Cardinal Sarah explains why traditional mass must last in the Catholic Church

The African cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect emeritus of the Dicasterio for the divine cult and discipline of the sacraments in the Vatican, defends the traditional Mass or Tridentine Mass and explains why this celebration must last in the Catholic Church.

“We need worshipers!”

In a recent conference sponsored by the new daily compass, in Milan (Italy), within the framework of the presentation of his book God exists? The cry of the man who asks for salvationthe African cardinal emphasizes that “the most urgent task is to recover the sense of worship and prostration with faith and astonishment before the mystery of God.”

In that sense, the purple said that “the loss of the religious value of kneeling and the sense of worship of God is the origin of all the fires and crisis that shake the world and the Church, of the restlessness and dissatisfaction that we see in our society ”

“We need worshipers! The world dies due to lack of worshipers. The church is becoming arid because they lack worships. This is the first and privileged place of dialogue with God: the tabernacle, his presence in the midst of us, ”he added.

The importance of the Eucharist and the Tridentine Mass

For this same reason, said Cardinal Sarah, “Holy Mass is like a necessary and vital appointment with Christ. The Eucharist is the source of the Mission of the Church; The sacred and beautiful celebrations for the glory of God and sanctification of the people are fundamental to foster trust with him, that divine intimacy that longs for our existence. ”

“For this reason, the Holy Mass held in national languages ​​should never lose the sense of the sacred and should never betray the word of the Lord Jesus,” he warned and also specified that “Holy Mass is not a social meeting to celebrate us To ourselves and our exploits, it is not a cultural deployment, but the memory of the death and resurrection of the Lord that, for centuries, the Church always celebrates. ”

The prefect emeritus also remarked that “the Eucharist is the most vital sacrament. It is the life of our life. The most precious gift we have inherited. And an inheritance is preserved, it cannot be dissipated! ”

The purple then quotes the following passage of Pope Benedict XVI: “In the history of the liturgy there is growth and progress, but not rupture. What was sacred for previous generations, remains sacred and great also for us, and cannot be prohibited suddenly or even judged harmful. It is good for all of us to conserve the riches that have grown in the faith and prayer of the Church, and give them the place that corresponds to them. ”

For all this and more, the cardinal continues, “the fact that it is proposed to end definitively with the traditional Tridentine Mass, that is, a rite that dates back to San Gregorio Magno, a liturgy that is 1,600 years old, a mass they have celebrated So many saints: San Padre Pío, San Felipe Neri, San Juan María Vianney (El Cura de Ars), San Francisco de Sales, San Josemaría Escrivá, etc. And going back to Pope Gregory Magno (590-604) and even to Pope San Dámaso (366-384). This project, if it is real, seems to me an insult to the history of the Church and its holy tradition, a diabolical project that would want to break the Church of Christ, the Apostles and the Saints ”.

In that sense, the purple, “the entire tradition of the Church teaches that Jesus of Nazareth, Lord and Christ is the only Savior of Humanity, and that in no other one there is salvation. Who, outside the visible limits of Christianity, reaches salvation, always reaches it and only for the merits of Christ on the cross and not without some mediation of the Church. ”

Who is Cardinal Robert Sarah?

Cardinal Sarah is one of the most important glitters in Africa and the Universal Church. He is a firm defender of liturgy, the right to life, family and religious freedom. He is 79 years old. On June 15, when he turns 80, he will cease to be a cardinal voter for an eventual conclave that chooses the Pope’s successor.

It was Prefect of the Congregation – today Dicastery – for the divine cult and discipline of the sacraments in the Pontificate of Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

He was one of the five cardinals who in 2023 sent a series of questions to Pope Francis to express his concerns before the opening of the first session of the Synod of Sinodality.

He is the author of books like God or nothing: interview about faith; The power of silence; It’s late and dusk; y From the deepest of our heartsthis last writing with Benedict XVI.

The traditional Mass in Latin or Tridentine Mass is one that Pope St. Pius V encoded, unifying the various rites that existed until then, in the Missal of 1570, which made the request of the Council of Trent (1545 – 1563) concrete In this regard.

The book or missal that is used for this Mass, which is based on San Pío V, was reviewed and modified by Pope San Juan XXIII in 1962.

In this mass the priest celebrates “backs to the people” or to the eastthat is, looking towards the East or “this liturgical”, as guide of the people or faithful present.

The traditional Latin mass is not prohibited, but since 2021 it has a series of restrictions implemented by the document Tradition of guards of Pope Francis that, in practice, have made it difficult to celebrate it.