Senior churchmen are undermining Church teaching on life, marriage and the family, Cardinal Robert Sarah has said.
In a speech in Belgium, the cardinal accused high-ranking prelates from “opulent nations” of trying to modify Christian morality, and attacked pressure groups that “with powerful financial means and ties to the media, attack the natural purpose of marriage and commit themselves to destroying the family unit.”
Cardinal Sarah made the remarks – reported in La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana and translated by Giuseppe Pellegrino – in front of several senior Belgian churchmen, including Cardinal Josef De Kesel, the apostolic nuncio and Abbot Philippe Mawet.
Abbot Mawet had criticised Cardinal Sarah just days earlier in an article for Libre Belgique.
The cardinal said:
Some high-ranking prelates, above all those coming from opulent nations, are working to cause modifications to Christian morality with regard to the absolute respect for life from conception until natural death, the question of the divorced and civilly remarried, and other problematic family situations. These ‘guardians of the faith’ however ought not to lose sight of the fact that the problem posed by the fragmentation of the ends of marriage is a problem of natural morality.
He continued:
The great derivations became manifest when some prelates or Catholic intellectuals began to say or write ‘a green light for abortion,’ ‘a green light for euthanasia.’ Now, from the moment that Catholics abandon the teaching of Jesus and the Magisterium of the Church, they contribute to the destruction of the natural institution of marriage as well as the family and it is now the entire human family which finds itself fractured by this new betrayal on the part of priests.
During his visit to Belgium, Cardinal Sarah also gave an interview with Catholic media outlet Cathobel in which he repeated his criticism of fellow clergy.
“Faith has become lacking, not only on the level of the people of God but also among those responsible for the Church,” he said. “Sometimes we can ask ourselves if we really have faith.”
This lack of faith is also affecting the wider culture, he added:
“Not only is the West losing its soul, but it is committing suicide, because a tree without roots is condemned to death. I think that the West cannot renounce its roots, which created its culture and its values.”
The cardinal said “chilling things” were happening in the West, and Western nations were exporting those things to the developing world.
Full story at The Catholic Herald.
The Cardinal is a great hero who has been raised up by God to resolve problems in the Church.
It starts with the highest ranking prelate.
Joel from Fargo “Yes it does” as all Catholics should agree unless one believes with the current aganda. Watered down Catholicism is a half truth.
Joe, “Joel from Fargo” is from Hereford. My birth name was Fagot.
God bless Cardinal Sarah for speaking the Truth.
Amen!
Amen! Cardinal Sarah speaks the Truth.
Dorene Paradiso-Carroll
The great irony is that these “opulent nations” are destroying the source of their opulence through contraception and an over-expensive welfare state to shore up their damaged families. As C.S. Lewis used to put it: “When you choose secondary things in place fo primary things, you not only lose the primary things you have rejected: you end up losing the secondary things as well.”
The Cardinal’s remarks should be printed in every diocesan newspaper in the United States….and the Bishop of each diocese should add his own thoughts as an addendum so we laity know where our own Bishop stands vis a vis the Cardinal’s statement. Isn’t it interesting that our Church’s centuries-old teachings are being “refreshed” for us by our Catholic brethren from Africa? Laus Deo!
Indeed – one of the most difficult things to reconcile is the fact that Church Teaching is Written so that the Flock may know it
However, when it comes to the whole sex / gender pandering pogrom, far too many ‘Priests’ (like martin and klan) denounce Catholics for supporting and following Wise Catholic Teachings – even when promoted by the Pope (Later Saint John Paul II)
Want to get shouted down by the virtue shakers pushing the G?ILBERT Agenda?
Say Something Approving about Pope Benedict the Wise – and wait for the shrieking, in the name of ‘tolerance’ of course, albeit tolerance of nothing that should be encouraged.
May we one day say, “POPE SARAH.”
Don’t be surprised if Cardinal Sarah is placed under interdict.
I often wonder is it more arduous to be a priest or a parent (4 kids).
I still say parent, but if I were a priest, I would be sure to stay as true to the gospel as possible and quit trying to be avant garde in sexual matters. If the Church says it’s Church law, how can be that much in error if we stay true to its teachings? Gays and divorced couples are still welcome but will just have to adopt the rules and just keep going to confession like the rest of us.
Que Sarah, Sarah
Cardinal Sarah is growing in the Faith, is being led by the Holy Ghost (about whom the Holy Father remains tone deaf). He has spoken previously, and been frontally attacked by the thugs in the Vatican. Now, one senses that things are indeed different with the good and great Cardinal.
Perhaps Cardinal Sarah knows, or intuits, something that we cannot, about the immediate need for his statements. Nonetheless, be certain that Francis, and his Team Heretic, will respond in vicious fashion. One guesses that Cardinal Sarah will no longer be deterred by such criticism. Pray for Cardinal Sarah, a modern martyr.
would the next pope, then, be Maybelline?
Cardinal Sarah is sending very clear signals to his brother Cardinals about what kind of Pope he could be: clear, decisive and conservative. We have a Pope from the “new world”. Perhaps the cardinal-electors will decide it is time for a Pope from Africa. One concern: he does not have a strong background in philosophy or theology.