Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

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1. 

   As someone who produced dozens of nativity plays as a teacher and a Sunday School leader, that title ‘A Gay…

2. 

   The defence of a Christian view never seems to be settled by debate: exchange of facts, reference to historical events.…

3. 

   But …… Rwanda is a safe place: Parliament says so.https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/8/contentsSafety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024 S 2 Safety…

4. 

   Religion can survive only on the most unquestionable assumptions. The statements made on Sundays on the BBC as if they…

5. 

   Yes, if I’ve got anything remotely like a phobia, as an ex-fundy, its bibles, churches, tracts etc. I like to…

ARCHBISHOP Víctor Manuel Fernández, above right, the newly-appointed head of the CDF—once called the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition—has accused those unhappy with his new role of deliberately mistranslating the Spanish word “bruja” (witch) into the “b” word.

Looking for reasons to attack the prelate, seen by traditionalists as holding “heterodox theological views” and is “the most inadequate person for the position to which he was elevated“, pissed-off hard-line Catholics seized on his controversial 1995 book Heal me with your mouth: The art of kissing.

The work, according to this LifeSite report:

Is notable due to its inclusion of unmistakably erotic and often ambiguous sexual relationships in which the genders of the participants are unspecified. 

The book also contains various photos of statues and artworks depicting people passionately kissing and embracing one another in intimate and erotic positions, while the text itself is repeatedly sexually suggestive and explicit.

Photo by Francesco Alberti on Unsplash

Responding on Facebook this week to attacks against him Fernández expressed his anger over the fact that that one particular passage from the book—written for adolescents—had been widely shared on social media. It reads:

How was God so cruel as to give you that mouth … There is no one who resists me, bitch, hide it.

He added:

These attacks come from Catholics in the United States, and they do not know Spanish … They translate the word ‘witch’ as ‘bitch.’ But the book says ‘witch.’ They have no right to change my words. It seems they have no ethics.

Catholic blogger Roberto Mattei waded into the row, writing:

Fernandez took to Facebook to defend himself from attacks, but in the process of doing so raised yet more doubts about his fitness for the position. His tone was strident. He lashed out at his critics as ‘unethical’.

He did not acknowledge their legitimate concerns about a parish priest writing a book like this—much less as a part of his “youth ministry”—featuring graphic and disturbing sexually imagery.

Unbelievably, he even defended the work as ‘catechesis for teens’ Fernandez’s response is especially tone-deaf especially after three decades of sex abuse scandals in the Church.

And Fernandez’s interspersing of erotic imagery with religious content in Heal Me with Your Mouth is especially disturbing the wake of the the scandals of the disgraced Jesuit priest and mosaic artist Marko Rupnik, who linked his priestly ministry and religious art to his sexual abuse.

He added:

Fernandez also did not directly address disturbing allegations that, as Archbishop of La Plata, he protected a predator priest, Eduardo Lorenzo.

After Lorenzo was accused of sexual abuse, Fernandez allowed Lorenzo to publish a letter on the archdiocesan website libeling and attacking his accusers. And in March 2019, with Lorenzo under criminal scrutiny, Fernandez traveled to concelebrate Mass with Lorenzo.

Fernandez continued to protect Lorenzo even as more accusations came forward, only removing him in October 2019 after claiming that Lorenzo had requested to leave for ‘health reasons.’ These revelations are especially disturbing given that, as DDF Prefect, Fernandez will be adjudicating sex abuse cases.