Cardinal Pietro Parolin celebrates Mass for peace in Ukraine on Thursday in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, Nov. 17, 2022. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez / CNA Rome Newsroom, Jan 13, 2024 / 10:15 am (CNA). Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, has commented on the divided reaction to the Fiducia Supplicans document amid a great backlash from episcopal conferences.“This document has aroused very strong reactions; this means that a very delicate, very sensitive point has been touched; it will take further investigation,” Parolin said on Friday, Jan. 12, during a conference held at the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome. The cardinal went on to say that “if these ferments serve to walk according to the Gospel to give answers to today, these ferments are also welcome,” while reiterating that “the Church is open and attentive to the signs of the times but must be faithful to the Gospel.” When asked in a follow-up question by an Italian journalist if the document was a mistake, the Vatican’s top diplomat responded curtly: “I do not enter into these considerations; the reactions tell us that it has touched a very sensitive point."The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s Dec. 18 document has made it permissible for priests to offer nonliturgical blessings for couples in “irregular” situations, including gay couples, noting “that it offers a specific and innovative contribution to the pastoral meaning of blessings, permitting a broadening and enrichment of the classical understanding of blessings.” “What has been said in this declaration regarding the blessings of same-sex couples is sufficient to guide the prudent and fatherly discernment of ordained ministers in this regard. Thus, beyond the guidance provided above, no further responses should be expected about possible ways to regulate details or practicalities regarding blessings of this type,” Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote in Fiducia Supplicans. However, following widespread backlash from episcopal conferences in Africa and Eastern Europe, and strong denouncements from some of the Church’s senior prelates, Fernández issued a five-page press release on Jan. 4 to provide clarification on the document, writing that its application will depend “on local contexts and the discernment of each diocesan bishop with his diocese.”“In some places, no difficulties arise for their immediate application, while in others it will be necessary not to introduce them, while taking the time necessary for reading and interpretation,” Fernández continued in the letter. One of the strongest statements to date came from Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, archbishop of Kinshasa and president of the Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM). In his Jan. 11 letter, Ambongo stressed that the African bishops “have strongly reaffirmed their communion with Pope Francis” but noted that Fiducia Supplicans caused “a shockwave” and has “sown misconceptions and unrest in the minds of many lay faithful, consecrated persons, and even pastors, and has aroused strong reactions.”In his address to the clergy of Rome on Jan. 13, the pope provided clarifying remarks on the

Cardinal Pietro Parolin celebrating Mass for peace in Ukraine on Thursday in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, Nov. 17, 2022 / Daniel Ibáñez / CNA Vatican City, Jan 13, 2024 / 10:15 am (CNA). Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, has commented on the divided reaction to the Fiducia Supplians document, amid a great backlash from episcopal conferences.“This document has aroused very strong reactions; this means that a very delicate, very sensitive point has been touched; it will take further investigation,” Cardinal Parolin said on Friday, Jan. 12 during a conference held at the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome. The cardinal went on to say that "if these ferments serve to walk according to the Gospel to give answers to today, these ferments are also welcome," while reiterating that “the Church is open and attentive to the signs of the times but must be faithful to the Gospel.” When asked in a follow-up question by an Italian journalist if the document was a mistake, the Vatican’s top diplomat responded curtly: “I do not enter into these considerations; the reactions tell us that it has touched a very sensitive point."The Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith’s Dec. 18 document has made it permissible for priests to offer extra-liturgical blessings for couples in “irregular” situations, including gay couples, noting “that it offers a specific and innovative contribution to the pastoral meaning of blessings, permitting a broadening and enrichment of the classical understanding of blessings.” “What has been said in this Declaration regarding the blessings of same-sex couples is sufficient to guide the prudent and fatherly discernment of ordained ministers in this regard. Thus, beyond the guidance provided above, no further responses should be expected about possible ways to regulate details or practicalities regarding blessings of this type,” Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), wrote in Fiducia Supplicans. However, following widespread backlash from episcopal conferences in Africa and Eastern Europe, and strong denouncements from some of the Church’s senior prelates, Fernández issued a five-page press release on Jan. 4 to provide clarification on the document, writing that its application will depend “on local contexts and the discernment of each diocesan bishop with his diocese.”“In some places, no difficulties arise for their immediate application, while in others it will be necessary not to introduce them, while taking the time necessary for reading and interpretation,” Fernández continued in the letter. One of the strongest statements to date came from Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, Archbishop of Kinshasa and President of the Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM). In his Jan. 11 letter, Besungu stressed that the African bishops “have strongly reaffirmed their communion with Pope Francis,” but noted that Fiducia Supplicans caused “a shockwave” and has “sown misconceptions and unrest in the minds of many lay faithful, consecrated persons, and even pastors, and has aroused strong reactions.”In his address to the clergy of Rome on Jan. 13, the pope provided clarifying remarks on the

The ordination of St. Hilary of Poitiers. / Credit: Richard de Montbaston et collaborateurs/Public domain via Wikimedia Commons Vatican City, Jan 13, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA). After a long journey to the Catholic faith, Hilary (born in 310) was baptized in 345 and elected bishop of Poitiers in 353. His first work, “Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew,” is the oldest surviving Latin commentary on that Gospel. Pope Pius IX formally recognized him as a doctor of the Church in 1851.During a Wednesday audience in St. Peter’s Square in October 2007, Pope Benedict XVI said St. Hilary of Poitiers was someone who battled against the Arian heresy, which said that Jesus is not divine. Benedict said that Hilary of Poitiers’ teaching shows us that “the path to Christ is open to everyone ... although it always requires individual conversion.”Hilary had many great qualities, among which the Holy Father noted were his “spirit of conciliation that seeks to understand those who have not already arrived and helps them, with great theological knowledge, to reach the full faith in the true divinity of Jesus Christ.”Along with this, Hilary had another “great gift,” the Holy Father said: “to join strength in the faith and meekness in his relations with others.”Hilary was exiled to Phrygia in Turkey in 356 by Arian bishops at the so-called “synod of false apostles” by order of the emperor Constantius, who had aligned himself with the decisions at the synod. Following the emperor’s death in 361, Hilary returned to Poitiers, where he remained until his own demise six years later.In his most important work, “De Trinitate,” St. Hilary “describes his personal journey to a knowledge of God and is concerned to show how sacred Scripture clearly testifies to the divinity of the Son and his equality with the Father, not only in the New Testament but also in the Old, where the mystery of Christ is already apparent,” the pope said.The bishop of Poitiers, Benedict said, “develops all his Trinitarian theology on the basis of the formula of baptism, which the Lord himself gives us, in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”Benedict explained how St. Hilary presents “precise rules” for a correct reading of the Gospel when he indicates how “some pages of Scripture speak of Jesus as God, others underline his humanity, others still ... his preexistence at the side of the Father ... his descent to death ... his resurrection.”“Firm in his opposition to radical Arians, Hilary showed a more conciliatory spirit towards to those who were prepared to confess that the Son was like to the Father in essence, always seeking to lead them to a complete faith: ... not just likeness but equality ... in divinity.”The beauty of Hilary’s words and of his consciousness of the seriousness and grace of his baptism lead him to pray: “Grant, O Lord, that I may remain faithful to what I have professed in the symbol of my regeneration, when I was baptized

Pope Francis meets with representatives of DIALOP, Transversal Dialogue Project, an association of European leftist politicians and academics that seeks to bridge Catholic social teaching and Marxist theory, on Jan. 10, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media Rome Newsroom, Jan 12, 2024 / 10:30 am (CNA). Pope Francis this week called for cooperation between Christians and Marxists as a way to achieve greater “dialogue” and help in the search for the “common good.” “I thank you for your commitment to dialogue,” the pope said in a private meeting on Jan. 10 with 15 representatives of DIALOP (Transversal Dialogue Project), an association of European leftist politicians and academics that seeks to bridge Catholic social teaching and Marxist theory.“There is always a great need for dialogue, so do not be afraid,” the pope said during the event at the Paul VI Audience Hall.Highlighting the nexus between social, economic, and ecological issues, the pope said that “politics that is truly at the service of humanity cannot let itself be dictated to by finance and market mechanisms.”The pope buttressed his call for a more inclusive participation in economic and political decision-making by suggesting that “instead of rigid approaches that divide, let us cultivate, with open hearts, discussion and listening.”“And not exclude anyone at the political, social, or religious level, so that the contribution of each can, in its concrete distinctiveness, receive a positive reception in the processes of change to which our future is linked,” the Holy Father added.“Don’t back off, don’t give up, and don’t stop dreaming of a better world. For it is in imagination, the ability to dream, that intelligence, intuition, experience, and historical memory come together to make us be creative, take chances, and run risks.” Pope Francis meets with representatives of DIALOP, Transversal Dialogue Project, an association of European leftist politicians and academics that seeks to bridge Catholic social teaching and Marxist theory, on Jan. 10, 2024, at the Vatican. Credit: Vatican MediaThe pope argued that “solidarity is not only a moral virtue but also a requirement of justice, which calls for correcting the distortions and purifying the intentions of unjust systems, not least through radical changes of perspective in the sharing of challenges and resources among individuals and among peoples.”The pope closed his speech with a reflection on the importance of the rule of law, saying: “It is only in honesty and integrity that healthy relationships can be established and that we can cooperate confidently and effectively in building a better future.”Pope Francis has made critique of the market economy one of the defining themes of his pontificate. In his 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, the pope wrote: “We can no longer trust in the unseen forces and the invisible hand of the market.”“Growth in justice requires more than economic growth, while presupposing such growth: It requires decisions, programs, mechanisms, and processes specifically geared to a better distribution of income, the creation of sources of employment, and an integral promotion of the poor, which goes beyond a simple welfare

St. Arcadius. / Credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 12, 2024 / 09:45 am (CNA). On Jan. 12, the Church honors the feast days for several martyrs and groups of martyrs at a time in which Christians still face persecution and the threat of martyrdom at the hands of authoritarian governments and other hostile actors in many parts of the world.“Invent what torments you please,“ St. Arcadius of Mauretania told a pagan judge who threatened him with torture if he would not offer a sacrifice to one of the false Roman gods in 302 A.D., according to Catholic.net.“Nothing shall make me betray my God,” Arcadius said. “The fear of death will never make me fail in my duty.“The judge ordered the torture and execution of Arcadius, which was carried out by chopping off his limbs. The martyr is one of many Christians who was put to death during the Roman persecution of Christians in the early fourth century.“Learn from my torments,“ Arcadius is said to have told onlookers as he was dying. “Your gods are nothing. The only true God is the one for whom I am suffering and about to die. To die for him is to live.“Jan. 12 also marks the feast days for three different groups of martyrs, spanning three different continents: the Martyrs of Ephesus in A.D. 762, in present-day Turkey; the Martyrs of Iona in A.D. 806, in present-day Scotland; and the Martyrs of Africa, whose specific date and location is unknown.The Ephesus martyrs numbered between 40 and 50 monks who were persecuted under a fellow Christian, Byzantine Emperor Constantine V. They were killed for opposing the ruler’s adherence to and enforcement of the heresy of iconoclasm, which opposed the veneration of icons and manifested in the destruction of holy images throughout the East.The Iona martyrs were more than 60 monks who were killed when Danish pirates raided the island, burned down the monastery, and slaughtered the occupants. This was one of many Viking raids on the British Isles by Norse pagans. Most of the details of the African martyrdom honored on Jan. 12 have been lost to history, but the feast honors about 50 soldiers who were killed for their faith.Although these martyrdoms occurred more than 1,000 years ago, many Christians around the world still face the threat of martyrdom in 2024. According to a report from the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, more than 50% of the world’s population lives in a country in which state or nonstate actors persecute people for their religious beliefs.In recent years, Nigeria has been one of the most dangerous spots for Christians. Just last month, Islamic terrorists launched an attack on Christian villages that left nearly 200 Nigerian Christians dead. During a 15-month period throughout 2021 and the first three months of 2022, more than 5,000 Christians were killed in attacks. A separate report from the watchdog group Open Doors found that the persecution of Christians is at its highest point in decades.

Bernini's baldacchino at the papal Mass on Jan. 1, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media Rome Newsroom, Jan 11, 2024 / 13:15 pm (CNA). The Vatican announced on Thursday that the soaring baldacchino over the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini 400 years ago will undergo a major restoration.The ambitious restoration and conservation project, expected to be completed just before the start of the Catholic Church’s jubilee year in December, will require scaffolding to be set up around the canopy of the basilica’s main altar for nearly a year.Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, has assured that papal liturgies will still be able to take place in the basilica amid the restoration work.The 700,000 euro (about $768,000) restoration is being funded by the Knights of Columbus and will be carried out by the Vatican Museums’ expert art restorers.Patrick Kelly, the head of the Knights of Columbus, was present in Rome for a press conference on Jan. 11 to announce the restoration in the basilica, calling the project “one of the greatest restorations” of the many that the Knights have funded at the Vatican in the past 40 years.“It’s Bernini’s baldacchino … It’s a singular masterpiece of sacred art — one which is instantly recognizable and impressive,” Kelly said.“But, if that weren’t enough, this project also fits very well with our mission and with our history of service to the Church, and especially, the successors of St. Peter.”Pope Urban VIII commissioned Bernini in 1624 to design and build the enormous canopy over the Papal Altar of the Confession, located directly over the tomb of St. Peter the Apostle. With its twisted bronze columns, the baldacchino stretches 92 feet high. Intricately decorated with gilded Baroque angels, cherubs, bees, and laurel branches, the canopy took Bernini nine years to create with considerable help from his architectural rival, Francesco Borromini. The pope directed Bernini to dismantle and melt down bronze beams from Rome’s ancient Pantheon to help create the massive baldacchino, which in total weighs nearly 70 tons. The canopy was finally revealed to the public in 1633.After visiting St. Peter’s Basilica in 1873, novelist Henry James described his encounter with the baldacchino: “You have only to stroll and stroll and gaze and gaze; to watch the glorious altar-canopy lift its bronze architecture, its colossal embroidered contortions, like a temple within a temple, and feel yourself, at the bottom of the abysmal shaft of the dome dwindle to a crawling dot.”At the Vatican press conference, Pietro Zander, the head of the artistic and archeological patrimony of the basilica, explained that a preliminary investigation found that the baldacchino had a “degraded state of conservation” and that its entire surface is covered “with a dark coating,” which requires significant cleaning.“The deterioration issues … are in part to the many visitors and pilgrims who flock to St. Peter's Basilica every day, changing its microclimate by their presence,” Zander said.“The basilica welcomes up to 50,000 people every day,” he said. “Considerable microclimatic variations

Pope Francis greets pilgrims at his Wednesday general audience on Jan. 10, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media Rome Newsroom, Jan 10, 2024 / 09:45 am (CNA). In the third installment of his catechetical series on vice and virtue, Pope Francis on Wednesday focused on the sin of gluttony, noting that the vice is not about “food in itself, but on our relationship with it.” Framing Wednesday’s general audience on the social and psychological impact of this vice, the 87-year-old pontiff underscored that “gluttony is perhaps the most dangerous vice, which is killing the planet.”“The sin of those who succumb before a piece of cake, all things considered, does not cause great damage, but the voracity with which we have been plundering the goods of the planet for some centuries now is compromising the future of all,” Pope Francis said to the faithful gathered in the Paul VI Audience Hall on Jan. 10. Pope Francis delivers a message at his Wednesday general audience Jan. 10, 2024. Credit: Vatican MediaBuilding on the socioeconomic dimension of this vice, Francis noted that “we have grabbed everything, in order to become the masters of all things, while everything had been consigned to our custody. This is why the fury of the belly is a great sin: We have abjured the name of men, to assume another, ‘consumers.’” “We were made in order to be ‘eucharistic’ men and women, capable of giving thanks, discreet in the use of the land, and instead the danger is that we turn into predators; and now we are realizing that this form of ‘gluttony’ has done a great deal of harm to the world.” The pope noted that part of the danger of gluttony arises from the fact that it is a vice “that latches onto one of our vital needs, such as eating.” He related this to the grave psychological consequences that arise from an unhealthy relationship with food, “especially in supposedly comfortable societies where many imbalances and pathologies manifest themselves.” Pope Francis greets pilgrims at his Wednesday general audience on Jan. 10, 2024. Credit: Vatican MediaLamenting that eating disorders such as “anorexia, bulimia, obesity” have become all too prevalent, the pope said that these diseases, which are “extremely painful,” are typically “mostly linked to sufferings of the psyche and the soul.”The pope went on to note an unhealthy relationship with food “is the manifestation of something internal.” Focusing on the interiority of these pathologies, the Holy Father said that when thinking about gluttony — and our broader relationship with food — we have to ask whether it is “a predisposition to balance or immoderation; the capacity to give thanks or the arrogant presumption of autonomy; the empathy of those who share food with the needy, or the selfishness of those who hoard everything for themselves.” Swiss Guards stand in the middle of Paul VI Hall during Pope Francis’ general audience on Jan. 10, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media“This question is so important. Tell me how you eat, and I will tell you what kind of soul

Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican. / Credit: Krzysztof Golik, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons ACI Prensa Staff, Jan 9, 2024 / 18:30 pm (CNA). Vatican City has new tenants: seven nuns from Argentina who, at the request of Pope Francis, will live in Mater Ecclesiae (“Mother of the Church”), the monastery where Pope Benedict XVI resided for almost a decade following his resignation from the papacy.The group consists of six Benedictine nuns and their abbess who were previously living out their religious vocation at St. Scholastica Abbey in the town of Victoria, located in Buenos Aires province in the Diocese of San Isidro, Argentina.The nuns landed in Rome on the morning of Jan. 3 and were received by Cardinal Fernando Vérguez Alzaga, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State, responsible for everything concerning the monastery.Before heading to their new home, the Benedictine nuns visited the replica of the Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican Gardens to pray and sing before the image of the Virgin.On Jan. 6, the nuns attended the Mass for the Epiphany in St. Peter’s Basilica. At the end of the liturgy, Pope Francis greeted them: “Welcome with all my heart. You are going to bring spirituality, thank you very much,” the Holy Father said to the nuns.The purpose of Mater EcclesiaeAs reported by the Holy See, Pope Francis in a letter dated Oct. 1, 2023, ordered that the place “return to its original purpose,” which is for “contemplative orders to support the Holy Father in his daily concern for the entire Church, through the ministry of prayer, adoration, praise, and reparation, thus being a prayerful presence in silence and solitude.”The Argentine Benedictine nuns “generously accepted the invitation.”The place that was the last residence of Benedict XVI, located among the hills of these gardens, was erected as a women’s monastery of contemplative life with the title of Mater Ecclesiae by St. John Paul II in 1994.Between 1994 and 2012, four communities — the Poor Clares, the Discalced Carmelites, the Benedictines, and the Visitation nuns — in turn lived there.In 2013, after Benedict XVI’s historic resignation from the papacy, the monastery became his residence, where he remained until his death on Dec. 31, 2022, in the company of Archbishop Georg Gänswein and four consecrated women.St. Scholastica Abbey in VictoriaThe St. Scholastica Abbey in Victoria was founded in 1941. Almost three years earlier, the construction of their church had begun on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, on Dec. 8, 1938, at the urging of the prior of the St. Benedict Abbey in Buenos Aires, Father Andrés Azcárate.The nuns who were to move to Argentina received their formation at St. Mary’s Abbey in São Paulo, Brazil. In September 1941, “four Brazilians who had taken their solemn vows, six Argentines with temporary vows, and one other sister” left for Argentina, forming the founding community, as detailed on its website.In 1946, the monastery was raised to the status of an abbey with Mother Plácida de Oliveira being named the

Pope Francis greets Archbishop Charles Scicluna. / Credit: Vatican Media Vatican City, Jan 8, 2024 / 12:13 pm (CNA). A Vatican official has said that he thinks the Catholic Church’s priestly celibacy requirement in the Latin rite should be revised.Archbishop Charles Scicluna, who serves as the archbishop of Malta and is an assistant secretary at the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, said in an interview published Jan. 7 that the Church should “think seriously about” changing the Western discipline.“If it were up to me, I would revise the requirement that priests have to be celibate,” he said, according to a captioned Maltese-language video interview by the Times of Malta.“This is probably the first time I’m saying it publicly and it will sound heretical to some people,” he added.The 64-year-old archbishop said that the Church should learn from the Eastern Churches, which allow married men the option to get ordained to the priesthood.“Why should we lose a young man who would have made a fine priest, just because he wanted to get married? And we did lose good priests just because they chose marriage,” he said.Scicluna, who has personally handled multiple investigations into clerical sex abuse on behalf of the Vatican’s doctrine office, made the comments when asked about Catholic priests in Malta who have secret relationships and have fathered illegitimate children.“This is a global reality; it doesn’t just happen in Malta. We know there are priests around the world who also have children and I think there are ones in Malta who may have too,” Scicluna said.“A man may mature, engage in relationships, love a woman. As it stands, he must choose between her and priesthood, and some priests cope with that by secretly engaging in sentimental relationships,” he said.Scicluna, who was a delegate at the Synod on Synodality assembly last fall, added that he has previously spoken openly in Rome about his views on priestly celibacy.Priestly celibacy discussed at Synod on SynodalityThe requirement of priestly celibacy was openly discussed at the 2019 Synod of Bishops on the Pan-Amazon region, but in the end, Pope Francis chose not to mention celibacy in his postsynodal apostolic exhortation.The topic came up again during the 2023 Synod on Synodality assembly at the Vatican in October. The assembly’s synthesis report has asked whether it is necessary to maintain the discipline of priestly celibacy in the Latin rite of the Catholic Church and called for the question to be taken up again in the next assembly in October 2024, noting that “different assessments were expressed” on the topic during the first synod assembly.Pope Francis on priestly celibacyIn an interview for a book published in October, Pope Francis pushed back against the idea that changes to Church practice such as introducing female deacons or optional priestly celibacy would help boost vocations.Asked about women’s ordination bringing “more people closer to the Church” and optional priestly celibacy helping with priest shortages, Pope Francis said he does not share these views.“Lutherans ordain women, but still few people go to church,” Pope Francis

null / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA 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