Francis, he argued, was taking the Church in a “different direction” to that which it had been going for “many centuries.” During previous generations, the Church had “developed a whole philosophy” and classification of morality by which to outline who was fit to receive Communion, he added. All this, continued the soon-to-be cardinal, was done by the Church “without being fully aware.”

As you well know, during many centuries the Church was going in a different direction. Without being fully aware, the Church developed a whole philosophy and moral full of classifications, to classify people, to label them, this is X, this is Y, this can receive communion, this one cannot receive communion, this one can be forgiven, this other cannot be forgiven.

Such a moral teaching is “terrible,” claimed Fernández: “It is terrible that this has happened in the Church. But thank God that Pope Francis is helping us to be free from those patterns.”