Now that Cardinal Gerhard Müller has been removed from his post at the Vatican, the main target of the circle around Pope Francis is Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship. Their latest coup is the release of a letter of “correction” aimed at Cardinal Sarah and signed by Francis. Published on Sunday, the letter was celebrated as a just humiliation of the cardinal and accompanied by calls for his resignation.
Earlier this fall, Pope Francis issued Magnum Principium, a document granting bishops’ conferences greater latitude to make their own translations of sacred texts and liturgy. Cardinal Sarah replied with a letter that offered a narrow reading of the document, preserving as much as possible the power of Rome to guard against mistranslations (such as the desire of German bishops to translate pro multis as “for all,” rather than as the correct “for many”). Pope Francis has now publicly declared that Sarah is wrong, and that Magnum Principium has indeed reduced Rome’s power of oversight.
This is a calculated humiliation of Cardinal Sarah—and not only of him. Of Pope Benedict XVI, too, since he is the great champion of the “reform of the reform,” an attempt to correct the liturgical innovations that followed the Second Vatican Council. And of St. John Paul II, who in 2001 issued the document Liturgiam Authenticam, which Francis has sought to gut with Magnum Principium.
Cardinal Sarah suffered a similar humiliation a little over a year ago, after he urged bishops and priests to celebrate the Mass ad orientem, facing east, according to the ancient practice of the Church. This was another effort to advance “reform the reform.” The cardinal stated that he had talked with the pope about the topic, and that the pope had given his assent to the proposal. If so, the Vatican made no acknowledgment of this fact in its note of blunt denial.
Another humiliation occurred when the pope eliminated most of the existing members from the Congregation for Divine Worship and replaced them with people who are more hostile to Sarah and his liturgical views. And there is the matter of the “Ecumenical Mass,” a liturgy designed to unite Catholics and Protestants around the Holy Table. Though never officially announced, a committee reporting directly to Pope Francis has been working on this liturgy for some time. Certainly this topic is within the jurisdiction of the Congregation for Divine Worship, but Cardinal Sarah has not officially been informed of the committee’s existence. According to good sources, Sarah’s secretary, Arthur Roche—who holds positions opposite to those of Benedict XVI and Sarah—is involved, as is Piero Marini, the right-hand man of Monsignor Bugnini, author of such noted works as La Chiesa in Iran and Novus Ordo Missae.
Of course, the progressive party in the Vatican has another motive to attack Cardinal Sarah. In December, Pope Francis will reach age eighty-one. Cardinals are already thinking of a future conclave. One of the men viewed as most popable is Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, who seems to be distancing himself from some of the more questionable aspects of Pope Francis’s reign. And another is Cardinal Robert Sarah, who is known for his holiness of life and lack of interest in any form of power or coercion, even in the Church. Moreover, Africa is the continent where the Church is growing most dramatically, and where faith is often practiced to the point of martyrdom. Nothing could be more fitting than for the next pope to come from that continent. And so we come to the great irony of the campaign to discredit this quiet and long-suffering churchman. Cardinal Sarah is attacked precisely because he is seen as having the makings of a pope.
Full story at First Things.
Ah, the six-colored rainbow vs the seven-colored rainbow (God’s rainbow). For those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.
I should explain my post above that has Anonymous for my name, mistakenly. Cardinal Sarah has come out against fake marriages (so-called same-sex marriages) and the misuse of bathrooms among other things which has caused him to be hated by those who use the six-colored flag that they call a rainbow.
Didn’t we read this story a few posts earlier? Slow day in the newsroom??
Mike, you need to improve your reading skills. First story was about the correction itself, second one was about the politics behind it. Two very distinct stories.
“We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials.”
— St. Teresa of Avila
Evil against the poor Cardinal
Cardinal Sarah shows himself to be truly a man of God! There is no duplicity in this man. There is nothing on this earth I would love more than to see this holy man become pope and lead us.
Well, what is the issue and surprise here? Pope Francis is the spear carrier of the Vatican II Revolution; that is why he was elected. He and the Zombie-Liberals of the Church do not want any kind of Catholicism to exist except as it fosters and reflects the Soros-inspired globalism of liberal politics. Mankind is the center of everything, with God and His Church existing only to sanction whatever Man does as his very appetites are holy and cannot be criticized.
Cardinal Sarah is a good man. He knows what is proper in the liturgy. But, under Francis, Sarah loses as he is old Faith centered. Francis is now considering junking priestly celibacy. He will do whatever he can to debase the Faith and the Church as an institution.
Amen to what Diane Dawes has to say. Would be a true blessing for our Church.
Pope Sarah would, on his first day in office, remove or correct every ambiguous, doctrinally incompetent and misleading text and decision from the Francis pontificate.
I stand by my reading skills.
Galatians 5:19-23 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness,
idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions,
occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Pope Francis is protecting the church from the corpse-loving reactionaries who are trying to overturn Vatican Council II, a completely legitimate and licit ecumenical council.
Ralph, not all those who like Cardinal Sarah are reactionaries, but the radical left surely wants him out so they complain to Pope Francis.
Anne T: Perhaps the Holy Spirit is trying to provide some balance in the Church. Lord knows what the radical right has done to the moderate and the very small number of left leaning leaders in the Church.
Of course – it is the ‘Radical Right’ that runs ‘catholic’ (small ‘c’) universities like Holy Names, Santa Clara, St. Mary’s…
And they keep Conservative Speakers from Campus and Classroom (inviting only radical left SJW – social justice warriors, to champion right wing causes. ahem).
Who else would take down the Crosses from the classroom walls (you can still see the outlines) in order to promote Anti-Happy ideas – as opposed to the proper indoctrination in to radical leftist / gender feminist / homosex ideology that apparently flourishes based on diverting the donations of the Faithful in to pogroms targeted against them.