Pope Sarah?

It seems to me that Cardinal Robert Sarah would make a great successor to Pope Francis and his elevation to Pontiff would further change the global tide. At 79 years, he just about squeaks through the age barrier for consideration which is 80 years.

Let’s take a few minutes to understand him.

So who is Robert Sarah?

Well, he was born in a small village in Guinea and his journey to the heart of Rome is a testament to his resilience, forged in the fires of Marxist persecution under Francisco Macías Nguema’s brutal regime, which earned Equatorial Guinea the grim moniker "Dachau of Africa" for its mass human rights abuses, including the murder of intellectuals and officials.

Sarah has been critical of the Church’s current state, lamenting the "confusion, ambiguity, and uncertainty in doctrinal and moral teaching" plaguing the institution.

Sarah, who served as the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship until 2021, has been a vocal advocate for clarity and tradition, often clashing with progressive currents within the Church.

His life story, detailed in the College of Cardinals Report reveals a man shaped by the piety of the Holy Ghost Missionaries who evangelised his village, and by the hardships of living under Guinea’s Marxist dictatorship which placed him on a hit list due to his criticism of the regime’s corruption.

He has been fearless in his engagement with contemporary issues. He has criticised the Church’s handling of liturgy, arguing in a 2016 address that when it becomes centred on the priest or community rather than God, it loses its sacred character of adoration.

He has also taken a firm stance against ideological trends, warning against "egalitarian aberrations" like gender ideology and Islamic fanaticism, which he described as "two apocalyptic beasts" during the 2015 Synod. Amen to that!

His post-curia role has seen him champion traditional Latin Mass attendees amidst growing restrictions from Rome, and he has been a leading critic of the Vatican’s Fiducia Supplicans document, which permits blessings for same-sex couples—a move he and other conservative cardinals have fiercely opposed!

He would plainly make a great Pope but there is one major barrier and it has been placed there by the late Pope Francis. Of 135 cardinals eligible to take part in choosing his successor, the late pontiff appointed about 110. Does this rule Cardinal Sarah out? No, I don’t think so and we must hope that God moves in mysterious ways and delivers us this principled conservative man as the next Pope.

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