Michael Pakaluk, an academician of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas, sees an idée fixe in several of Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández’s writings. The idea, as Pakaluk summarizes it, is that “a man commits a serious crime; but suppose the imputability of his action is diminished; therefore he remains in a state of grace; therefore he can even have exemplary holiness.”
Pakaluk asks, “Does this line of thought fall squarely within the core of magisterial teaching about human responsibility, grace, and holiness?”