Wow.
I’m not one to cover the internal squabbling in the Church. I believe following that too closely can harm faith. I’m not criticizing those who do it. I think someone should but it just makes me sad and feel a bit hopeless at times.
This story, however, shines a light. This is a story about Cardinal Sarah being courageous and brave in the face of overwhelming odds. He knows the Vatican is against him and he knows the world media is against him. But instead of cowering in fear he stands up for Catholic teaching.
The world certainly needs saints right now. And soon it will require martyrs.
John Henry Westen of LifeSiteNews.com gives you the Readers Digest version of the story but you can click and read the entire thing. It’s worth it.
BREAKING 'The Church is Dying' | Cardinal Sarah@Card_R_Sarah told the #Catholic bishops of #Cameroon this week that through their rejection of @Pontifex’s “blessings” for homosexual couples, they “have spoken for the whole #Church ‘in the name of the truth of the #Gospel and… pic.twitter.com/hqfM1Ep1Ld
— LifeSiteNews (@LifeSite) April 11, 2024
Lifesitenews.com: Warning that the “Church is dying,” Robert Cardinal Sarah has issued a striking call to action for African Catholics to be the “defenders of the universality of faith” especially at the Synod on Synodality, while also praising them for their rejection of same-sex blessings.
Speaking in Cameroon as part of a current visit he is making, the cardinal from Guinea praised the Cameroon bishops for their “courageous and prophetic declaration” rejecting Fiducia Supplicans. In “recalling Catholic doctrine on this issue, you have greatly and profoundly served the unity of the Church,” said Sarah. “You have accomplished a work of pastoral charity by recalling the truth.”
The 78-year-old cardinal’s speech was published by veteran Vatican journalist Sandro Magister, who wrote that Sarah delivered the address on April 9.
The December 21 text from Cameroon’s bishops, responding to Fiducia Supplicans, remains one of the strongest interventions against the Vatican document. They were joined by numerous African episcopal conferences and diocese’s – along with Sarah himself – as nearly the entire continent rejected the Vatican’s document proposing blessings for homosexual “couples.”
Such opposition has been labeled by secular media outlets, and crucially by Pope Francis himself, as coming from “small ideological groups,” with Francis adding that the Church in Africa is “a special case” because of its culture.
But Sarah rejected this depiction. “Some in the West wanted to make believe that you acted in the name of an African cultural particularism. It is false and ridiculous to attribute these purposes to you,” he said.
The Cameroon bishops “have spoken for the whole Church ‘in the name of the truth of the Gospel and for the human dignity and salvation of all humanity in Jesus Christ,’” said Sarah.
“This vision of a faith adapted to cultures reveals to what extent relativism divides and corrupts the unity of the Church,” he added, in a thinly veiled attack on the Pope’s own slight towards Africa’s bishops.
Me again: Here’s something that’s driving me a bit bonkers. It’s been written that he bishops are going to push for female deacons or perhaps even for married priests but they always tell the African bishops that they won’t push that on them yet.
But why not? If it’s the right thing to do, why not? The Church isn’t supposed to be relativistic or be different in different parts of the world. The Church is supposed to promulgate the teachings of Christ, not be different things to different people. That they are changing the Church in some spaces and not others tells you they’re not doing their job. They are focused too much on the world and not enough on God’s truth. God’s truth is not regional. It is universal. But in some places it simply takes too much courage to espouse God’s truth.
Cardinal Sarah said that many western prelates are too scared of what the world will say about them is they oppose the progressive agenda. The Church reeks of cowardice right now.
From the cardinals and bishops to the priests and the laity, the Church is crippled by cowardice. I pray that we all wake up because if we allow the progressives to continue their march through Western civilization we will see a terrible time once again of Christian martyrdom.
