Vatican City (RNS) — A recently resurfaced book by the Vatican’s doctrine czar, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, caused a stir in the Catholic world when it described orgasms as a “sublime act of worship of God.” But the book, titled “Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality” and written in the 1990s, is hardly the first time a Catholic leader — or even a pope — has spoken candidly about sex.
For Pope Pius XII,...
