VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Victor Fernández, Pope Francis’s new doctrinal head, has argued that “clericalism” is the “main cause of abuse,” including among the abusers those who condemn “adulterers” and “sodomites.”
“All persons in authority have a tendency to abuse,” wrote Cardinal Fernández in an October 14 social media post entitled “Abuse, Clericalism and Synodality.”
Referencing “abuse of any kind,” Fernández stated that “for a long time it was taken for granted that authority gave access to a kind of possession that enabled one to use people for one’s own ends and to impose one’s own desires on them.”
Such had happened “at all levels much more than we had supposed,” he said, listing “priests abusing nuns to men abusing their maids,” as examples.
Referring to homosexual actions can be ‘abuse’
But the Vatican’s recently appointed head of the Dicastery (formerly Congregation) for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) added that “verbal violence” was also to be included among such abuse:
But there was also verbal violence that led too quickly to harshly judge others without any fear of hurting them and destroying their self-esteem. It was called: “adulterers,” “sodomites,” “illegal children,” “degenerated,” “sinners,” etc.
Fernández argued that the use of such words has led to a “necessary … healthy explosion of authority” and forced those in authority to have to “earn trust and respect with great effort, integrity and coherence.”
‘Clericalism’ the cause of abuse and ‘synodal’ Church the answer
Cardinal Fernández cited “humility and respect for people” as the two aspects forming a “framework that prevents abuse.” He also weighed in on the pope’s comments regarding the causes of sexual abuse.
Pope Francis has previously attributed problems of sexual abuse to what he refers to as “clericalism.” Such an argument has bewildered critics, who have instead pointed to the high percentages of homosexual acts involved in cases of abuse.
But Fernández defended Francis, saying that “humility and respect” support the Pope’s argument “that clericalism is the main cause of abuse in the Church, more than the sexualization of society.”
The new cardinal argued that the answer was not to be found in teaching morality or via a crackdown on the issue of homosexual clergy and related abuse, but in the promotion of synodality. “It also helps to understand the call for a more ‘synodal’ Church, where authority is understood only in the context of co-responsibility and the variety of charisms,” he said.
‘We all need a serious examination of conscience’
Fernández has led the Vatican’s doctrinal and disciplinary office since September 11. He now enjoys one of the most influential and prestigious roles at the Vatican and has been swift to exercise his authority.
READ: Archbishop Fernández claims opposition to Pope Francis’ ‘unique charism’ risks ‘heresy and schism’
Giving an interview in mid-September, Fernández argued that opposition to the Pope risked becoming “heresy and schism.” His comments came in light of pushback from Catholics – clerical and lay – who are concerned by Francis’s so-called “recent Magisterium” and about how Fernández might treat clerics “who won’t subscribe to the Holy Father’s magisterium as they might see it as contradicting established Church teaching.”
But in his new social media statement, Fernández argued that “it is very healthy to question any mystification of authority, or the excessive attributions given to certain attractive leaders who become adored leaders.”
He alluded to instances of “recent decades with the founders of various Institutes of Consecrated Life, supposed masters of orthodoxy” – perhaps a reference to cases such as the Legionaries of Christ – saying “we all need a serious examination of conscience.”
“It is not a matter of reversing roles – although today it is understandable that this is happening – but of placing authority in a context that prevents abuses of any kind and ensures religious respect for the dignity of persons,” he said.
“The history of the Church shows us ample examples of the absence of this respect in the midst of the ostentation of sound doctrine and rigid morals,” he added, echoing Francis’s regular attacks on so-called “rigid” Catholics.
Francis and Fernández: Troubled records on sexual abuse
Both Fernández and his fellow Argentine Pope Francis have been embroiled in allegations of sexual abuse cover-up. Pope Francis’s record includes the cases of Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, and ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
With his recent emergence into more public light, Fernández’s own record on abuse has come under wider scrutiny, although it had already been the subject of scandal in his native Latin America.
READ: Pope Francis calls for ‘zero tolerance’ on sex abuse, is silent on his own permissiveness
As LifeSite has reported, Fernández is accused of having “publicly defended” the influential Father Eduardo Lorenzo in the wake of re-surfaced child sex abuse allegations against the priest, dating to 2008.
READ: Archbishop Fernández will oversee sex abuse cases despite questionable record on predator priests
Fernández is also accused of Fernández’s mishandling affairs regarding the Antonio Provolo Institute for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Children in La Plata, a case he inherited when he assumed control of the Archdiocese of La Plata.
At the school, over 24 children were reportedly sexually abused and tortured by school staff, and the school’s director, Father Nicola Corradi, S.M., was sentenced to 42 years in prison in 2019 for raping and sexually assaulting deaf children at a Provolo school in Mendoza.
Indeed, days before Fernández was made cardinal, a clerical sex abuse advocacy group demonstrated outside the Vatican, demanding that the prelate be removed from his role leading the CDF and handling all the Church’s cases of sexual abuse.
READ: Sex abuse victims demand Pope Francis remove Archbishop Fernández at protest in Rome
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