Rome Newsroom, Jan 8, 2024 / 11:30 am (CNA).
A 1998 book by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández featuring provocative, sexually-charged themes has resurfaced, likely adding further scrutiny to the already embattled prefect of the Vatican’s doctrine office.
Titled “Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality,” the 26-year-old work includes graphic descriptions of human sexual relations and discussion of what the Argentinian theologian describes as “mystical orgasm.”
The nearly 100-page-long book also depicts in detail an imaginary erotic encounter with Jesus Christ on the shores of Galilee, which Fernández said was based on a spiritual experience disclosed to him by a 16-year-old girl.
The book, originally published in Mexico, was brought to renewed attention on Jan. 8 by Caminante Wanderer, a traditionalist Catholic blog based in Argentina, which described “Mystical Passion” as “imprudent” and “an occasion of sin” for potential readers.
Similarly, the Italian traditionalist website Messa in Latino said the book was “truly scandalous and apparently blasphemous.”
Fernández did not respond to a request for comment by EWTN News before publication.
This is not the first time that a book with a sexual focus previously published by the Argentinian theologian has caused controversy.
When Fernández was appointed to head the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith in July 2023, his 1995 book “Heal Me With Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing” resurfaced and was the subject of significant criticism.
The book was criticized for its erotic themes and depictions, and many suggested the work was inappropriate for a celibate priest.
For his part, Fernández said he had no regrets about writing “Heal Me With Your Mouth,” which he described as “a pastor’s catechesis for teens,” “not a theology book.”
Similar to “Heal Me With Your Mouth,” “Mystical Passion” does not appear on the official list of Fernández’s publications circulated by the Vatican when he was announced as the new DDF head.
Much of “Mystical Passion” focuses on the Church’s tradition of divine love, with a particular focus on how divine ecstasy can be experienced not only spiritually but also bodily. Fernández cites heavily from saints and mystics such as Augustine, John of the Cross, Teresa of Ávila, and Blessed Angela of Foligno.
“The testimonies of the mystics show us that the relationship with God can also beneficially affect the erotic level of man, up to his sexuality,” Fernández writes.
The relationship between human sexual relations and intimacy with God has long been explored in the Catholic Church, including in works such as St. John Paul II’s theology of the body catechesis.
However, Fernández’s work stands apart for its graphic descriptions and its focus on sexual pleasure as not merely allegorical for divine union but constitutive of it, particularly in the works’ later chapters.
Fernández’s description of “an experience of love, a passionate encounter with Jesus, that a sixteen-year-old-teenager [girl] told me about,” comes in the book’s sixth chapter, “My Beautiful, Come.”
The passage speaks of encountering Christ at the Sea of Galilee as he bathes and lies in the sand, and includes a lengthy description of kissing and caressing his body from head to toe.
Throughout the passage, the Blessed Mother is depicted as standing by and approvingly allowing the encounter to take place.
The book’s final section focuses on the human orgasm and its connection to divine intimacy, often utilizing graphic, provocative descriptions.
For instance, in a chapter titled “Male and Female Orgasm,” Fernández provides an extensive, detailed description of sexual intercourse, offering his assessment of differences in male and female preferences and experiences of orgasm.
However, Fernández goes on to conclude that “in the mystical experience God touches the most intimate center of love and pleasure, a center where it does not matter much whether we are male or female.”
In the chapter “The Road to Orgasm,” Fernandez seems to suggest that the saints experienced sexual pleasure in their mystical unions with God.
“Some saints began to have inebriating experiences of God shortly after their conversion, or at the same conversion; others, like Saint Teresa of Ávila, achieved these experiences after many years of spiritual dryness. Saint Therese of Lisieux, although she felt tenderly loved by God, never had very ‘sensual’ experiences of his love, and it seems that she only achieved an overflowing and passionate joy at the moment of her death, when her face was transfigured and she said her last words: ‘I love you, oh my God, I love you!’”
The cardinal also seems to address sexual relations between people of the same sex.
After writing that an experience of divine love will not necessarily “mean, for example, that a homosexual will necessarily stop being homosexual,” Fernández notes “that God’s grace can coexist with weaknesses and even with sins, when there is a very strong conditioning. In those cases, the person can do things that are objectively sinful, without being guilty, and without losing the grace of God or the experience of his love.”
After reflecting on how persons can reach “a kind of fulfilling orgasm in our relationship with God,” the cardinal writes in the chapter “God in the couple’s orgasm” that God can be present “when two human beings love each other and reach orgasm; and that orgasm, experienced in the presence of God, can also be a sublime act of worship of God.”
While Fernández speaks of “couples” in his description of sexual relations, he rarely explicitly mentions sacramental marriage, which the Church teaches is the only context in which sexual relations are licit.
In another passage, the now-DDF head condemns masturbation as selfish but describes authentic sexual relations as only vaguely “open to others,” with no mention of openness to generating new life.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that sexual relations in marriage “remain ordered per se to the procreation of human life” and describes both the unitive and procreative significance as “both inherent to the marriage act.”
In one particularly graphic passage, Fernández cites the 15th-century Muslim theologian Al Sounouti, who offered praise to God for making men’s reproductive organs “as hard and straight as spears” so that they can “wage war” on the corresponding body parts of women.
Discussion of Fernández’s 1998 book comes at a time when the Argentinian prelate’s leadership of the DDF has come under significant scrutiny following the Dec. 18 publication of guidance on the possibility of blessing same-sex couples. The Vatican document, Fiducia Supplicans, has widely been criticized for ambiguity and for failing to engage in wider consultation with the world’s bishops before publication.
On Jan. 4, Fernández issued an unprecedented 2,000-word press release clarification of Fiducia Supplicans. The clarification came after worldwide pushback, with entire episcopal conferences in Africa and Eastern Europe and individual bishops in Latin America, Europe, and the United States stating that they would not allow the described blessings in their jurisdictions.
A longtime theological adviser to Pope Francis, Fernández was made a cardinal by the pope on Sept. 30, 2023, shortly after he began his duties at the DDF. In his letter announcing the appointment, Pope Francis wrote that he expected Fernández to promote “theological knowledge” rather than focus on disciplining “doctrinal errors.”
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Commandant Fernandez must have been offended by St. John Paul II and his “Theology of the Body” (the Wednesday audiences from 1979 into 1984). What better retort than to flip off some pulp fiction in 1998!
Fernandez reduces morality and ethics into pagan eros, while JP II writes instead, clearly and for example: “They [ethics and real eros] are not opposed to each other, but are called to meet in the human heart, and, in this meeting [not conflation], to bear fruit. What is worthy of the human heart is that the form of what is erotic should be at the same time the form of ethos, that is, of what is ethical” (General audience of November 5, 1980).
Fernandez, instead, blesses “irregular” unions as such–and under “gradualism” (“time is greater than space”) apparently also extends the “welcome” mat for Islam and polygamy, and for incest, and the specter/spectrum of LGBTQIA gender theory? On paper the DDF leaves the binary doctrine intact, but “pastorally” bypasses such mere and rigid abstractions, “informally, and spontaneously,” of course!
So-called “concrete” mercy is decapitated from incarnate (concrete!) Truth; yes, binary/complementary “marriage” is tolerantly included (inclusivity!), but now simply as one option among many.
Next stop, the oxymoron of female priestesses, with deaconesses as the opening wedge, only in exceptional cases of course.
This is pretty disturbing.
Profound understatement, ma’am. Well done.
Indeed.
All right. Let’s just come out and say it.
Tucho is a creep and a perv who you wouldn’t want living in your neighborhood.
As is former President Trumps association with Epstein and in the early 2000’s his connection to beauty pageants and underage girls. It seems those espousing Trump and defending his characters a leader were sadly misguided.
You forgot to mention Bill Clinton.
Beauty pageants have been around for a century, dont have pervy components,and are a perfectly legit business enterprise. That Trump was wealthy and a businessman put him in contact with MANY people, not all of whom he knew well. When he discovered that Epstein was “off”, he cut ties. People like you can slander trump all you want but its clear that lies are at the base of it.The well known Russia Collusion HOAX was a case in point. Biden and company has appointed the biggest group of unqualified misfits ever known to the country to be in positions of power, for which they are in no way qualified. My favorite was the cross=dressing Chairman who wore thick red lipstick and stole womens luggage at airports in order to wear their clothing. Biden didnt even have the spine (or brains) to fire the guy after his first offense. Now we have Sec of Defense Lloyd Austin, disappear to attend to personal medical matters without informing the White House or ANYONE. The Southern boarder is such a mess we cant find enough space and money to support the millions of criminal illegals who have flooded into the country. Today as a result, a NYC school was shuttered and the students exited, in order to shelter illegals who are neither our citizens nor responsibility. Disgusting. Quiz question: who do democrats think are more important? Illegal citizens, or their own tax-paying citizens?? If you can’t figure out which party leader is more dangerous and toxic to the country,Trump or Biden, I will suggest you are hopelessly propagandized by the left.
DJT in your head 24/7?
“Tucho”, a very strange man and the pope’s longtime friend, is the subject of this article. Nothing else.
Fernández’s early work would qualify as an introduction to the spiritual life for Fr Marko Rupnik. “God’s grace can coexist with weaknesses and even with sins, when there is a very strong conditioning. In those cases, the person can do things that are objectively sinful, without being guilty, and without losing the grace of God or the experience of his love.”
Identification of Christianity with sexual indulgence outside of marriage goes back a long way. Rasputin was a strannik, a wandering holy man, and likened to enlightened starets [monastic elders]. Many such Christian wanderers had through the centuries established cultic rituals including sexual activity at times unnatural. As strong as our sexual drive may be, Christ came to sanctify and heal our passions. Fernández refers to Teresa of Avila as an example of his Rasputin like sex and spirituality. To the contrary Saint Teresa gave account of a sister where she was mother superior who confessed to her that Christ appeared during the night and they engaged in sexual relations. Teresa was convinced it was a daemonic manifestation and took correction action. Rupnik, Fernández, Hollerich, and a host of others in apparent sync with Pope Francis are reintroducing the malevolent practice that appeared to end with Rasputin and earlier with some of our pontificates.
Thanks, dear Fr Peter Morello, PhD.
You, with many of us, are like a voice crying in the wilderness, that is brushed aside by Catholic hierarchs who are in partnership with the father of anti-Apostolic sexual deception. Truth will not win against that unnatural intrigue.
Yet, that does not excuse us from declaring the Catholic Apostolic truth to them, in every way possible. We are called to be witnesses not to winners!
1 John 4:5-6
“They are from the world; therefore, what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them!”
“We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us! From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
Sinless sin. No objective evil. So now we have perfected ourselves. Why not cancel religion altogether? Will there be an encyclical to prohibit repentance in our future? Will some backwardist wanting confession face excommunication?
Edward. By its manifest departure from Christ’s revelation and Apostolic tradition, the perceived Church has become more an apostate dismembered branch from the vine who is Christ. It was foretold by inference in the opinions of Benedict XVI as a future ‘narrowed’ Church, and more directly in the Apostle John’s final testament. The chair of Peter instituted by Christ is protected only insofar as its formal pronouncements to the body. The person who occupies the Chair is not, as has been recorded in the behavior and informal non binding words and actions of pontiffs throughout history. We recognize that distinction in papal words, documents. What’s occurring is a test of our faith, chastisement due to prevailing infidelity.
Our Mystical Body remains in the world composed of the faithful to Christ, laity and clergy eminently among Cardinals Sarah, Zen, Müller, Eijk, Burke, Erdő and a larger number of bishops among the successors to the Apostles and true defenders of the faith. If as it appears God is permitting this pontiff to restructure a church in his own image rather than Christ’s, due to the said majority distancing of the once faithful from the truths of revelation he will sustain us as his mystical body through the Holy Spirit.
What differs in our moment is that spiritual perversity is being orchestrated by by Church administration themselves corrupted by evil. Men endowed with the power to presume they’re capable of corrupting sacred scripture, liturgy, revelation itself. Reliance on Christ and his unique revelation is what will save us.
By corrective action regarding the sister and her daemonic sexual experience that would have included the sacrament of penance as well as counsel perhaps dismissal
if appropriate. Such satanic manifestation would likely not occur unless there were predisposition as suggested in Card Fernández’ book, an example the young girl and Christ sunbathing. This aberration of a cardinal’s moral theology is as distant from Christlike purity and goodness as any theology concocted in Hades. Which is where it likely has its inspiration.
Luke 21:20 The Great Tribulation.
“When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, know that its desolation is at hand.
In Jesus’ signs for end times, about the destruction of the Catholic Church (Jerusalem), it is always our enemies within the Catholic Church, like Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández and Pope Francis, who scare me the most.
Luke 21:5 The Destruction of the Temple Foretold.
While some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings, he said, “All that you see here—the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.
Zechariah 13:7 Oracles Concerning the End of False Prophecy. The Song of the Sword.
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the one who is my associate—oracle of the LORD of hosts. Strike the shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones. In all the land—oracle of the LORD—two thirds of them will be cut off and perish, and one third will be left. I will bring the one third through the fire; I will refine them as one refines silver, and I will test them as one tests gold. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them; I will say, “They are my people,” and they will say, “The LORD is my God.”
There is a slight difference in Jesus’ delivery in His apocalyptic quote from Zechariah. Zechariah’s prophecy states “strike the shepherd…” Jesus quotes it as, “I will strike the shepherd…”. USCCB Bible notes reference both Zechariah 13 and Matthew 24 “The Destruction of the Temple Foretold”, to Jesus’ Matthew 26:31 ‘I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be dispersed’, quote.
Matthew 26:31
‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be dispersed.’
USCCB NABRE Bible Note for Matthew 26:31
Will have…shaken: literally, “will be scandalized in me”; see note on Mt 24:9–12. I will strike…dispersed: cf. Zec 13:7.
Matthew 24 The Destruction of the Temple Foretold
USCCB NABRE Bible Note for Matthew 24:9-12
Matthew has used Mk 13:9–12 in his missionary discourse (Mt 10:17–21) and omits it here. Besides the sufferings, including death, and the hatred of all nations that the disciples will have to endure, there will be worse affliction within the church itself. This is described in Mt 24:10–12, which are peculiar to Matthew. Will be led into sin: literally, “will be scandalized,” probably meaning that they will become apostates; see Mt 13:21 where “fall away” translates the same Greek word as here. Betray: in the Greek this is the same word as the hand over of Mt 24:9. The handing over to persecution and hatred from outside will have their counterpart within the church. False prophets: these are Christians; see note on Mt 7:15–20. Evildoing: see Mt 7:23.
Lightning destroyed key, hand of St. Peter statue in Argentina on Pope Francis’ birthday
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/lightning-st-peter-statute-pope-francis/?
As far as I can tell the story about lightning striking the statue of St. Peter in Argentina was fake. It was one of those things that extremist trads make up in order to cause a sensation. No news reports exist talking about the lightning strike. No one from the church or the cathedral ever mention the statue being hit. The statue was low down on the church, not at the high point where lightning strikes. Apparently Michael Hichborn sent some of his trad friends out to see if it really happened and the halo had dropped off of this statue years ago, probably because the metal corroded. Most likely that is what happened to the keys etc also. Chalk this one up to people who desperatly hope that God would send a sign of disapproval towards Francis, to they jump to conclusions.
The priest at the shrine acknowledged the lightning strike. It’s on his Youtube channel. However, he denies providing the photos and denies the interpretation that is being given.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOIiVljkMVc
Why is this Cardinal still in his position and frankly should be suspended by the Pope. But, unfortunately that is not likely to happen, in fact, nothing will come of this issue. Regarding the latest papal pronouncement about “blessings”, just look at what happened at the Kentucky Catholic Church pastor blessing a lesbian couple; what did the Vatican do, nothing other than stating that was not the “intent” of the document. Multiply that one incident by 100’s that are and will take place around the world.
While Fernández speaks of “couples” in his description of sexual relations, he rarely explicitly mentions sacramental marriage, which the Church teaches is the only context in which sexual relations are licit.
That omission is what struck me when I read the lengthy excepts posted on Rorate today — and it’s a critical distinction (among others) from JPII’s Theology of the Body. ‘Popesplain’ this filth and risk losing your soul.
My quotes from Fernandez’ book were moderated out of print in CWR’s combox, but CWR reports sordid details from CNA’s reporting on Fernandez’ ‘newly discovered’ book. Principle of CYA in play?
I do not see any comment from you (either in the queue or elsewhere) that matches your description. I don’t think it came through.
“Principle of CYA in play?”
CWR has, for ten years, presented calm and reasonable critiques of the many concerning “things” in Rome. Do you really think that a document about orgasms and penises and such is going to make us get cold feet? Seriously?
John 12:26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honour him.
John 20:28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
John 8:42-44: Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Listen to Jesus speak to Tucho.
Naughty monkey 🐒.💋
My concern here is with something that appears to be a counterfeit of the mystical theology of the Roman Catholic Church.
Since Fernandez refers to St John of the Cross, I will also refer to this Carmelite saint-mystic and doctor of the Church. According to authentic mystical theology, when one goes after God so to speak, one must never look for “spiritual delights” which may or may not be given by God. A true mystic wants one thing only: to be with Christ, to be in union with Him, to do His will. It is akin to a true love for a human: if one loves another then their primary purpose is to be with the object of their desire, and only then to experience “the delights” (which may or may not accompany that “being with”). If “the delights” have the primary value primary and the person – secondary value then there is no love but a lust, a desire to simply use a person (human or divine) for obtaining those “delights”.
So here we have two kinds of mysticism: an authentic one, of countless saints-mystics with burning for God souls and its counterfeit, of people like Fernandes with burning parts of their body. The first mysticism seeks a union with God in love; the second seeks a satisfaction of lust, “spiritual delights” without God. The first is about a personhood of the Other (God and a soul), the second is about “spiritual masturbation” that dares to attempt to use God as a tool. A good example of such masturbation is Rupnik’s threesomes. Obviously, Rupnik neither has perceived the nuns he corrupted as persons nor did he perceive the Holy Trinity as Persons. He considered the nuns and God to be mere tools for obtaining orgasm amplified by his “mystical” ideation. (That is very unpleasant to write but it is what it is.)
Back to Fernandes and his appeal to the experiences of the Roman Catholic mystics. Indeed, some saints and mystics experienced so-called “spiritual delights” which can accompany an infused contemplation given by God to a soul. Indeed, a human being cannot describe those delights otherwise but in terms of a union of two lovers because it is how a mystical experience can be worded/understood by humans, in approximation. Yet in those descriptions of true mystics a love of God and a soul = an attachment is always primary to them and not “the delights”. Those “spiritual delights” come not from “a stimulation of some organ” but from the ecstasy of being with God, knowing God’s Love for a soul experientially. They are “by products” of an attachment.
The problem is that people with impaired ability to develop an attachment – most of them narcissistic – are unable to comprehend what true love (both for human and God) means hence they develop their own castrated and perverse “mysticism” focused on self-satisfaction in various forms, a masturbation in effect. And, if such a person is religious then he raises a banal masturbation to a metaphysical, cosmic level – with all the consequences for those around him. A true mystic is lifted up to God; a pseudo-mystic is desperately trying to pull God down to his bed so to speak.
Finally, St John of the Cross urges us never desire any “spiritual delights” – first because it is an offence to God, second because the devil can easily fabricate those “delights” so the soul will end up being a victim of a spiritual delusion. St Teresa of Avila gives the following criteria for true mystical experience: a noticeable increase in virtues, especially of an authentic humility, seeing oneself as the most undeserving the favors of God, obedience to the Mother Church and all it teaches, desire to do the will of Christ and to die for Him. On the contrary, those who follow the fake mysticism become even more proud (as the Eastern Orthodox say “they develop satanic pride”). They also lose all reverence for the Church’s teaching and an ability to see their own sins etc.
Well done Anna! Porno-mysticism is at the center of this pontificate. Rupnik, McCarrick, and the rest of the conga line to Hell.
And their revulsion for the museum piece of chastity.
Tucho is a theologian like a porn director is a filmmaker.
It has long been part of the creepy “homosexual theology” to compare sexual release with the ecstasy of knowing God. Certainly saints have experienced true spiritual ecstasy, but as you say, it is a spiritual thing, not a bodily thing. I tend to think Fernandez is a very warped person, who seeks to understand God and come to grips with his sexuality by pretending his perversity is somehow holy and bringing him closer to God. I can imagine nothing more Satanic.
“A true mystic is lifted up to God; a pseudo-mystic is desperately trying to pull God down to his bed so to speak.”
Sharp comment, Anna. It would seem that that has been a driving force with some voices in the Church since the sexual revolution, only accelerated and elevated in recent years.
The way this pontificate is going, I may actually be a saint by the end of it.
Who knows, afterall Mary Magdalena is a saint while Judas is not. As 36 year old young preist then concluded correctly, when sinfulness increase graces may also increase proportionately (and vice versa too) so that at all points in their life all His children can freely decide to accept or reject the Truth,and more noticeably and dramatically for late comers.
Does it allow you to offend truth between now and then?
No Thomas a Kempis is this man. Neither is he a Cardinal Burke, Bishop Strickland, Archbishop Vigano nor any others whom this papacy has sought to marginalize.
How much do you want to bet that if you keep on scratching below the surface much more will be found with this man?
This guy is a riot!
But who am I to judge?
Has an unraveling of Pope Francis’ papacy begun? In the American political arena, leftists scramble to the center at election time. Will Francis do that and sound more orthodox or will he double down? Whatta soap opera.
One of the lessons drawn from the biography of Alfred Kinsey and his team of researchers was that learned men who publish pornography in the name science are simply cloaking their addictions in “science.” Similarly, one must suspect that our Pontiff’s closest advisor and friend has been using theology to mask a sex addiction. But Fernandez is not alone in his theological and pastoral interests in building bridges and being less sexually rigid– Martin and Paglia come to mind. Are these pastoral initiatives simply respectable covers for normalizing addiction? Which leads to another question: How could it come to pass that so many addicts would happen to surround this pope?
Tucho’s defense is that he wouldn’t write the same sleazy book today as he did when he was 37 years old. Is this the kind of vetting we do of our bishops?
Suppose a priest of the same age had murdered someone and somehow that never came to light when he was tapped to be a bishop. Would an acceptable defense be, “I wouldn’t murder anyone now.”?
I think this kind of pornographic writing is intended to groom vulnerable persons for actual abuse. I also think that it potentially perverts the morals of those reading this trash. But, the Pope in Rome will stand by his man no doubt because there is no shame.
I wonder how many young teenage boys were invited by Fernandez to discuss his books
That’s a rhetorical question if ever there were one.
Rediscovered book? It’s a classic showcase of an anti-Francis smear campaign staged by a Bishop Schneider acolyte, Diana Montagna, who blasted emails to media outlets and influencers about this. Montagna also co-authored a book with another EWTN anti-Francis celebrity priest, Father Murray. Montagna’s demolition job copies the playbook of the recent campaign by the anti-Critical Race Theory and anti-wokeness originator, Christopher Rufo, who digged for and surfaced plagiarism cases against former Harvard University President Gay.
So, to be clear, you don’t have a problem with 35-year-old priests writing long, detailed passages about sex, orgasms, and such for (reportedly) teens, or with university presidents committing acts of intellectual theft. But you do have a righteous anger about such things being exposed (cf. Eph 5:11)? That’s a helpful confession.
Honestly, Mr. Olson, you batted that back better than Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron combined. Apparently, that commenter Deacon Dom., whether a real Deacon or a total impostor trying to impress with false credentials (religious rank plagiarism), is getting ready to imitate Cardinal Fernandez whom he admires and protects, and will write; “La Pasion de Mimar al Misticismo de la Maldad” (The Passion of Cuddling the Mysticism of Evil).
Fernandez’s book is all about why we should regard hard core sexual perversions as “highly mystical” and why they need to be accepted, cuddled, over-protected, over-explained and over-mothered, and which is exactly what the Pope’s unconditional defenders (and now Fernandez’s) do for him day in and day out. Thank you, Mr. Olson, for all you do to expose the cuddling of evil dressed in Catholic garb.
Carl, I know you have a healthy and positive view of sexuality. You surely also know about the more mystical portrayal of sexual intimacy in the Song of Songs or in the writings of the twelfth century German nun, mystic, theologian, and Doctor of the Church, St. Hildegard of Bingen. The young Fr. Fernández’ writings can be viewed as aligned with this type of biblical or theological reflections on intimate sexuality. Nothing scandalous as the clueless (about this type of Christian writings) Montagna suggests.
Stop the nonsense; it’s porn.
Your view of sexuality is reflective of the dominant negative and unhealthy perspective originated by St. Augustine in the fourth century which remained the ascendant Christian view through the centuries even until now. St. Hildegard in the twelfth century should have balanced if not corrected this Augustinian anomaly but she was, like most of her other theological ideas, ignored and her ideas about sexuality (like that of the young Fr. Fernandez’) were precisely considered the way you described: pornographic. Hildegard was only correctly retrieved and received very recently by Pope Benedict XVI who both officially canonized (for centuries she has been unofficially considered a saint by the Germans and those who read and know her) and declared her Doctor of the Church both in 2012.
You start by telling Mr. Olson: “Carl, I know you have a healthy and positive view of sexuality.” That’s how a groomer would try to break resistance and establish a false personal connection with “God-like” Gnostic false knowledge. All those that you mention viewed sexuality in holy purity as its Creator, God, does and never caused any scandal for thousands or hundreds of years.
Fernandez’s evil book has nothing to do with those holy works. Nothing, it just tries very hard to appear so. His book is a brain washing, gaslighting, language Cirque de Soleil, a battering ram to make sexual perversion appear “mystical.” True Catholic Mysticsm is, by God’ grace INFINTELY superior to infinitely cheap, self-absorbed sexual perversion and climaxes. That’s why we’ll be like the angels in Heaven (Matthew 22:29-30), because angels, being constantly in God’s infinite delight, do not need sex at all. Sex ends, God’s infinite delight is eternal, and that is what we must seek here and now, as the Song of Songs, Hildegard, etc. did!
The Bible does not have “reflections on intimate sexuality” as such. It is not the purpose of the Bible at all. It lays down God’s design for proper attachments/relationships and condemns deviations from that wholesome design. Most importantly, in the Scriptures “intimate sexuality” is considered only as an aspect of a human relationship or a metaphor for a relationship of God and His people or God and a soul. For example, God used the word “harlot” to convey His rage with Israel who was unfaithful to Him or “come my beloved” to express the depth of His Love for a soul. Likewise, sexual intimacy, while being mentioned in the story of Abraham and Sarah, is definitely not a focus of the story but their (loving) relationship is (God’s action of preparing humanity for the Messiah goes in parallel with the story of the Patriarch and his wife, interconnected). Scriptures (unlike the works of many modern Roman Catholic writers) are very pure and healthy – precisely because they speak of the Love of God which can never be “titillating” or unhealthy and of love of humans patterned on that primary Love.
Thus, mentioned by you ‘Song of Songs’ is both a description of a healthy = free from perversions reciprocal love of a man and woman and also between God and a soul (typified as Bride and Bridegroom in both cases). It is wholesome to desire to be with one’s human beloved and to be fulfilled – and the same is true for the mystics and all who want to be fulfilled by God. “Free from perversions” are the keywords here. I wrote in my earlier comment how the missing in Fernandez’s writings notion of personhood/relationship paves the way to perversity but I will add a few more accessible points utilizing both mystical theology and human psychology.
Fernandez’s description of “a love affair of a young woman with Christ” is a perversion. First, because of its interwoven exhibitionism and voyeurism, of:
1) “a young woman engaging in various acts with “Christ” while “the Virgin Mary” watches approvingly”
2) “her” telling it to Fernandez in titillating details
3) him telling the story to us in those details. Compare this with a typical description of a mystical marriage when Christ, surrounded by saints and His Mother, gives to a mystic a ring that signifies a spiritual espousal. Clearly, “a love affair of a young woman with Christ” as it was related is a diabolical perversion of a mystical marriage. What is striking here, from a purely human point of view it is also a perversion to make love with a man when his mother is watching and to enjoy it. It is a perversion of perversions – not just in the realm of the divine but in the realm of humans as well.
Precisely because such a fantasy, of making love with a man while his mother is watching it, could never enter the mind of a female lover it was almost certainly not related to Fernandez by some “young woman”. Such a fantasy is more fitting to a narcissistic male who did not manage to emotionally separate himself from his mother thus still retaining unresolved sexual desires directed to her (so-called Oedipus complex). One can then reinterpret the related story this way: a narcissistic man with non-permissible feelings towards his mother being sexually fulfilled by another woman in his mother’s presence and with his mother’s permission so he can fantasize about her during the process. His “straying” from his mother (infidelity) is permitted at last by her so he is not guilty of “cheating” on his mother. Hence the fantazy is a resolution of his dilemma, a murky desire for his mother and a perceived need to be with some other than a mother woman.
In the human realm it sounds as an extremely repugnant pathology. But, if this man is posing as a celibate priest, he can dress his perverse fantasy in religious clothes thus making it acceptable to those who do not know a true mystic theology well. His mother whom he desires but who is beyond impure desires becomes ‘Virgin Mary’ and while another woman provides him with sexual satisfaction. So, he published his fantasy thus raising his private life to the higher level of exhibitionism and voyeurism.
You may say I diverted from mysticism into psychoanalysis. No, I did not because authentic mysticism is always healthy and never violates the patterns of human love and relationships designed by God. Take any writing of St Teresa of Avila or St John of the Cross and you will find nothing but health. You will never find any perversion there, so as in the Scriptures. A spousal love is good and holy, it is a bliss and God’s blessing. Likewise, the love of God and a soul is good and holy, somewhat akin to spousal but far beyond it. It is wholesome to shout in the streets “I love my wife” or “I love My Lord” but it is not wholesome to invite a third person into that love or engage in other perversions, purely humane or pseudo-mystical.
NB: The voice of “a young woman” appears to me to be strikingly non-female and definitely not of young female. It is not even the voice of Fernandez. It has some similarities to those voices in the occult literature I have studied before my conversion.
So, is Jesus a man or spirit now in paradise/ heaven?
Converting a living man into a spirit is the root cause of all these errors. All these spousal mystical experiences are ultimately, necessarily, comes from true God, the only Spirit, so as to test whether His creations truely want the paradise back or just want to live in their original sin with their conceptual gods who is neither omnipotent enough to give everlasting life as human but some how converting the immortal spirit to a slave for praise and worship nor loving enough to deprive men and women their greatest joy, again a grace necessarily from God.
Radical traditionalists need to progress in their conversion so as to glean the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. So long as they vehemently want to live in their original sin, they fails to discover the treasure and remain Christian for the sake of this life, and their petty false treasures be it their trophy spouse or career or piety appears superior to the true treasures God readies for His body.
All these kinds of errors stems from the underestimation on the strength and love of God with the only consequence for such hypocrites is eternal death, as God cannot reveal the truth so cannot give them everlasting life.
Yeah, nothing is quite as mystical as having sex with Jesus on a beach while the Blessed Virgin watches approvingly.
If anything, anything, anything in the Bible was even very slightly pornographic or inclined to elevate sexual perversions as a new-and-improved “mysticism”, we would have neve needed Cardinal Fernandez to come after 2,000 years to teach us all about it. He is fabricating a pervert “mysticism” from a pervert “Bible” of his own invention and so are you.
Thank you, Mr. Olson, for pointing out the obvious blind spot this commenter shows.
You sound a bit disconnected from reality. The book is REAL, and its perverted contents were written by Kissyboy Fernandez. He does not deny it. Diane Montagna had NOTHING to do with its discovery. The person who obtained the book emailed a whole bunch of people with PDF’s of its contents. You seem to be obsessed with hatred for the truth, and are seeking to blame any messenger you can find
At the end of the day though Deacon Dom, the book is still creepy & at least from my point of view, blasphemous.
I understand what you are saying about people’s intentions digging up the past but if the past is disturbing, it’s disturbing.
When the Left does the same sort of thing, which they do frequently, do we have the same reaction?
To what extent won’t you go, deacon Dom, to salvage this horrific, morally bankrupt, failed, perverse papacy? Just how far will you go?
The Holy Roman Catholic Church needs a deep cleanse.
Too much of society is focused on sexual matters of all varieties. Including the Church.
Maybe a better title for this book would be, “Me sicut cornuadiaboli”.
The next pope will need to do some immediate house cleaning and purging of evil before moving forward. We need to ramp up our prayers for him and his selection. Perhaps this recent move by Pope Francis is what was needed to wake up the hierarchy as to what is going on. Both African and many American bishops are coming around and I believe many more of the more timid ones will follow. Perhaps the German experiment will loose momentum and collapse or a segment of it huff of and leave the Church. The lay members of the Church are hungering for direction and correction and deserve better than they are getting. If they really wanted all this sexual freedom, they would have become Anglicans long ago. Just a few thoughts.
The next Pope, unfortunately, will likely be very similar to this one in outlook and governance, since Francis has stacked the College of Cardinals with many others like Fernandez. Even more unfortunate is the heavy responsibility that JP II bears for the current state of affairs, since Jorge Bergoglio, along with McCarrick, Bernardin, Daneels, Martini, Mahoney, May, Pilarczyk, Law, etc. Not only did he select Bergoglio from nowhere, as an obscure high school chemistry instructor, he also brushed aside John Cardinal O’Connor’s strenuous warnings about McCarrick, then archbishop of Newark, NJ, and appointed to Washington DC. I cannot imagine what went into his thinking in appointing such a heavy roster of cowards, fools and pure scoundrels, but I also can’t deny the fact that he hand-picked them, all the while unceasingly singing the praises of VII and the “New Springtime of the Church.” If personnel is policy, then it’s not difficult to understand how we arrived at our current predicament.
So Francis’s leading henchman is porn writer? Like Cardinal Farrell, I am shocked.
This is pathetic, it is outrageous, it’s blasphemous – just for starters.
Would any of you out there choose this man as your confessor?
Not only would I not want him as a confessor, I don’t think I would feel safe to be alone in the same room with him.
Fernie’s creepy, x-rated little book was probably based on confessions he heard.
Christ told us what life in heaven is like in the encounter with the Sadducees about the wife of seven brothers.
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29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” 33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. (Matthew 22:29-33) RSVCE)
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It is my understanding there is no sex in heaven.
A resistance was a long time in the making.
How is it that when the Bergoglio side refers to eternal death it is not a rigidity with them; but when the non-Bergoglio refers to eternal death it is rigidity or at least always specious and warranting doubt?
How is it that the Bergoglio side can’t see how their own heads are in their own spins so much of the time about so many things unnatural?
Why is the Bergoglio side pushing sides?