THERE is a brouhaha in the Church’s inner circles over the appointment of Argentinian Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez.
Those who have been wishing for a more considerate Church, bank on Fernandez’s appointment as a step closer to the changes said to be long overdue. Conservatives on the contrary think that the devil, finally, has entered the Vatican.
An issue that was raised by Fernandez’s critics is his book “Heal Me With Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing.”
While for the incoming prefect, this is a pastor’s catechesis for teens, it is for some saintly Catholics a “manual of eroticism.”
I have not read the book and so I cannot comment on it. What I know though is that “sex and eroticism” are not foreign to theological and mystical language. Scholars of Teresa of Avila have been textually analyzing the sensual themes in the Carmelite mystic’s reflections and prayers.
I checked the archbishop’s profile on the net and saw that he has several publications, most if not all are primarily titled in Spanish. He is a biblical scholar by training.
He may not be the best theologian on the planet, but he is certainly not some assuming cleric who equates theology with parroting the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is fair to also consider his other writings before we’d conclude that he is not the man for the job.
Surely, he is not like Ratzinger, and neither is he even like his predecessor the Jesuit Cardinal Ladaria Ferrer who has worked with the former for many years.
However, there is nothing in the Church’s rules that say that only the Germans and the Spaniards may be appointed as prefect of the Dicastery on the Doctrine of Faith.
Some close friends of mine would insist that Latin American theologians are not theologians but ideologues. This is a hasty generalization.
In our age, the prefect of the dicastery of the doctrine of faith is no longer the grand inquisitor of the Church. Anyone who’d equate the defense of faith with conservatism is guilty of error because nowhere in the Christian tradition is faith understood as a static reality.
Faith grows and develops because God who is its subject is beyond human comprehension. Although we do have knowledge of revealed Truths but even revelation itself is not a one-shot affair between God and man.
John Henry Newman once spoke about doctrinal development. Although the main idea (essence) of the doctrine remains the same but its external expressions and more so its pastoral applications cannot but grow in time.
Many are afraid that the Church would change its teachings on marriage, homosexuality, and ordination. But are our fears really for the Church that we love? Or are they not just the insecurities of those who might lose their social comfort and political control over the Church? Many of the Church’s privileged ecclesiastics are protecting their status using concepts that emphasize difference, power, and privilege.
In his letter, the Pope told Fernandez that the central purpose of his Office “is to guard the teaching that flows from the faith in order to ‘to give reasons for our hope, but not as an enemy who critiques and condemns.’”
A detail must not be missed in this line. Church teaching (doctrine) flows from Faith (in Christ) and not the other way around. Faith is constant even if doctrines change. If a doctrine means anything in the life of the Church, it is not just because it articulates the Truth. More importantly, it gives believers hope, growth, and confidence and not despair, division, and anxiety.*