The prefect of the Vatican’s doctrinal office recently suggested that he regrets writing a book in the 1990s that featured explicit reflections on “spirituality and sensuality” and recounted a supposed mystical erotic encounter between Jesus Christ and a teenage girl.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, 61, who was made a cardinal by Pope Francis last September, said today he “certainly would not write” his 1998 book Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality, according to an interview with Crux.

Speaking to Crux, Fernández said “Mystical Passion” is a book he wrote while still young and is one “that I certainly would not write now.”

The book is replete with explicit commentary that reflects on the differences between the male and female sexual response, describes divine love as “mystical orgasm,” and suggests someone can engage in homosexual behavior “without being guilty.”

“Let us remember that God’s grace can coexist with weaknesses and even with sins, when there is a very strong conditioning,” he writes in one chapter. “In those cases, the person can do things that are objectively sinful, without being guilty, and without losing the grace of God or the experience of his love.”

In Chapter 8, titled, “The Road to Orgasm,” Fernández explored the question of whether faithful are called to a “passionate experience” of God similar to those had by mystic saints such as Teresa of Ávila and Therese of Lisieux, who had “inebriating experiences” of God after their conversions.

“If that loving and passionate experience of the presence of God is something fulfilling, something that wonderfully harmonizes and calms our affectivity and our sensuality, then we all have at least the right to desire it,” he said.

He then reflected on how God’s love can transform a person, but cautioned that while healing and restorative, God’s love cannot free a person from sin or “psychological weaknesses.”

To this end, Fernández used the issue of homosexuality as an example, saying that to experience God’s love “does not mean, for example, that a homosexual will necessarily stop being homosexual.”

“Let us remember that God’s grace can coexist with weaknesses and even with sins, when there is a very strong conditioning. In those cases, the person can do things that are objectively sinful, without being guilty, and without losing the grace of God or the experience of his love,” he said, and quoted paragraph 1735 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Likewise, he said, “There may be a religious sister who has to make great sacrifices to be faithful to her virginity, because her psychology has some strong conditioning in that order, and yet, at the same time, she has a beautiful, very authentic experience of the love of God, which makes her happy.”

In Chapter 9, “God in the Couple’s Orgasm,” Fernández said his reflection in previous chapters was about “a kind of fulfilling orgasm in our relationship with God, which does not imply so much physical alterations, but simply that God manages to touch the soul-corporeal center of pleasure.”

“If God can be present at that level of our existence, he can also be present when two human beings love each other and reach orgasm; and that orgasm, experienced in the presence of God, can also be a sublime act of worship to God,” he said.

In another part of the book, Fernández explores the difference between male and female sexuality as it relates to pornography, noting that “a woman […] is less attracted than a man to watching photos containing violent sexual scenes, orgies images, etc.”

“This does not mean that she feels less aroused by hardcore pornography, but rather that she enjoys and values this less,” he added.

Fernández said he cancelled “Mystical Passion” not long after it was published, and “never allowed it to be reprinted.”

He said the book made sense at the time after having a conversation with young couples “who wanted to better understand the spiritual meaning of their relationships,” but that soon after it came out he feared the book “could be misinterpreted.”

“That’s why I don’t think it’s a good thing to spread it now. In fact, I have not authorized it and it is contrary to my will,” he said.

According to Christian Post, Fernández also recounted a mystical encounter supposedly told to him by a 16-year-old girl who claimed to have watched Jesus bathe in the Sea of Galilee before she kissed his entire body while the Virgin Mary looked on approvingly.

Fernández issued a five-page clarification last week in the wake of the fallout, claiming bishops’ conferences globally “cannot be interpreted as doctrinal opposition because the document is clear and definitive about marriage and sexuality.”