Cardinal Sarah, dreamed candidate of the Conservatives
“A real spiritual, a man of prayer”: to cross the cardinal Sarah in the streets of Rome is often to see a concentrated prelate, hindering his rosary, following the example of Pope John Paul II which he considered as a “block of prayer” and of which he admired deep piety.
It was the Polish pontiff who, in 1979, brought this young priest anonymously anonymously 34 years old and trained in France by naming him Archbishop of Conakry. He then became the youngest bishop in the world, in a country then directed with an iron fist by Sékou Touré, which is located in the orbit of the USSR. Archbishop Robert Sarah will be recognized for his physical and spiritual courage in the face of a regime that had imprisoned and tortured his predecessor.
He advocates mass back to the faithful
Four years later, François appointed him prefect of the congregation for divine worship and the discipline of the sacraments, a position which he assures having “refused three times”. Until his departure in 2021, he will assume an increasingly traditionalist orientation, notably advocating the celebration of the Mass in the people.
At the same time, Cardinal Sarah signs many successful editorial projects – God or nothing In 2015, The strength of silence In 2017, The evening is already coming and the day is decreasing in 2019 or even Catechism of spiritual life In 2022 -, offering it a strong audience with conservative Catholics, in France in particular.
Benoit XVI appointed him cardinal in 2010
In 1992, John Paul II, also from a communist country, went to Guinea. “I salute the valiant Catholic community for which I have a lot of affection because I know everything she endured for the name of Christ,” said the pope before his arrival in the country of Mgr Sarah.
Nine years later, he called him in Rome to the strategic post of secretary of the congregation for the evangelization of peoples: he then integrated effectively into this organization of the Roman Curia dedicated to mission lands. In 2010, Benedict XVI the Cardinal Promote and entrusted him with the charge of the Pontifical Council Unum horndevoted to humanitarian aid.
He is not considered a papabile
During the last years of the pontificate, by participating in a conference against “synodal Babylon” or by claiming that the document Fiducia supplicans Open the way to blessings of same -sex couples is a “heresy”, Cardinal Sarah gradually between frontal dissent with François. Its proximity to American cardinal Raymond Burke, opposing the most radical to the line of the Argentinian Pope, is also felt during these general preparatory congregations with the conclave, to which they sometimes arrive together.
Nevertheless, Cardinal Sarah is no longer considered by observers as a papabile. Some people deem likely to rally the Hungarian Cardinal Flee Erdő, considered as an “enlightened conservative” capable of assuming a form of continuity with François while offering more traditional options in terms of family ethics.
Radical positions
Throughout François’ pontificate, Cardinal Sarah claims to remain loyal to the Argentinian pontiff while radicalizing his positions against the “decadence” of the West. “He has badly experienced the evolution of society and secularization,” says a Roman source, noting that Cardinal Sarah “lives in a spirit of reconquest and lamentation, closer to Pius IX during the loss of pontifical states than to the spirit of Vatican Council II. »»
In 2020, he found himself in the center of a violent controversy around the book Depths of our hearts (Fayard), A real plea for priestly celibacy, with a contribution from Benoît XVI. This intervention by Pope Emeritus alongside Cardinal Sarah will be perceived by some as pressure on Pope Francis to prevent him from authorizing the priestly ordination of married men, after the subject was addressed during the synod on the Amazon. In a book published in 2024, Pope Francis will describe the former prefect as a “good” man but manipulated and made “a little bitter” by his functions at La Curie.
