Cardinal Fernández, "Every form of authority has a tendency to abuse". He and the Pope would know....

"Always be critical of the mystification of authority",  the new Prefect of the Faith and Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández

Cardinal Fernández warns against personality cult around leaders - also in church

Every form of authority has a tendency to abuse, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández is convinced. That's why it's important to be critical of a personality cult surrounding leaders - this also applies to the church.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández has warned against personality cults surrounding leaders, including in the church. Any mystification of authority must be viewed critically, wrote the Prefect of the Dicastery of Faith in a text published on his Facebook page on Saturday. “The extravagant attributions that are made to certain attractive leading figures and that transform them into revered leaders” also always need to be put to the test. "Let us remember what has happened in recent decades to the founders of several institutes of consecrated life, who were considered masters of orthodoxy." In the recent past, founders of orders or spiritual movements within the church have repeatedly been exposed as perpetrators of abuse, such as the Mexican priest Marcial Maciel, who founded the Legionaries of Christ religious order.

Every form of authority has a tendency to be abused, Fernández continued. He is not only thinking about sexual offenses, but also about abuse of authority or the manipulation of conscience. It is therefore important to embed authority in a context that prevents abuse and focuses on “religious respect for the dignity of persons,” wrote the Prefect of the Faith. "Church history shows us plenty of examples of the lack of this respect while at the same time displaying sound doctrine and rigid morality." Pope Francis believes that clericalism is the main reason for the emergence of abuse in the church, even more than the "sexualization of society" because it lacks humility and respect for people.

The belief that every person, regardless of their abilities or status, has a dignity that comes from God is a message from the Holy Spirit, said Fernández. This teaching is conveyed through the “signs of the times” and Pope Francis. "It is the pure gospel, perhaps so often hidden under much dust." In his 2020 encyclical “Fratelli tutti,” the Pope recalled the “infinite value of every human person,” according to the Argentine Curial Cardinal’s text.

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Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. Lord Acton attacking Pope Pius IX but in fact far more applicable to the present day Pope and his associates.