Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, said in an interview with a Spanish news agency that Pope Francis knew about Mystical Passion, the 1998 book comparing sexuality and mysticism that was rediscovered earlier this month.
“I foresaw it, and I knew that in the midst of controversial issues they could use old things like this book,” Cardinal Fernández told Agencia EFE. “I had told the Pope, when he proposed this position [DDF chief] to me for the second time, that this could happen, but he was already clear about it and also knew about this book.”
“It so happens that on one occasion many years ago they had already accused me about that book, and I was not sanctioned in Rome for it,” Cardinal Fernández added. “They have already exhaustively investigated me.”