New Head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith

I can hardly bring myself to write about yesterday's announcement that Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández to be the new head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith replacing Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, S.J. (now 79) who was previously the secretary to Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller.

Fernández is certainly one of the Pope's men, his whole career has been crafted and guided by Jorge Bergoglio. He headed the Faculty of Theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina (CUA) and then on December 15, 2009, the then Cardinal Bergoglio appointed Fernandez as rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina. However, much to the frustration of Cardinal Bergoglio, Fernandez was not able to take the oath of office until May 20, 2011, after he had answered objections to his appointment raised by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which assessed concerns about the orthodoxy of certain elements of his scholarship.

As CNA reports:

An avid writer, by the time Fernandez was chosen by Cardinal Bergoglio to head the UCA, he had written more than 100 articles and books, many of them combining biblical passages with "self-help" themes, in texts including "Activity, Spirituality and rest" (2001). "Living in Peace" (2003), "Catechesis with Spirit" (2003), "Grace and a Wholesome Life" (2003), "Keys to Living Fully" (2003), and "Incarnated Spiritual Theology" (2004,) a book that was featured in the Argentinean soap opera "Esperanza Mía," about an illicit love affair between a priest and a nun.

The book commonly regarded as his most unusual is 1995's "Heal me With Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing." Regarding the book, Fernandez explained that: "in these pages I want to synthesize the popular feeling, what people feel when they think of a kiss, what they experience when they kiss... So, trying to synthesize the immense richness of life, these pages emerged in favor of kissing. I hope that they help you kiss better, that they motivate you to release the best of yourself in a kiss."

Not surprisingly, "Heal me With Your Mouth" has disappeared from most official lists of Fernandez' works.

Pope Francis named Fernandez the titular Archbishop of Tiburnia on May 13, 2013, thus making him the first rector of UCA to become an archbishop. According to the UCA sources consulted by CNA "Archbishop Fernandez was less than gracious upon receiving the episcopate, and wrote a couple of articles in ecclesial reviews running a true victory lap and denigrating his past critics with very unkind words."

This reaction did not sit well with many in Argentina, but by that time, sources say it was clear that Fernandez was one of Pope Francis' closest collaborators.

The Pope entrusted him with drafting his first apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, a text in which Fernandez cited his own prior scholarship as a source document.

Fernandez' controversial role in the drafting of Amoris Laetitia, especially the critical chapter VIII, was denounced by Vatican analyst Sandro Magister and then criticizied by Professor Michael Pakaluk of the Catholic University of America. Writing for Crux in January 2017, Pakaluk argued that "the most important footnote in Amoris Laetitia may not be, as many suppose, one dealing with access to the sacraments for Catholics in 'irregular' situations. Instead, it may be a footnote that's not actually in the document but which should be, since one of the sentences in Amoris is lifted nearly verbatim from an essay published [by Fernandez] in 1995 in a Buenos Aires theological journal."

"These instances of material plagiarism call into question Fernandez's suitability to be a ghostwriter for the pope. A ghostwriter should remain a ghost. By quoting himself, Fernandez has drawn attention to himself and away from the pope," Pakaluk added.

"Worse than that, Fernandez strains the consciences of the faithful… in the plagiarized sentence do we find 'the magisterium,' or Fernandez's own theological speculations?" Pakaluk asked.

Acknowledging his influence in drafting Amoris Laetitia, Fernandez published in August 2017 a long essay in "Medellin," the theological Magazine of CELAM, titled "Chapter VIII of Amoris Laetitia: What is left after the storm."

In the essay, he tried to make the case for greater latitude when deciding giving Communion to the divorced and remarried: "It is also licit to ask if acts of living together more uxorio [i.e. having sexual relations] should always fall, in its integral meaning, within the negative precept of 'fornication.' I say 'in its integral meaning' because one cannot maintain those acts in each and every case are gravely dishonest in a subjective sense. In the complexity of particular situations is where, according to St. Thomas [Aquinas], 'the indetermination increases.'"

Fernandez has also been very vocal in expressing that "in many issues I am far more progressive than the Pope."

Argentinian press also reports that the Archbishop covered up for abusing priests even threatening the victims with legal action.

In his letter to the new incoming Prefect, Pope Francis says 

"Those were times when, rather than promoting theological knowledge, possible doctrinal errors were pursued. What I expect from you is certainly something very different.”

What can this mean? What precisely is the problem with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith pursuing possible doctrinal errors? Does this comment relate to the experience of the two men back in 2009? 

One cannot help but see some grand irony in the fact that the Congregation for the Sacraments can police and restrict the celebration Traditional Latin Mass with such fervour that even advertising its' existence in the Parish newsletter is forbidden, presumably because its attended by the wrong sort of Catholics while the DDF receives the Pope's ire for actually doing its job and protecting the deposit of faith. This comment is made all the more insulting by the fact that the incumbent for so many years was Pope Benedict XVI, Francis' brilliant and saintly predecessor.

If you want a reminder of how incompetent Fernández actually is, I would point you to this post from from 2017 with input from Fr Raymond de Souza, Dominican Father Aidan Nichols & Vatican theologian Canon George Woodall.

The Pope continually appoints his cronies with no care or guile. Think of Zanchetta another Argentinian friend of the Pontiff . Between December 2018, when the allegations against him by two abused seminarians (the victims could have been many more) and March 2022, when he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison, the merciful pope sought to "save" Zanchetta by putting him in charge of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. The Jesuitification of the Vatican and the self-referential Argentinian clergy the Pope prefers are hardly "going out to the peripheries" is it? More like creating a very small, closed minded self affirming theological narrative. |Despite his own rhetoric to the contrary, Pope Francis continually shows himself to be the Pope of a very small number of Catholics with a certain ideological bent - mostly that the Catholic Church is wrong about a lot of stuff. 

Archbishop Fernández: “For many centuries, the Church...unwittingly developed a whole philosophy & morality full of classifications, to classify people...This one can receive Communion, this one cannot…This one can be forgiven, this one cannot. Terrible that this has happened.” https://t.co/7oIB0YwmbZ

— Diane Montagna (@dianemontagna) July 2, 2023

Can anyone argue that the appointment of Fernández is about merit rather than the fact he is one of the Pope's oldest mates?

As Eric Sammons puts it in Crisis Magazine:

"In the case of Pope Francis, his appointments—from Cardinal Cupich to Fr. James Martin to Archbishop Fernández to everyone in-between—have implemented a program that has undermined Catholic teaching at almost every turn. As President Harry Truman stated when it comes to being in charge, “The buck stops here.” When it comes to the attack on Catholic doctrine we see coming from so many figures in the Church, we need to realize that ultimately it points back to one man."

The Pope's self-referential style (10 out of the 11 references in his letter to Fernandez reference himself) makes a mockery of the Magisterium. His continual cronyism can be nothing except extremely divisive for the faithful, creating factions and favourites, not to mention fear, in the heart of the curia. It is increasingly clear that it is no longer acceptable to be the kind of Catholic Catholics have always been. 

Positioning Fernández like this just before the synod on synodality could be the sign of a dangerous strategy.

The Francis revolution is brutal, anti-intellectual & authoritarian in the extreme.