Robert Sarah

His Eminence Robert Sarah
Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
Robert Sarah, 2015
Appointed	23 November 2014
Predecessor	Antonio Cañizares Llovera
Other posts	Cardinal-Deacon of San Giovanni Bosco in via Tuscolana
Orders
Ordination	20 July 1969 by Raymond-Maria Tchidimbo
Consecration	8 December 1979 by Giovanni Benelli
Created Cardinal	20 November 2010 by Benedict XVI
Rank	Cardinal-Deacon
Personal details
Born	(1945-06-15) 15 June 1945 Ourous, Guinea
Nationality	Guinea
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Previous post	Archbishop of Conakry (1979–2001) Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (2001–2010) President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum (2010-2014)
Motto	Sufficit tibi gratia mea
Coat of arms	Robert Sarah's coat of arms

Styles of Robert Sarah
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Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal

Robert Sarah (born 15 June 1945) is a Guinean Cardinal Prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was appointed as Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments by Pope Francis on 23 November 2014. He previously served as Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum.

He has been outspoken on the threat posed to Christianity by Islamic terrorism. He is also a critic of "Western homosexual and abortion ideologies", suggesting that both are of "demonic origin" and directly comparing them to Nazism and Islamic terrorism.

Early life and schooling

Sarah was born in 1945 in French Guinea and studied at Ourous. In 1957, at age 12, he entered the Seminary of Bingerville in Ivory Coast. On 2 October 1958, Guinea became independent after the referendum of 28 September. The Guinean seminarians who were studying in Bingerville returned to the new country and entered the Seminary of Dixinn in 1960 for one year. On 15 August 1961, the Democratic Party of Guinea nationalised all private Catholic schools, including the seminary.

After staying in their respective parishes, the seminarians, including Sarah, gathered at the locals of the parish of Sainte Croix, Kindia, waiting for the opening of Seminary Jean XXIII, situated 135 kilometers from Conakry. After obtaining a baccalaureate in 1964, Sarah was sent to France to study at the Grand Seminary at Nancy. Because of the political relations between France and Guinea, he went to Sébikotane, Sénégal, to finish his theological studies. Later that year he studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he obtained a licentiate in theology; and at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum of Jerusalem, where he obtained a licentiate in Sacred Scriptures. Sarah returned to Guinea in 1974.

Clerical career

Sarah was ordained to the priesthood on 20 July 1969, aged 24, and incardinated in the Diocese of Conakry. A decade later, at age 34, he was appointed Metropolitan Archbishop of Conakry on 13 August 1979 by Pope John Paul II. He was consecrated bishop on 8 December 1979 by Giovanni Cardinal Benelli.

He served as the ordinary of the Archdiocese of Conakry until his appointment by John Paul II as the secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples on 1 October 2001. In October 2010 he was appointed president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, replacing Paul Cardinal Cordes, whose resignation had been accepted for age-related reasons. Cordes had served as president since 1995. In his new role as archbishop he was charged with organising Catholic relief efforts around the world. He became the second African appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to lead a Vatican dicastery. The first was Peter Cardinal Turkson of Ghana who was appointed president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in 2009.

On 1 September 2010 Sarah criticised Libyan revolutionary leader Muammar Gaddafi's call for Islam to become the religion of all of Europe, calling it disrespectful to the pope and Catholic Italy. Sarah said: "To speak of the European continent converting to Islam makes no sense because it is the people alone who decide consciously to be Christian, Muslim or to follow other religions".

On 20 November 2010, Pope Benedict XVI made him Cardinal-Deacon of San Giovanni Bosco in via Tuscolana. He has voting rights in papal conclaves until his 80th birthday. On 29 December 2010, Sarah was appointed a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Pontifical Council for the Laity and Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. On 23 November 2014, Pope Francis appointed Sarah Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. On 10 March 2015, Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Sarah to serve as a Member of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses. He speaks French, English and Italian fluently.

He was a cardinal elector in the 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis.

In a 2016 interview with the French Catholic magazine Famille chrétienne, Cardinal Sarah said that the Second Vatican Council did not require priests to celebrate Mass versus populum. This way of celebrating Mass, he said, was “a possibility, but not an obligation”. Readers and listeners should face each other during the Liturgy of the Word, he said. “But as soon as we reach the moment when one addresses God – from the Offertory onwards – it is essential that the priest and faithful look together towards the east. This corresponds exactly to what the Council Fathers wanted.” Cardinal Sarah rejected the argument that priests celebrating Mass ad orientem are turning their backs on the faithful, or "against them”.

Opposition to LGBT "rights"

On 28 January 2012, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon gave a speech calling on African nations to repeal laws that place sanctions on homosexual conduct. Speaking to a journalist, Sarah called the speech "stupid". The journalist reported: "Asked if Ban Ki-moon was overstepping his responsibilities, Cardinal Sarah replied: 'Sure, you cannot impose something stupid like that.' He added: 'Poor countries like Africa just accept it because it's imposed upon them through money, through being tied to aid.'" “It’s not possible to impose on the poor this kind of European mentality,” and he added that African bishops must react to this move against African culture. Sarah's home country of Guinea continues to criminalise homosexuality with prison sentences of up to 3 years.

In an interview in September 2015 with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Sarah called gay unions "retrogressive for culture and civilisation" and a threat to all humanity. He argued such unions were not approved of in Africa, despite the fact that such recognition is growing in Europe. He blamed “Western ideological colonialism” for pushing the idea of gay marriage, which he warned would “destroy Catholic doctrine”. The Daily Telegraph reported that Sarah's "outspoken remarks underlined deep rifts within the Church over the Pope’s softer, more compassionate attitude towards homosexuality".

In 2015, in a public address made at the Synod on the Family dealing with the perceived threat to marriage and the family, he advocated the need to be "inclusive and welcoming to all that is human" but warned, "What comes from the Enemy cannot and must not be assimilated. You cannot join Christ and Belial!". He went on to play a lead role in rejecting attempts to ensure more welcoming language toward people that are gay or divorced. He insisted that "Western homosexual and abortion ideologies and Islamic fanaticism" could be seen as "almost like two apocalyptic beasts" with demonic origins, drawing parallels to Nazism and Communism, and noted that that terrorist attacks in France and Tunisia had taken place on the same day that the US Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex civil marriage was permitted across the country.

Sarah's comments were immediately criticised by the Polish theologian Krzysztof Charamsa as being defamatory and disrespectful. Johan Bonny, Bishop of Antwerp, complained that Sarah had tried to silence any discussion of the pastoral care of gay Catholics in the discussion group at the Synod that he led: "There was no way of discussing it in a peaceful way." Bonny noted that European bishops were generally of a similar mind that the issue had to be debated, but that they faced resistance from the African bishops.

Sources

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Raymond-Maria Tchidimbo CSSp	Archbishop of Conakry 13 August 1979–1 October 2001	Succeeded by Vincent Coulibaly
Preceded by Marcello Zago OMI	Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples 1 October 2001–7 October 2010	Succeeded by Savio Hon Tai-Fai SDB
Preceded by Paul Cordes	President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum 7 October 2010–23 November 2014	Vacant
Preceded by Antonio Cañizares Llovera	Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments 23 November 2014-present	Incumbent