Press Review: The Endless Repercussions of Fiducia Supplicans (2)

Cardinal Fernández Must Resign

Edward Pentin, on his web site on January 25, published an interview with Don Nicola Bux, former consultor of the Congregation of the Faith under Benedict XVI. The Italian theologian declared bluntly: “Certainly, the declaration Fiducia supplicans does not belong to the authentic Magisterium and is therefore not binding.…”

“One cannot even adhere to it with religious assent of the will and intellect.” And he added: “Pope Francis should cancel Fiducia supplicans and replace the prefect with a man of ‘sure, sound and pure doctrine,’ to use the Apostle’s words to Titus.”

Then, anticipating the conclave about which there is more and more talk in Rome, as this pontificate seems to be running out of steam, Don Bux affirmed: “Surely the next pope, if he does not want to be one only for one part of the Church, will have to ask himself the question: what is the mission of the Church? That of conforming to the world or saving it?”

“The unity of the Catholic Church is compromised by Fiducia supplicans because, on such an essential moral truth, it accepts, in practice, opposing views among the Churches scattered around the world. One example: the new bishop of Foggia (Italy) said that his Church will be ‘the church of Francis who blesses all.’ But is the Church not Jesus Christ’s?”

“Fernández discredited himself by publishing a document that is the opposite of that of his predecessor, Cardinal Ladaria, in 2021. Would this be a ‘development’ or rather a heterogenesis of doctrine? The Dicastery [of the Faith] and the Holy See have humiliated themselves. Someone has already renamed the Dicastery ‘for the Destruction of the Faith.’ Suspicion of ignorance and bad faith will weigh on [Cardinal] Fernández in any document he signs later. He should resign.” 

In a critical note published on his personal blog on January 23, Cardinal Joseph Zen, Archbishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, came to the same conclusion. He strongly denounced what the Roman declaration condones “sexual behavior in same-sex relationships by implying such a relationship has an ‘intrinsic goodness,’ and can ‘mature’ and ‘grow.’” and he asked that if Cardinal Fernandez, as prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith “is committing a heresy by claiming a serious sin as ‘good,’ then shouldn't the prefect resign or be dismissed?”

However, according to José Arturo Quarracino, interviewed by Edward Pentin in the National Catholic Register on January 18, Francis will not dismiss Cardinal Fernández, although "his papal authority has been seriously damaged, a large part of the institutional Church has turned against him, and a vast number of the Catholic laity aw well, both for doctrinal or dogmatic reasons and for reasons of common sense.”

But, according to the Argentine observer, the tragedy of Francis is that “he is endowed with arrogance, as deep down he believes he is superior. His latest statements, to the effect that those who ‘criticize the Declaration have not understood it or are closed-minded’ are along these lines, as if he were saying ‘I am the Truth,’ or the famous phrase of Louis XIV: ‘I am the State [the Church].’”

“He has ceased to be a shepherd who feeds the Lord's sheep (the command of Our Lord Jesus Christ to Peter at the end of John’s Gospel) and has become a leader who imposes novelties. What he says in the letter he addressed to Cardinal Tucho Fernández when he appointed him prefect of the DDF shows this, in the sense that the latter’s mission is to adapt all the documents of the Holy See to the ‘humus’ of Tradition (not with the Tradition) and to the ‘current magisterium’ – that of Francis.  And all the previous Magisterium? Sent to the archives!”