With the headline “Vatican’s doctrine chief is raising eyebrows over his 1998 book that graphically describes orgasms,” the Associated Press has reported on the rediscovery of Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández’s 1998 book, The Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality (CWN coverage).
The AP’s story appears on at least 464 websites, including the websites of many newspapers and other news sources in the United States and other countries—leaving readers with a distinctive impression of one of the Church’s leading prelates.
Shortly after his July appointment as prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, another book by the prelate—Heal Me with Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing (1995)—attracted controversy. In that work, which he described as a catechetical work for adolescents, he published four of his own erotic poems (analysis).
