Cardinal Sarah named Prefect for Congregation of Divine Worship

Cardinal Sarah named Prefect for Congregation of Divine Worship 2016-09-30T15:42:37-04:00

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From The Vatican:

On Sunday, 23 November 2014, the Holy Father named Cardinal Robert Sarah as Prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Cardinal Sarah has been serving as President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum.

Cardinal Robert Sarah, President of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”, Archbishop emeritus of Conakry (Guinea), was born on 15 June 1945 in Ourous, Guinea. After middle school, he was obliged to leave home in order to continue his studies at the minor seminary in Bingerville, Ivory Coast. Following Guinea’s independence in 1958, he returned home and completed his studies.

He was ordained priest on 20 July 1969 in Conakry.

After his ordination, he earned a licentiate in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and a licentiate in Scripture at the “Studium Biblicum Franciscanum” in Jerusalem.

Upon completion of his studies, he was nominated rector of the minor seminary of Kindia, and served as parish priest in Bokè, Katace, Koundara and Ourous.

On 13 August 1979, he was appointed Archbishop of Conakry at the age of 34, making him the youngest bishop in the world and called “the baby bishop” by John Paul II. He was consecrated on 8 December 1979.

On 1 October 2001, he was appointed secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

On 7 October 2010, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him president of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”.

And there’s this: 

 The Vatican has an African cardinal leading a Vatican Congregation once again. Nigerian cardinal Francis Arrinze was Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments from 2002 to 2008, while Cardinal Bernardin Gantin from Benin headed the Congregation for Bishops from 1984 to 1998.

“The Lord has given me a gift I do not deserve and it is also a call to love the Lord even more on the occasion of the Consistory; it is also a call to love the Lord more and to die for Him, for the Gospel, for the salvation of the world… I would like to thank the Holy Father for deciding to grant me this honour. However, I also see this call as having come from God; it is a call to me to lead a more priestly and Christian life. I think today’s world needs God’s people, people who live their lives in such a way that they represent God’s physical presence in the world.”

Sarah is known for his deep spirituality: In nominating him head of the Church’s liturgical dicastery, Francis has chosen a pastor with 22 years of experience leading a diocese. In recent years the new Prefect for Worship attracted a great deal of media attention  after he reminded the world that Africa was exploited by international powers and after a homily he pronounced in 2011 during an ordination ceremony for priests and deacons at the Communauté Saint-Martin in Candes. On this occasion, there was a big focus on liturgical formation and Sarah reminded pastors of their duty to faithfully announce Jesus’ teachings and urged them not to keep quiet about “serious” moral “deviations”

In an interview with Catholic news agency Zenit last 23 October, the newly-appointed Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship talked about the recently held Extraordinary Synod on the Family and said he did not see the question of the Eucharist for Catholics who divorce who remarry, as one of the “real important challenges that affect families today.” “The crisis of today’s family is in how the concept of marriage and family has changed” as a result of “the effects of a secular and relativistic society.” In another interview with Catholic New Agency published last month, Cardinal Sarah criticised international bodies for making financial aid dependent on the introduction of regulations based on gender ideology.

The profile of Robert Sarah, a Curia member with a long experience serving as a pastor in Africa, is rather traditional: On 24 October he had a meeting with priests taking part in the annual Roman pilgrimage of faithful that celebrate mass according to the Old Rite. Hia arrival as head of the dicastery for Worship is therefore unlikely to herald any innovations in the liturgical field.


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