Pope's new orthodoxy chief hits out at critics of his book about kissing

The new head of a major Vatican department has defended a controversial book he wrote about kissing when he was a young priest.

Argentine Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández of La Plata was appointed prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith by Pope Francis only to meet with criticism over the contents of Heal Me With Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing.

The book, first published in 1995 and translated into English in 2017, contains no theological content about the sacramental nature of marriage, for instance, but was written to help readers to “kiss better” and to “motivate you to release the best of yourself in a kiss”.