Does God exist? The cry of the man asking for salvationis the title of the new interview book by Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect emeritus of the Congregation – today the Dicastery – for Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, in which he speaks, among other topics, about the world that has forgotten God.
in the book Published at the end of 2024 in Italian, the African cardinal answers various questions posed by journalist David Cantagalli and explains that the text “was born from the attempt to answer the editor’s questions (…) which with authentic apostolic zeal” he wanted to ask. difficult questions.”
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“I have sought the answers in my personal history and in my heart, in the Magisterium of the Church and in that of the popes who have marked my life and, not least, in the fruitful dialogue with friends, priests and lay people, who live an authentic passion for Christ and for the Church, witnessing in the world to the One they have found”, writes Cardinal Sarah.
In a recent interview with The Rudder from Italy, collected by Religion in Freedomthe Cardinal explains why what “has died” in the West is man and not God: “The West is experiencing a profound identity, anthropological crisis, in which man, in his truth and beauty, seems to no longer be aware of their dignity and their vocation to happiness, to the fulfillment of their own personal being.”
The cardinal then specifies that “it is obvious that all this has remote roots, starting with the replacement of the Augustinian I love then (I love, therefore I am) with the Cartesian I think therefore I am (I think, therefore I exist), thus reducing relational ontology to subjective self-consciousness, depriving man of that healthy relationship with the real on which ontology, the knowledge of being, is founded.
The crisis of faith and belonging to the Catholic Church
Cardinal Sarah warns that there is a crisis of faith in today’s world and that it is now “the deepest and most crucial.”
Regarding those who give their lives to God, he highlights that “I would not say that the consecrated people ‘do not believe’; Furthermore, I am convinced that, precisely because of the culturally unfavorable conditions for the radical nature of virginity for the Kingdom of Heaven, whoever today responds to the vocation has a serious and radical initial intention.”
“The most discussed point is that of fidelity, over time, to the task that God has assigned. In an increasingly hostile cultural context, with the fragmentation of relationships, which does not make it possible to perceive the support and warmth of a believing community, it is increasingly complex to live the radicality of the Gospel. I believe this is the crucial point for all lay and consecrated people, for all the baptized.”
Regarding those who leave the Catholic Church, the African cardinal laments that “whoever leaves, always makes a mistake. He is wrong because he abandons the Mother; “He is wrong because he carries out a very dangerous act of pride, setting himself up as judge of the Church.”
“Sometimes not everything is immediately understandable, and some things may seem completely inopportune, not adequately considered, even pastorally unfounded or harmful; Despite all this, this does not authorize you to leave.”
Cardinal Sarah is one of the most important cardinals in Africa and the universal Church. He is a strong defender of the liturgy, the right to life, family and religious freedom. He is 79 years old. On June 15, when he turns 80, he will no longer be a cardinal elector for an eventual conclave that elects the Pope’s successor.
He has criticized gender ideology, an approach that considers sex to be a sociocultural construction rather than something natural.
In 2018, during the Synod of Bishops on Youth, he noted that “watering down” Catholic moral doctrine in the field of sexuality will not attract young people.
He was prefect of the Congregation – today the Dicastery – for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in the pontificates of Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.
He is the author of books such as God or nothing: interview about faith; The power of silence; for eternity; It’s getting late and it’s getting dark; y From the depths of our heartsthe latter written with Benedict XVI.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.