“As a bishop,” said Cardinal Robert Sarah at a May 25th conference in Paris, “it is my duty to warn the West: behold the flames of barbarism threaten you!”
Robert Cardinal Sarah speaking at Église Saint François-Xavier in Paris, May 25, 2019. (Image: François Xavier/Cardinal Sarah)
Editor’s note: The following Conference was given by H.E Robert Cardinal Sarah at Église Saint François-Xavier in Paris, May 25, 2019, just hours after he visited the Cathedral of Notre-Dame of Paris.
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Allow me first of all to thank Monseigneur Michel Aupetit, Archbishop of Paris, and the curé of Saint François-Xavier parish, Fr. Lefèvre-Pontalis, for their fraternal welcome.
I have come to present my latest book: The Day is Far Spent. In this book, I analyze the profound crisis of the West, a crisis of faith, a crisis of the Church, of the priesthood, of identity, a crisis of the meaning of man and human life. I discuss this spiritual collapse and all its consequences.
This evening I would like to repeat these convictions I hold so deeply, by putting them into the perspective of a moving visit I made yesterday. Just hours ago I was at the cathedral of Notre-Dame of Paris. As I entered the gutted church, and contemplated its ruined vaults, I could not help but see in it a symbol of the situation of Western civilization and of the Church in Europe.
It is a sad fact: today the Church seems to be engulfed in flames on all sides. We see her ravaged by a conflagration much more destructive than the one that razed the cathedral of Notre-Dame. What is this fire? We must have the courage to name it, because “to name things wrongly is to add to the misfortune of the world.”
This blaze, this conflagration raging in particular through the Church in Europe, is a case of intellectual, doctrinal, and moral confusion. It is our cowardly refusal to proclaim the truth about God and man and to defend and transmit the moral and ethical values of the Christian tradition. It is our loss of faith and the spirit of faith, a losing sight of the objectivity of faith and thus a loss of the knowledge of God. As John Paul II wrote in Evangelium Vitae:
HFPF keeps H.E. Cardinal Sarah around because he serves a purpose. I have my conspiracy theory here but will refrain....
IF the Curial reform envisioned by HPFP sails through as it likely will, Sarah will become a sideshow, conveniently dispensed with by said reform and HFPF will not have had to lift a finger to do so. Cardinal Sarah's age helps too.....
FR. MJK: “I think the laity for the most part react as you and I have said to each other, Allan. ‘When will this end?’.”
CDL. SARAH: “What is this fire? We must have the courage to name it, because to name things wrongly is to add to the misfortune of the world.”... ...”The Gospel’s moral teaching is too demanding: Make it easier! Dilute it with relativism and laxity. In the future, worry more about social questions. Catholic doctrine doesn’t suit the media? Change it! Adapt it to the mentalities and moral perversities of our time. Let us adopt the new globalist ethic promoted by the UN and gender ideology!” Let us make the Church a human and horizontal society, let her speak a media-friendly language, make her popular!”...
My humble opinion: It will take not only a courageous priesthood, but also a vocal, dedicated laity (the “sleeping giant”) to change the course we are on and rebuild the Church. Can it happen? I don’t know. I’m just one very small voice. But you, Fr. AJM, are a stronger voice and often act with courage in this medium. Thank you.
2 comments:
Why keep him?
HFPF keeps H.E. Cardinal Sarah around because he serves a purpose. I have my conspiracy theory here but will refrain....
IF the Curial reform envisioned by HPFP sails through as it likely will, Sarah will become a sideshow, conveniently dispensed with by said reform and HFPF will not have had to lift a finger to do so. Cardinal Sarah's age helps too.....
FR. MJK: “I think the laity for the most part react as you and I have said to each other, Allan. ‘When will this end?’.”
CDL. SARAH: “What is this fire? We must have the courage to name it, because to name things wrongly is to add to the misfortune of the world.”...
...”The Gospel’s moral teaching is too demanding: Make it easier! Dilute it with relativism and laxity. In the future, worry more about social questions.
Catholic doctrine doesn’t suit the media? Change it! Adapt it to the mentalities and moral perversities of our time. Let us adopt the new globalist ethic promoted by the UN and gender ideology!”
Let us make the Church a human and horizontal society, let her speak a media-friendly language, make her popular!”...
My humble opinion: It will take not only a courageous priesthood, but also a vocal, dedicated laity (the “sleeping giant”) to change the course we are on and rebuild the Church. Can it happen? I don’t know. I’m just one very small voice. But you, Fr. AJM, are a stronger voice and often act with courage in this medium. Thank you.
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