La Plata Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández has been named the new chief theologian and moral watchdog of the Vatican, but critics say his scandalous track record points to his lackluster performance on both counts.
The Vatican has announced Pope Francis has appointed La Plata Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández as the new prefect of the Holy See's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith Saturday (July 1).
The Argentinian prelate and papal protege succeeded Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, who has since retired from his post and would take up his duties by mid-September. Fernández would also serve as president of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.
The Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith is the successor office of the Vatican's Congregation of the Holy Office of the Inquisition and the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger held this office before his election as Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.
Aside from his doctrinal and theological duties, Fernández would also oversee the Catholic Church's response to sex abuse allegations committed by its own clergy, with the pope charging him to commit personally and directly to his new office's primary purpose of guarding Catholic doctrine, Vatican News reported.
Fernández was born in 1962 in the small Argentinian town of Alcira. He was ordained a priest in 1986 and received his theology doctorate in 1990. During his priestly ministry, he founded and directed the Jesús Buen Pastor Lay Formation Institute and Teacher Training Center in the town of Santa Teresita before moving to Buenos Aires as a theology professor and an expert to several commissions within the Argentinian bishops' conference and the Latin American Bishops Council (CELAM). Fernández was consecrated a bishop in 2013.
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Archbishop Fernández, a Controversial Cleric
However, the appointment of Fernández as the Vatican's theologian-in-chief has been blemished with controversy due to his past publications as an Argentine priest and bishop.
First among these is the fact that Fernández has been a close collaborator of then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio prior to his election to the papacy in 2013. It was reported that Fernández helped the new pope to draft his first constitution, "Evangelii Gaudium", in which Fernández cited his own prior scholarship as a source document. The archbishop was also purportedly involved in drafting the equally controversial 2016 papal document "Amoris Laetitia," which received numerous questions from several senior churchmen, including American Cardinal Raymond Burke.
But before his association with the then-Cardinal Bergoglio, he himself was questioned by the Holy See for some of his publications. In 2009, his term as rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina was suspended due to the need to answer objections to his appointment by Vatican officials doubting the orthodoxy of his scholarship. Part of this was the publication of his controversial 1995 work "Heal Me With Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing."
"[T]his book was not written based on my own experience, but based on the lives of people who kiss" and that he also wanted to focus on what poets had written about kissing," Fernández wrote in the book's introduction.
The Vatican did not mention the book in the partial list of his publications it issued with the appointment announcement.
He was also known for his 2004 work "Incarnated Spiritual Theology," which was featured in Argentinian soap opera about an illicit affair between a priest and a nun.
US Catholics Alarmed
Meanwhile, the US-based group BishopAccountability criticized Pope Francis for his "baffling and troubling choice" of chief Vatican theologian and moral watchdog.
In a statement, the group alleged Fernández refusing to believe victims who accused a priest under his watch, a certain Rev. Eduardo Lorenzo, of sexually abusing boys in 2019.
"For his handling of this case, Fernández should have been investigated, not promoted to one of the highest posts in the global church," the statement read. "Nothing about his performance suggests he is fit to lead the Pope's battle against abuse and cover-up."
The Archdiocese of La Plata has not yet commented on BishopAccountability's accusations.
On the other hand, Crisis Magazine editor-in-chief Eric Sammons detailed the "scandalous" appointment of Fernández, as well as Francis's audience with a group of artists, including the individual who created the "Piss Christ" display.
Sammons argued that every organization followed the "personnel is policy" concept, or a leader surrounding himself with yes men. "In the case of Pope Francis, his appointments...have implemented a program that has undermined Catholic teaching at almost every turn," he added.
Sammons added Fernández was to take charge of his new assignment prior to the opening session of the Vatican's Synod on Synodality as its "final push to rewrite the Catechism.
"Thus, Francis has in place someone who can rubber-stamp anything and everything the Synod produces, no matter how it strays from traditional Catholic teaching," he explained.
To conclude his piece, Sammons observed that the attack on Catholic doctrine coming from Catholic figures ultimately "points back to one man" - Pope Francis.
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