Guinean cardinal Robert Sarah (C) attends a prayer on the Cathedral of Our Woman of Victories in Dakar on December 4, 2023. FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse
VATICAN CITY — Outspoken on same-sex blessings and immigration, Robert Sarah of Guinea is a number one determine amongst conservative Catholic cardinals looking for a break with the late Pope Francis.
At 79, Sarah is without doubt one of the oldest cardinals participating in subsequent week’s conclave — and nearly missed out participating as he turns 80 on June 15, an age that may make him ineligible.
Skilled by French missionaries and championed by conservative Catholics within the French-speaking world, Sarah has some explosive views.
READ: What goes on on the conclave and the way subsequent pope is elected
“What Nazism, Fascism and Communism have been to the twentieth century, Western ideologies on homosexuality and abortion and Islamic fanaticism are to right now,” he declared at a gathering in 2015.
Extra just lately, in January 2024, he spoke for a lot of African bishops in decrying as “heresy” the Holy See’s textual content paving the way in which for the blessing of same-sex {couples}.
In October 2023, he was additionally one among 5 conservative cardinals who publicly referred to as on Francis to reaffirm Catholic doctrine on same-sex {couples} and the ordination of ladies.
On immigration, he has criticized the wave of migration from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe, saying younger folks have been drawn by the concept of an “El Dorado” life that doesn’t exist.
READ: Subsequent pope? One in all these cardinals could possibly be the one
“We’re eradicating younger folks from Africa, important forces that would develop” it, he acknowledged in 2021.
“Europe, if it continues on this path, may have no future — it is going to be invaded by a overseas inhabitants,” he added in the identical interview on France’s Europe 1, talking of “self-destruction”.
Many specialists consider his views make him too controversial to draw the two-thirds majority he would want to turn out to be pope.
Youngest bishop
Sarah was born in 1945 in Ourous, when Guinea was nonetheless a French colony, the one son in a farming household.
He went overseas to review, together with being taught by French missionaries in Ivory Coast, however returned after Guinea declared independence in 1958.
He was ordained a priest in Conakry in 1969.
A decade later, he was made a bishop by Pope John Paul II — at age 34 the youngest on the time.
The Polish pontiff referred to as him the “child bishop”.
Sarah’s conservative views on societal points chime with many within the majority-Muslim nation of Guinea, and have additionally made him standard amongst traditionalist Catholics.
In France he made the duvet of prime weekly journal Paris Match in 2022 — sparking protests from workers over his views.
He’s additionally the writer of quite a few works, notably on John Paul II, who appointed him secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in 2001, and on Pope Benedict XVI, who made him cardinal in 2010.
An admirer of Benedict, Sarah advocates a strict method to the liturgy.
He has argued: “We’re striving to sprinkle the liturgy with African and Asian components, thus distorting the Paschal Thriller (core Catholic doctrine) we have a good time.”
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Francis appointed him prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Self-discipline of the Sacraments in 2014, however his appointment to that Vatican division was not renewed in 2021.
