences with God.
In its final chapters, Fernandez delves into orgasms, including graphic descriptions of male and female sexual anatomy and his commentary about sexual desire, pornography, sexual satisfaction and domination, and the role of pleasure in God’s mystical plan.
Its explicitness suggests at least familiarity with sex and orgasm that would seem uncommon for a celibate priest.