Argentine prelate gets two appointments: as a prefect at Vatican and a cardinal

By Lucien Chauvin OSV News

Argentine Archbishop Victor Fernández will not be able to forget July 2023. In a span of less than two weeks, he was named the new prefect of the Holy See’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and then cardinal.

Cardinal-designate Fernández, a 61-year-old theologian, told OSV News in a written exchange that his appointment — and those of the other 20 men (including two more Argentines) also set to become cardinals Sept. 30 — is part of a larger invitation from Pope Francis to “walk more decidedly along the lines he established in his first encyclical, ‘Evangelii Gaudium’ (‘Joy of the Gospel’), which still requires a more forceful application.”

“Who can say that ‘Evangelii Gaudium’ has been applied? It is not noticeable,” Cardinal-designate Fernández said.

Taking over the dicastery will require the cardinaldesignate to move with care, as opponents, both of his appointment and, more broadly, of the pope, have criticized the decision.

The two primary criticisms of Cardinal-designate Fernández include his handling of a case of sexual abuse of minors in the Archdiocese of La Plata, which Cardinal-designate Fernández has headed since 2018; and some past writings on the topics of marriage and sexuality.

The sexual abuse case involved Father Eduardo Lorenzo, who committed suicide in 2019 after a judge ordered his arrest based on charges “of corruption of minors and sexual abuse of at least five adolescents between 1990 and 2008,” according to BishopAccountability.org, a Massachusetts organization that runs an online archive of abuse in the Catholic Church. Critics say Cardinal-designate Fernández failed to act, despite allegations against the priest.

Cardinal-designate Fernández said the case has been presented in the media in a partial way. He said he was in “constant contact with Rome” regarding Father Lorenzo’s case because the case was under investigation by Argentine prosecutors, and he was waiting for results of the legal hearings before making a final decision.

The cardinal-designate refutes claims that he did not act. “First, I prohibited the priest from any activities with minors and then indicated that he would not exercise the priestly ministry and he was sent to live in solitude,” he said.

BishopAccountability.org published a timeline of

uPapal envoy gives Biden letter from pope, urges U.S. leaders to support peace.

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi hand-delivered a letter from Pope Francis to U.S. President Joe Biden as part of his three-day papal mission to help promote humanitarian efforts and open avenues of peace in Ukraine. The pope had sent the cardinal, who is archbishop of Bologna and president of the Italian bishops’ conference, to Washington July 17-19 for meetings with top church and government leaders, including members of the U.S. Helsinki Commission and the Senate Prayer Breakfast. Cardinal Zuppi and other members of a Vatican delegation went to the White House July 18 “where they were received by President Joseph R. Biden, to whom Cardinal Zuppi delivered a letter from the Holy Father, emphasizing the pope’s sorrow for the suffering caused by the war,” said a Vatican communique published July 19. “The meeting, which began shortly after 5 p.m. and lasted over how Father Lorenzo’s case was handled, claiming that for one and a half years, then-Archbishop Fernandez was reluctant to believe parents, relatives and parishioners who protested the reassigning of the priest. Father Lorenzo killed himself the day after the criminal court of La Plata ordered his arrest on Dec. 16, 2019. Then-Archbishop Fernández released “a brief statement, saying that Lorenzo had taken his life ‘after long months of enormous tension and suffering,’” BishopAccountability.org said.

According to the website there were “no words of comfort to the victims, saying only that he would pray for ‘those who may have been offended or affected’ by the charges against the priest.”

Today, Cardinal-designate Fernández said he should have done more. “Today, I would have made this decision quicker, without the need for too much information. I believe that in recent years, thanks to the documents produced by (Pope) Francis and new protocols, we have more elements. And I have learned. Only a few months after Lorenzo’s death, I expelled another man from the priesthood,” he said.

Cardinal-designate Fernández said that the “wisest and most respectful” path for him in leading the dicastery, which for centuries, as the Holy Office, tracked heresy and checked on sexual morality, would be to “rely on the expertise of the disciplinary team already” in place — for instance, regarding sexual abuse.

“I will help where I can, but, for example, it would not occur to me to provide advice to (Archbishop of an hour, took place in an atmosphere of great cordiality and mutual listening,” it said. During the conversation, assurance was made of there being a “full willingness to support humanitarian initiatives, especially for children and those who are most fragile, both to respond to this urgency and to foster paths of peace,” the Vatican said. uSynod ‘calls us to relationships,’ says youth delegate. The universal Synod on Synodality “primarily calls us to relationships and to re-examine the way in which we build” them, a college student who will head to Rome as a voting delegate told OSV News. Julia Oseka, who will be a junior at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, has been named as one of 10 non-bishop voting members from the U.S. and Canada at the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome, which will take place Oct. 4-29. The synod, convened by Pope Francis in 2021 around the theme of “communion, mission and participation,” will conclude with a second session in October

Malta Charles) Scicluna, who is an expert and has demonstrated a great capacity in these issues and is respected around the world.”

An even thornier issue may be questions around the rigorousness of his theology. Cardinal-designate Fernández was investigated by the dicastery when then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, (now Pope Francis) named him as rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina.

Critics brought up books, essays and newspaper columns he had written on different topics, including marriage, relationships and homosexuality.

“Years ago, the dicastery sent me some questions about three things I had written. I responded and everything was clarified. It was difficult, because with the way time passes in Rome, it took a year and a half. It was also a learning experience for me,” he said.

Especially one book written by Cardinal-designate Fernández when he was just starting out as a priest — “Heal Me With Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing” — sparked controversy worldwide. In an interview with The Associated Press, the prelate said he did not want it reprinted and wanted to “leave this in the past.”

“But well, now it’s my karma,” he told the AP.

A final issue — and one roiling the relationship between Pope Francis and more conservative sectors in the Church — concerns the use of the 1962 Roman Missal, the older usage of the Roman rite, commonly called the “traditional Latin Mass.” Pope Francis limited use of the Latin Mass in 2021, and in April, during a conversation with Jesuits in Hungary, called it “the reaction against the modern” and a “nostalgic disease.”

Cardinal-designate Fernández said that he was respectful of liturgical sensibilities, but believed a line is crossed when priests use “liturgy as a way of rejecting Vatican II ... imposing this preference above others, with doctrinal and moral obstinance.”

He said that while this issue corresponds to a different dicastery, his new office could be a space for dialogue. Dialogue has characterized Cardinaldesignate Fernández’s different roles, from parish priest to rector of the Catholic university to cardinaldesignate. Finding common ground also is something Pope Francis stressed in his letter to then-Archbishop Fernández upon his appointment as head of the dicastery.

“For differing currents of thought in philosophy, theology and pastoral practice, if open to being reconciled by the Spirit in respect and love, can enable the Church to grow. This harmonious growth will preserve Christian doctrine more effectively than any control mechanism,” Pope Francis wrote in the July 1 letter to Archbishop Fernández.

2024 following an extension announced in 2022. For Oseka, a physics and theology major, the opportunity to “bring forth the voices” of young adults in North America has inspired gratitude, humility and “a feeling of peace.” uU.S. to provide Ukraine cluster munitions opposed by the Church as ‘inhumane.’

President Joe Biden defended what he called a “very difficult decision” to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion of that country, weapons the Holy See opposes. In an interview on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” that aired July 9, Biden said Ukraine needs the weapons to fend off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, and that he discussed his decision both with allies and with congressional lawmakers. Cluster munitions are air-dropped or groundlaunched explosives that contain smaller submunitions, which increase the blast radius and the potential casualties and damage to physical structures. Despite Ukraine’s just cause to defend itself, one Catholic expert said, the Church opposes cluster munitions themselves. Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor at Notre Dame Law School who specializes in international law and conflict resolution, told OSV News that “the Catholic Church is in full support of the total ban on cluster munitions” due to its effects on civilians, including long after the conflict. “Cluster munitions cannot discriminate between civilians and fighters,” O’Connell said. “Unexploded bomblets may kill civilians weeks, months or years after a battle.” She suggested the U.S. and its allies should dig deeper into their own stockpiles of artillery shells, because an “unlawful weapon is never permissible to use because of military necessity.” In a July 14 statement, Bishop David Malloy of Rockford, Illinois, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, also raised concern about the use of cluster munitions.

The 84th annual Tekakwitha Conference July 19-23 in the Twin Cities celebrated Native American Catholics’ spirituality and traditions, and addressed difficult issues including missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and the generational trauma of American Indian boarding schools. The theme, “Gathering and Healing through Living Waters,” is reflected in the stories and photos on this page and pages 10-11.

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit

KKathleen Mishow spent nine years praying to St. Kateri Tekakwitha for another child after she and her husband had a son 18 months after they married.

Included in Kathleen’s prayers was a promise that if she ever had a daughter, she would name her Kateri. She ultimately gave birth to a daughter and kept her promise.

“At least I had my wish with Kateri and had her for 20 years,” said Kathleen, an Ojibwe from White Earth Nation, who told her story with support from her friend Vicki Phillips, both of whom regularly attend the parish of Gichitwaa Kateri in Minneapolis. “She was really spunky. I would tell her, ‘You be careful going out,’ but she thought she was invincible at that age.”

Kateri, then 22, was last seen in 2007 leaving with a young man from the duplex where she lived, across the street from her parents.

Kathleen recounted her experience to The Catholic Spirit July 20, only moments before keynote speakers took the stage to address the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women at the 84th annual Tekakwitha Conference, held at a hotel in Bloomington through July 23. The conference, which honors Indigenous Catholics’ spirituality and traditions, drew nearly 500 people primarily from across the United States, including Alaska, and Canada.

Kathleen recalled receiving a telephone call from a friend of

Kateri’s who was in the Hennepin County Jail. The friend told her he heard people in the jail talking about Kateri, saying, “Oh, she’s not missing. She’s in the river.”

“My husband walked the Mississippi River for over a year,” Kathleen said. “Up and down. He’d go every day.”

The pain never eases, Kathleen said. “I’d really like to know one way or the other.”

Father David Bailey, a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Native American Advisory Board, told disturbing stories of missing and murdered Native women. Selling of North American Indigenous women and children has been going on since the colonial era, he said.

Native women are victims of violence on “an astronomical level,” and the vast majority of perpetrators are non-Native males, he said.

Every person is created in the image and likeness of God, he said. “All of us are entitled to be treated with dignity, to be treated with respect, to be treated with love,” he said. “And therefore, we must at all times respect life. Never compromising the dignity of anyone.”

Father Bailey said that by “shining a light on these things,” talking about them and gaining awareness, “we can shine the light into corners where evil men seek to do their evil deeds.”

Father Michael Carson, assistant director of USCCB’s Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church, emphasized the importance of getting involved in the issue. He offered 10 reasons he believes the problem is pervasive in Native communities more so than in “any other culture group.”

The first reason is poverty, which “limits choices,” he said. “And