In response to questions about the book, Cardinal Fernández has explained that he “was young” when he wrote it and would not write it now.

All right, young or old, we’ve all written stupid things. Because that’s true, and because we are a church of mercy, one tries to bring a merciful eye to the cardinal’s excuse. But beyond the muddled writing, the section describing his conversation with a 16-year-old girl — in which he encourages her to share a crypto-erotic fantasy set on a beach of kissing Jesus Christ all over his body — moves beyond cringe-inducingly bad writing and into the realm of what is deeply disturbing. It forces questions about whether this priest was testing boundaries, whether he was grooming a soul put into his spiritual keeping along the lines of Jean Vanier and Father Marko Rupnik — two men who used their spiritual influence over others to parlay discussions of the mystical Godhead (very advanced and often confusing spiritual study) into exploitative sexual activity meant to reflect the action of the Holy Trinity.

Was the cardinal in fact grooming a very young, ardent soul? We can’t know, and therefore I would never make that accusation. But, if nothing else, the discovery of this book, particularly in the year 2024, must prompt us — all of us, together as church — to ask such discomfiting questions so we may become better trained in recognizing grooming behaviors. This is what must be done if we are ever to rid the church of those who sexually prey upon the spiritually vulnerable of any age.