The Argentine prelate will bid farewell to his diocese with a Thanksgiving Mass on August 5. From La Plata he will travel to Rome where he will be installed to succeed Cardinal Ladaria at the head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Following his appointment as the new prefect for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Pope Francis’ choice of Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández faced immediate criticism.
While much of the reaction to Fernández’s appointment has concerned his theological writing and engagement with issues like blessings for same-sex couples, some has focused on his canonical qualifications and experience handling accusations of clerical sexual abuse. He himself was investigated on his theological stands he is to head.
Cardinal-designate Víctor Manuel Fernández, the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, told the Associated Press on July 9 that he “did not act in the best way” in addressing abuse allegations against a diocesan priest in 2019—even as the prelate offered excuses for his decisions.
Fernández has addressed in this interview topics such as the German Synodal Path , the decree issued by the Dicastery in 2021 on the refusal to bless homosexual couples or his controversial book that everyone is talking about July 5, 2023.

What will be your main lines of work as Prefect of the Department for the Doctrine of the Faith?
Yesterday I sent a letter to the members of the Dicastery telling them that I admired Cardinal Ladaria as a theologian and also for his style of work, which I consider exemplary, but I added that I would do it “in my own way” as the Italian song says. Given the Pope’s call for synodality, I will have to listen a bit first before making decisions, but there are certainly considerations from the letter the Pope sent me that we will have to apply in some way.

Why did you ask the Pope not to deal with the issue of abuse?
The first time he offered me this position, I answered no, first of all because I did not consider myself suitable to lead the work in the disciplinary area. I am not a canonist, and in fact when I arrived in La Plata I had little idea of how to deal with these issues. It is complex because in principle one has to believe those who present accusations of child abuse, one must believe them, and on the other hand one cannot convict the priest without due process, which requires time. And in the middle come all the claims to which one has to respond by saying as little as possible so as not to interfere.

“Cardinal-designate Víctor Manuel Fernández, the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, told the Associated Press on July 9 that he “did not act in the best way” in addressing abuse allegations against a diocesan priest in 2019 – even as the prelate offered excuses for his decisions.”

At that time I let myself be guided by the canonists and I was learning, but with enormous suffering for fear of being unfair to one or the other. You imagine that having to go to Rome to take care of that was torture. But the Pope told me that, precisely, what he wanted was for the Prefect to delegate this task to the Disciplinary Section, which was created recently, because it has highly qualified professionals, and added: “I ask you as Prefect to dedicate your personal commitment to more directly to the main purpose of the Dicastery” related to faith, Theology, the transmission of faith. In this I felt more secure. If “humility is true”, I feel secure with my theological knowledge, even though I have written many prayer booklets, or simple catechisms. I am a theologian and the Pope emphasizes in his letter that I was dean of theology, President of the Argentine Society of Theology and President of the Episcopal Commission for Faith and Culture (doctrinal) always elected by vote by my peers. It was not out of accommodation or friendship with Bergoglio.
Other “courts” of the time were far more cruel and immoral than the Catholic Church.

In your letter to the faithful of the Archdiocese of La Plata, your statement that the Holy Office even tortured and killed generated controversy. Do you reiterate it?
R-In that letter I said that “not everything was like that”, but we cannot deny that there were tortures and deaths. We know that this cannot be judged with current criteria. I reiterated it in a journalistic interview. But what is wrong is wrong and I defend objective morality. If historical conditioning can reduce guilt, and this must be considered in our judgments, we cannot deny that this was “objectively” bad. We also know that other “courts” of the time were much more cruel and immoral than the Catholic Church, even those of other Christian denominations, but what is wrong is wrong.
In my style of Archbishop, that concern for ordaining women or things like that has not been present.

One of the main challenges you will face is the controversial German Synodal Path, how do you intend to address this problem?
I confess that being Archbishop of La Plata I got excited about what is mine, which is to announce the Gospel, preach, instil spirituality (did you know that most of my books are about God, prayer, Mary, the Mass, confession, eternal life…?) and I devoted little time to ecclesiastical internships. For an entire year I did a radio program every day dedicated only to talking about God and his attributes. Germans always attract attention, and in my style as an Archbishop that concern for ordaining women or the like has not been present. Obviously now it is up to me to update myself on the matter, listen, talk, consult. For now, I have to tell you that I don’t think there isn’t something good in this German “movement”. Once Cardinal Ladaria told me that he hoped there was some heretic who would force us to deepen our faith.

In 2021 this Dicastery affirmed that homosexual couples cannot be blessed, do you agree?
Look, just as I am firmly against abortion (and I challenge you to find someone in Latin America who has written more articles against abortion than I have), I also understand that “marriage” in the strict sense is only one thing: that stable union of two beings as different as male and female, who in that difference are capable of generating new life. There is nothing that can be compared to that and using that name to express something else is not good or correct. At the same time, I believe that gestures or actions that may express something different should be avoided. That is why I think that the greatest care that must be taken is to avoid rites or blessings that could feed this confusion. Now, if a blessing is given in such a way that it does not cause that confusion, it will have to be analysed and confirmed. As you will see,
The doctrine does not change

For you, is the doctrine something that can change or has to be kept intact as it has been received for hundreds of years?
The doctrine does not change, because it is ultimately the unfathomable, marvellous and immutable mystery of the Trinity expressed in Christ. Everything is there, and that cannot be improved or changed. There is nothing to add to it. Another thing is our understanding of that doctrine, and that in fact has changed and will continue to change. That is why in Dei Verbum it is said, for example, that the work of exegetes can mature the opinion of the Church.

These days the book you wrote entitled ‘Heal me with your mouth’ is being highly commented. The art of kissing’, do you regret having written it?
No. Any theologian, biblical scholar or writer knows that in order to interpret a text it is key to situate oneself clearly in front of its own genre and not ask it for what it cannot give. That is a book that I did together with a group of young people when I was a very young parish priest. And the theme of that book is deeply conservative. Do you know why? Because I responded to the concern of these young people – very well trained by me – to learn to explain to other young people why premarital relations should be avoided. Look what progress was the objective of the book.
Well, talking and talking, it occurred to us to emphasize that sex is not everything, that if one postpones it, one can develop many other forms of expression of love and grow in that love. So, as an example of one of those expressions of affection that can be without having to get to sex, there was the kiss. So, together with them, we surveyed other young people, we looked for poems and we put together this catechism. It was not a Theology manual, it was a pastoral attempt that I will never regret. Of course I would not write something like that today, I am already 60 years old and I am beginning to prepare for eternal life. In fact, shortly thereafter I asked the publisher not to reprint it. Doesn’t it seem rude to you to take that little book, to use individual phrases from that youth pastoral booklet to judge me as a theologian?

Finally, your appointment has generated controversy in some ecclesial circles that fear that you may carry out a task far removed from what should be the Prefect of the Department of the Doctrine of the Faith, what would you say to those who do not see favourably eyes his appointment?
These tasks can also be reconfigured, and the Pope has the right to give them another face. Doesn’t it seem right to you that at some point in history a Latin American who has been a parish priest in the peripheries should occupy that position, who has grown up in a small town in the interior, with a sensitivity close to the pain of those discarded by society, with a history of life very different from that of a European or American, but who at the same time is a doctor of Theology? Once again, I tell him that I will learn from history, I will respect the processes, I will dialogue, but I will do it “in my own way.”