(LifeSiteNews) — Liz Yore returns with Father Charles Murr and John-Henry Westen on this week’s episode of Faith & Reason to discuss the uncovering of a nearly 30-year-old book by Vatican doctrinal chief Cardinal Victor Fernández on orgasms, Cardinal Robert Sarah’s denouncement of Fernández’s document on same-sex blessings as heresy, and more.

This week, a book by Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) Victor Manuel Fernández discussing orgasms resurfaced after almost 30 years. The book, Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality, written when Fernández was a priest and considered pornographic in nature, originally came out in 1998, and features a chapter detailing an alleged sexual encounter of a 16-year-old girl with Jesus Christ.

Fernández has attempted to distance himself from the book, saying in an interview that he “dropped” the book and never allowed it to be reprinted, fearing that it could be “misrepresented,” and that it was a “youth book” he “certainly would not write now.”

Yore, a child protection lawyer, said that the book would “really cause sexologist Alfred Kinsey [to] blush” and called it a “how-to manual of orgasm.”

“Now, here’s the question for me: What would possess a Catholic priest to write about the particulars of sexual orgasm, fornication, and everything in between?” she asked. Speaking to the alleged sexual encounter with Our Lord described in the book, she observed that “blasphemous doesn’t even do this justice.”

READ: Abp. Viganò: Fernández’s blasphemous sex book is yet another fruit of the Vatican II revolution

“The book is salacious, it’s titillating, it’s without any spiritual, moral, or redeeming value,” Yore continued. “It is, frankly, hardcore porn wrapped up in a thin tissue of mysticism loaded with lewd eroticism.”

Yore also posited that the book is the “tip of the iceberg” and that Fernández should be removed from his positions as prefect of the DDF and leave the College of Cardinals to live a life of prayer and penance.

Father Murr, who had helped translate the book into English, asked if Fernández ever sought professional help for a potential psychological condition, and said that he wanted to wash his eyes after reading it, noting that he is not a “prude.”

Also calling the book a “cocktail of all of these crazy ideas,” Murr observed that Fernández calls “male and female the same thing” in the book. “When he says that, all of a sudden it makes sense that you would want to bless homosexual unions,” Father noted. “And what would possibly be the matter with them? You don’t make any distinction between them.”

Murr concluded his initial comments on the book by noting that people have told him they are leaving Catholicism over Fernández, and that what is being promoted by Rome is not Catholic. Agreeing with their contentions, Murr nevertheless encouraged those listening to remain Catholic and faithful to Rome.

“I encourage them, and I encourage anybody who’s listening to me at this moment, do not dare leave. Do not dare leave the Church,” he said. “You are needed inside the Church. You’re needed. You’re a member of the Mystical Body of Christ. This will not prevail. None of this will prevail. We’ll look back on it one day as a horrible nightmare. But it’s not going to prevail.”

Westen mentioned the similarities between Mystical Passion and Amoris laetitia, insofar as both denied that someone could perform a sinful act without being guilty when there is a “very strong conditioning,” and that one could do “mental gymnastics” to understand Fiducia supplicans, the document allowing same-sex blessings, as well as Amoris laetitia, in an orthodox way. Yore added that what Fernández did in Mystical Passion is what he did in Fiducia supplicans – sacralize “all forms of sexual union.”

“I’ve seen a lot of things in my career, but this felt like a form of voyeurism to me,” she said. “If that is the basis for all these exhortations, all these documents, declarations, that is very, very troubling.” Later in the episode, she called on people to phone their bishops and the nunciature in Washington, D.C., to voice their displeasure over Fernández’s book.

Cardinal Arthur Roche, meanwhile, the Prefect of the Dicastery of Divine Worship and the Sacraments, who was responsible for the implementation of Traditionis custodes to restrict the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), has reportedly distanced himself from Fiducia supplicans, saying that he was not consulted on it.

While Yore noted that the mainstream media is beginning to cover Mystical Passion, and said that Roche’s alleged comments may be due to the attention given the pornographic book, Fr. Murr, who was the aide of Cardinal Eduard Gagnon from 1976 to 1979, observed that the Vatican is full of “careerists.”

Speaking to Roche’s alleged comments about Fiducia supplicans, Murr said that he was “virtue signaling.”

“It’s virtue signaling to the other cardinals especially,” he said. “These are the games they play.”

“We should all ask God to really, this next time, send the right man, who is not playing any games at all,” he added in reference to an upcoming conclave. “I don’t think we can afford any more game players. We can’t do this any longer. We really need some truth tellers.”

When Westen said Roche may have miscalculated with the remark, Murr said that any loss of position Roche would experience would make him a “martyr” in the next conclave. He also said that while Francis has named the necessary two-thirds of the cardinals required for a papal election, he predicted that the next conclave will see “free thinkers in a healthy way.”

“All of them know that the Church is in a crisis,” Murr said of the College. “There is no question of that. Not one of them is a Pollyanna. They’re not foolish. They know what’s going on. And each one of them, I think, believes that he’s got the solution for it. But you can be sure of one thing. The solution is not going to be to follow what Jorge Bergoglio has set down in his pontificate. That is not going to be the solution. So I’m very hopeful for the future.”

Cardinal Sarah, Roche’s immediate predecessor, has in the meantime said that it is a heresy to bless same-sex “couples” in the aftermath of Fiducia supplicans, asserting that homosexual “unions” violate the natural law, Scripture, and the Church’s moral law. He made the comment in a lengthy statement to Vatican journalist Sandro Magister. Sarah commended the responses of several African bishops’ conferences in his statement, including that of Cameroon, which formally forbade priests to bless same-sex “couples.”

Yore noted that Sarah has an understanding regarding “how language can manipulate, and how [Fiducia supplicans] is so treacherous towards the faith.” In her opinion, Sarah’s remarks are going to have a lasting effect, and that his statement should be disseminated because it is clear in a time of confusion.

Murr agreed with Yore regarding Sarah’s language, noting that the political left, whether they are Marxists or socialists, will always seek to change the language. Speaking about Sarah, Murr said that his clarity is “what we’re lacking,” and that “what we need desperately is clarity.”

For all this and more, tune in to this week’s episode of Faith & Reason.

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