The world's most prestigious pro-life academy has formally asked Pope Francis to remove the Vatican's doctrinal chief.
The John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family (JAHLF) has issued a statement calling for Cdl. Víctor Manuel Fernández to be dismissed as prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) and urging instead the appointment of "a competent theologian faithful to the moral teachings of the Church."
The Academy submitted that the cardinal "does not have the necessary minimum qualities required to fulfill the role of defender of the faith."
JAHLF was founded in October 2017 to serve the same goals as the original Pontifical Academy for Life, a group disbanded by Pope Francis.
The new lay Academy, according to its website, aims "to unfold the splendor of truth about life and family as taught by Pope St. John Paul."
It ... does nothing but justify the worst excesses of the sexual revolution.
The Jan. 17 statement expressed "astonishment" and "perplexity" that the 62-year-old Fernández accepted the position "despite having in past decades written scandalous books of an erotic nature which border on pornography and which contain passages that clash with the traditional teaching of the Church."
One of the "scandalous books" to which the statement refers is Sáname con tu boca: El arte de besar (Heal Me With Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing), published in 1995.
The pope's Argentinean confrère explained that the book "was not written so much from my own experience but from the life of the people who kiss." He said he hoped that the book's poems "help you kiss better" and "motivate you to release the best of your being in a kiss."
Another book, La Pasión Mística: espiritualidad y sensualidad, translated as Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality, published in 1998, includes a chapter describing differences between male and female sexual climaxes.
"When sexual pleasure is achieved in an act of love ... then sexual pleasure is also an act of worship to God, who loves the happiness of those who love each other," he writes.
Several sources noted the book also includes a detailed portrayal of an imaginary erotic encounter with Jesus Christ on the shores of Galilee, which the prefect said was based on an experience revealed to him by a 16-year-old girl.
He said Pope Francis and the Vatican knew about the book before Fernández was appointed as prefect on July 1, 2023, and made a cardinal three months later. The work resurfaced on a Catholic Argentinian blog called Caminante Wanderer in early January.
The Academy summarily described the literature as "one of the worst evils of our time to the extent that, under the pretext of spirituality, it, in reality, does nothing but justify the worst excesses of the sexual revolution that is (sic) deeply corrupting our society and leading our youth to the abyss."
The prefect, who has been accused of covering up sexual abuse, distanced himself from the book. He said he took it out of print shortly after it was published because it "could be misinterpreted."
The Academy noted, however, that the cardinal did not disavow the contents, writing, "Far from retracting the disgraceful passages that these works contain, Cardinal Fernández has limited himself to stating that he would not have published them today."
A U.S. priest, remaining anonymous, applauded the JAHLF's appeal to the pontiff. He emailed Church Militant saying he believed that "based on the Prefect's writing, he not only lacks the requirements to be a doctrinal chief, but he's also unsuited to be a priest."
It's not just lay people who are questioning Fernández's suitability. Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong said in a Jan. 21 statement that the prefect has imputed an "intrinsic goodness" to what is "a grave sin" and is thus committing "heresy."
"Shouldn't he then resign or be genuine?" the cardinal asked.
Prelates recently preceding Fernández as doctrinal chiefs include Pope Benedict XVI [then Joseph Ratzinger] (1981-2005), William Levada (2005-2012), and Gerhard Ludwig Müller (2012-2017).