New Head of the Vatican's DDF Explains his 30 Year Old Book about Kissing was Inspired by a Fathers of the Church Quote

The newly appointed head of the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez, has tried to explain why he wrote a book 30 years ago for youth about kissing. Fernandez writes on his Facebook account, that opponents of Pope Francis, have tried to attack his reputation as a theologian, by quoting from a book he wrote 30 years ago as a youth minister. 

The book with the Spanish title "Sana me con tu boca" (in English: "Heal me with your mouth. The art of kissing") is just a collection of thoughts and speeches dealing with kissing, according to the new prefect of the Fernandez. 

The bible itself says: "Greet one another with a holy kiss." (2 Corinthians 13:12 ) The Old Testament's book Song of Songs also uses sensual language. As a young pastor, he tried to reach young people with these ideas, Fernandez says. He explains that he "was inspired by a phrase from the time of the Fathers of the Church that said that the incarnation was like a kiss from God to humanity." It has been compared to the popular US Theology of the Body. 

FULL TEXT Response of Arch. Fernandez:

The book "HEAL ME WITH YOUR MOUTH"
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Dear friends and friends,
I sincerely appreciate the greetings and prayers of so many of you who have written to me by this means, by mail and by different means, in addition to telephone calls. I have been overwhelmed by so much brotherly affection for almost three days.
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On the other hand, there are also groups opposed to Francisco that are enraged, and that go so far as to use unethical means to harm me. For example, for years they have been referring to a little book of mine that no longer exists, which talked about the kiss. I was inspired by a phrase from the time of the Fathers of the Church that said that the incarnation was like a kiss from God to humanity.
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At that time I was very young, I was a parish priest, and I tried to reach young people. Then it occurred to me to write a catechism for adolescents based on what the kiss means. I wrote this catechism with the participation of a group of young people who gave me ideas, phrases, poems, etc.
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Well then, what these extreme groups do is say: "Look at the low quality that this theologian has, look at the nonsense that he wrote, look at the low level that he has." I have been humiliated with quotes from that book for years now.

But a catechism for adolescents is not a Theology book, there is a great difference in literary genre. A parish priest's catechism for adolescents cannot be asked to be a Theology manual.

And I am proud to have been that young parish priest who took care to reach everyone using the most diverse languages. That is why when the Pope talks about my curriculum he mentions that I was dean of the Faculty of Theology, but at the same time he says that I was parish priest of "Santa Teresita". Since for him it is important that a theologian gets into the mud and tries to use simple language that reaches everyone.
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I also have high-level books, I wrote several articles in the "Angelicum" magazine or in the "Nouvelle Revue Théologique", for example, texts that perhaps few understand. But the task of a theologian is not limited to those texts.
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Worse yet, since these attacks come from Catholics in the United States, and they don't know Spanish, they mistranslate one of the poems in the book. They translate the word "witch" as "whore". But the book says "witch." They have no right to change my words. It seems that they have no ethics for this, and it is not the first time they have done it to me.

Anyway, they will continue to say a lot of things, and they will ally themselves with anyone to attack Francisco for having named me. But those who have known me closely know who I am. Thank you for the trust and love always.

I'm not doing this to defend myself. I have endured these moves many times and the storm will pass. But I am clarifying this to prevent any of you from feeling confused or suffering from these and other accusations, but above all I do it so that you do not intend to harm Francisco.
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A hug.
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tucho