Vatican doctrine chief’s book describing orgasms divides Catholics

The Vatican’s newly-appointed doctrine chief has found himself at the crossroads of a culture war within the Catholic Church – between Catholics who embrace the Church’s increasingly modern trajectory, and others who reject it.

Already criticised by entire bishops conferences over his approval of blessings for same-sex couples, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez is again under fire over a book he wrote as a young priest that describes orgasms in graphic terms.

Fernandez’ Spanish-language book, titled “La pasión mística: espiritualidad y sensualidad” (“The Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality”) is a short exposé about mystical-sensual experiences with God. Published in Mexico in 1998, the book is now out of print.

But traditionalist Catholic blogs in Italy and Argentina dug up the text recently, causing furor among conservative and traditionalist Catholics who already had a bone to pick with the Cardinal over his role in making the church more LGBTQ-friendly.

A “mystical orgasm”

According to Catholic website Crux, Fernandez’ book posits that sexual pleasure has “a particular nobility” above other bodily pleasures, because it involves two people and is thus shared.

“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 wrote.

Fernandez’ most explicit language comes in later chapters, where he describes love shared with God as a “mystical orgasm”.

He reflects on how men and women experience orgasms differently – at one point, describing the female orgasm, he writes that women are “often insatiable” and “may crave more,” purportedly because of ample blood flow during a climax.

He also concludes that women get less pleasure from watching pornography and that they need men to “to play a little” before intercourse. He also notes that men and women make different noises during sex.

In the book’s final chapters, Fernandez delves into his commentary about sexual desire, pornography, sexual satisfaction and domination, along with the role of pleasure in God’s mystical plan.

“If God can be present at that level of our existence, he can also 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 to God,” he wrote.

A young priest’s reflections on sexual pleasure

While Scripture is full of stories of mystical ecstasy, and Pope Benedict XVI even wrote of the passionate love experienced by married couples, Fernandez’ explicitness in discussing orgasm – bordering on caricature at times – suggests a familiarity with sex that seems uncommon for a celibate priest.

Fernandez told Crux that he had written “The Mystical Passion” after having conversations with young couples who wanted to better understand their relationships.

He said he wrote the book when he was a young priest, and that he would never write such a thing now.

Fernandez also added that he had ordered the book’s publication to be halted soon after it first came out, when he first realised it could be misinterpreted. The conversation around the book now is happening without his consent, he said.

“The Mystical Passion” is similar in tone to another Fernandez book that sparked scandal soon after he was appointed called “Heal Me With Your Mouth. The Art of Kissing.”

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, giving him marching orders to radically change the office’s course.

A Changemaker in the Catholic Church

Fernandez first made his name as Pope Francis’ theological ghostwriter, the man behind many of Francis’ major texts.

Over the past year, the Argentine theologian has shaken the Catholic Church with a flurry of official decrees on hot-button issues, such as allowing transgender people to serve as godparents.

“The Mystical Passion” is just the latest black mark against him, as conservative and traditionalist Catholics’ outrage builds following the publication of a declaration from his office approving blessings for same-sex couples.

The declaration, which was approved by Francis on 18 December and published a day later, sparked a remarkable backlash among bishops around the world.

Some national bishops conferences in Africa and Eastern Europe, and individual bishops elsewhere, even flatly said they wouldn’t implement it.

The pushback prompted Fernandez to issue an explanatory note last week, insisting that the declaration wasn’t heretical, but acknowledging that its provisions may not be applicable – at least not immediately – in some parts of the world.

He allowed that further “pastoral reflection” may be necessary.

Exposing divisions in the Church

While LGBTQ+ Catholics have hailed Fernandez’s openness to making the Catholic Church a more welcoming place, conservatives have been vocal in their outrage.

Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, the retired head of the Vatican’s liturgy office, was the latest high-ranking prelate to denounce the declaration known as Fiducia Supplicans, saying it was the work of the devil and insisting on previous church teaching declaring homosexual acts to be “intrinsically disordered.”

Sarah praised bishops conferences in Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria, for example, that have rejected the declaration.

“In doing so, we are not opposing Pope Francis, but we are firmly and radically opposing a heresy that seriously undermines the church, the body of Christ, because it is contrary to the Catholic faith and tradition,” he wrote in an essay published by Vatican columnist Sandro Magister.

To date, the reaction to “The Mystical Passion” has been fiercest among traditionalist and conservative Catholic commentators on social media.

For many on the Catholic right, it’s yet another sign that the ground is shifting. It piles onto recent comments from one of the Vatican’s most respected canon lawyers, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, saying the church should open discussion on allowing priests to marry.

The Wanderer, a conservative Catholic newspaper in the United States, said the revelations about Fernandez’s book were cause for alarm and confirmed the direction of Francis’ 10-year pontificate.

“If this is not grounds for immediate removal of Cardinal Fernandez from his post at the Doctrine of the Faith and the repeal of the the document Fiducia Supplicans — this pontificate along with our church will be heading further into the abyss,” wrote Joseph Matt, the newspaper president, in an online editorial.