Loup Besmond de Senneville, a journalist for the Pope-Francis-party (La-Croix.com, 4 March), wrote a favourable profile of Tucho Fernández. His main points.
- Fernández lives within the walls of the Vatican and rarely leaves them. He doesn't drop into offices to ask how things are going and is a "loner" [so much for "synodality"].
- It was an open secret that Fernández played a major role in drafting "important" papal documents such as Amoris Laetitia. But no one thought he would become Prefect for the Doctrine of the Faith.
- The promotion was Francis' 'revenge' for the Vatican's [timid] opposition to Fernández' appointment as rector of the Pontifical University of Argentina in 2009, when Cardinal Bergoglio had to intervene and promptly got his way.
- Fernández warned Francis before the appointment: "There will be a war with me". Francis replied: "You can handle it".
- A few days later, Francis called Cardinal Müller and asked him to "make friends" with Fernández.
- Many critics believe that Fernández has been "widely discredited" by his embarrassing books on [homo]sexuality and orgasms.
- Francis didn't support him, complained a friend of Fernández's, after he used him to provoke a crisis in the Church with the homosexual propaganda piece "Sodoma supplicans".
- Fernández is preparing a new document on "human dignity". The text was drafted by Roman theologians on bioethical issues, but Francis wanted it "revised from top to bottom on arrival" and on his favourite issues such as illegal immigration and environmental ideology. There could be "another shock" before the end of March.
- Senneville's conclusion: "The 'war' planned by Fernandez will not end".
