Pope Leo XIV received Cardinal Robert Sarah on Monday, the first time both are formally found since Leon was chosen Pontiff in May.
The content of his conversation was not made public, as is “usual” in this type of audiences, he explained to the National Catholic Register-informative Socio of ACI Press-Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.
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In one Recent interviewthe ancient prefect for the liturgy in the Vatican said that he contemplated with “great confidence” the pontificate of Leo XIV, adding that he believed that the Holy Father was “bringing again the indispensable centrality of Christ.”
Cardinal Guinean declared on September 12 to the Avvenare newspaper of the Italian Episcopal Conference that gratitude the “evangelical conscience” of León and how he conveys that without the Lord “we cannot do anything, nor build peace, nor build the Church, nor save souls.”
He also praised the “listening spirit and dialogue” of the Pope and his “prudent consideration of tradition.” Only with a living tradition that allows the transmission of divine revelation, the church can exist, added the cardinal, stressing that this is “in perfect continuity with the teachings of the Vatican Council II”.
At 80, Cardinal Sarah insisted that, regardless of the authentic Catholic rite to which they belong, “all baptized have citizenship” if they share the creed. The purple pointed out that the diversity of rites in the church for centuries never created problems for the authorities, because the unity of faith was clear and recognized as a “great treasure.”
“I wonder if a rite with more than a thousand years of history can be ‘prohibited,” he questioned, implicitly referring to Tradition of guardshe Motu proprio of Pope Francis of 2021 that imposed severe restrictions on the traditional Roman rite. “If the liturgy is also a source of theology, how can access to ‘ancient sources’ be banned? It would be like prohibiting who wants to correctly reflect on the grace or the Trinity Read to St. Augustine,” he said.
In that same interview, the purple spoke of the need to overcome two ideological visions in the Church “that feed on each other”: on the one hand, who wish to erase or deny tradition to assimilate the world, and on the other, who see tradition as “crystallized and mummified”, out of every fertile historical process.
“The mission of the Church is unique and, as such, must be fulfilled in a spirit of communion,” he said. “There are several charisms, but the mission is one and presupposes communion.”
When referring to his latest book, God exists?the cardinal pointed out that God has become a stranger in the lives of many people, replaced by “idols of all kinds.” The man, he said, “has destroyed God” and has abandoned the search for the meaning of life, death, joy and suffering, replacing them with wealth, power and “possession of things, even people.”
However, God “is not an idea, it is not a vague rational or emotional personal conviction,” said Cardinal Sarah. “God is a certainty: the certainty that the son of man really existed and still dwells among us. The truth exists. The incarnation happened. Just as 2025 years ago some found him and recognized him, today it is still possible to find him, recognize him, follow him and die for him.”
Remembering some aspects of the previous pontificate, the cardinal said that it is necessary to “deepen and clarify” the synodal dimension to “avoid ideological drifts” that in front of two ecclesiologies: the synodal and the community.
“Communion is an end; synodality is a means that must be verified,” Sarah explained. “Communion is hierarchical, because that way Jesus wanted to be his church; synodality, as Pope León recalled, is rather a style.”
Regarding Confidence in supplicatingthe 2023 Vatican Declaration that authorized non -liturgical blessings to same -sex couples, Cardinal Sarah expressed his desire to be “clarified and perhaps reformulated.” The purple added that it was “theologically weak and, therefore, unjustified. It endangers the unity of the Church. It is a document to forget.”
When asked if, given his advanced age, he could become a bridge between continents, Cardinal Sarah responded by saying that he tries to remember the gospel to the “satiated and desperate” people from the north, and offer a “voice of hope for the south” that “has not lost the will to live, but is slowed down due to solutions that remain indissoluble because people have unconstable interests”.
The cardinal said that the Church in Africa can offer “that freshness of faith, that authenticity and that enthusiasm that sometimes do not occur in the West.” In addition, he urged the faithful not to forget “the very high price they are paying in terms of violent martyrdom: it will undoubtedly be fruitful, the seed of new Christians.”
Monday’s audience with Pope Leo XIV arrives two months after the Holy Father sent Cardinal Sarah as his delegate to the 400th anniversary of the appearance of Santa Ana in Sainte-Anne-D’Auray, in Brittany, northwestern France.
In one energetic homilyDuring a solemn mass to commemorate the anniversary, Cardinal Sarah stressed the importance of Eucharistic worship, remembering that the liturgy “is not a human show” but is “imbued with beauty, nobility and sacredness.” He also warned of religion to mere humanitarian action.
The purple invited the faithful to follow the example of Santa Ana, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, loving and worshiping the Lord about all things in a world that rejects God and has a false vision of religion.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in the National Catholic Register.
Edward Pentin
Edward Pentin is a collaborator of the National Catholic Register and Vaticanist of Ewtn News. He began informing about the Pope and the Vatican on Radio Vaticana before becoming a correspondent in Rome for Ewtn. He has also informed about the Holy See and the Catholic Church for several other publications, including Newsweek, Newsmax, Zenit, The Catholic Herald and The Holy Land Review, a Franciscan publication specialized in the Church and the Middle East.