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Cardinal Sarah: Ideological push in Amazon synod an ‘insult to God’

“This synod has a specific and local objective: the evangelization of the Amazon. I fear that some Westerners are seizing this assembly to advance their plans,” Sarah told Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera Oct. 7.

Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, talks with Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna after a session of the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon at the Vatican Oct. 9, 2019. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) See SARAH-POPE Oct. 9, 2019.

Vatican City, Oct 9, 2019 / 08:56 am (CNA).- The push by some Westerners to use the Vatican’s Amazon synod to advance their personal agendas is an insult to God and his plan for the Church, Cardinal Robert Sarah said in an interview published this week.

“This synod has a specific and local objective: the evangelization of the Amazon. I fear that some Westerners are seizing this assembly to advance their plans,” Sarah told Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera Oct. 7.

The cardinal mentioned in particular synod discussion of the ordination of married men, the creation of women’s ministries, and the jurisdiction of the laity.

“These points touch the structure of the universal Church. Taking advantage to introduce ideological plans would be an unworthy manipulation, a dishonest deception, an insult to God who guides his Church and entrusts to it his plan of salvation,” he stated.

Sarah, who is participating in the Amazon synod in his capacity as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, noted that he has heard that some people want this synod assembly to be a “laboratory” for the universal Church, and others think after the meeting everything will have changed.

“If this is true, this is dishonest and misleading,” the cardinal commented.

He added that he was “shocked and indignant that the spiritual distress of the poor in the Amazon was used as an excuse to support typical projects of bourgeois and worldly Christianity. It is abominable.”

The proposal of combatting priest shortages in the Amazon by ordaining married, respected men — so-called viri probati, Sarah called “theologically absurd” and implying “a functionalist concession of the priesthood…”

The proposal contradicts the Second Vatican Council’s teaching, he said, by seeming to separate within the priesthood participation in Christ’s identity as priest, prophet, and king.

He added that to ordain married men “would mean in practice to question the obligatory nature of celibacy as such.”

Sarah said no one fears the viri probati proposal, but the synod will study it and Pope Francis will draw his conclusions, though he noted Francis’ use of a quote from St. Pope Paul VI in a speech in January: “I prefer to give my life before changing the law of Celibacy.”

Sarah said “the question is another: to understand the meaning of the priestly vocation. Ask yourself why there are no more people willing to give all of themselves for God, for the priesthood and for virginity.”

He argued that people prefer to think of “ploys,” instead of addressing the larger, more right problems.

The idea, he said, that instituting the married priesthood would end pedophilia, or that because there are few vocations lay ministries should be expanded is the “presumption of men.”

“And frankly it does not seem to me that the churches where priestly celibacy does not exist today are much more prosperous than the Catholic Church, if that is the purpose,” he said.


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37 Comments

      • Being unable or unwilling to accept and foster change is what got our church in the situation it finds itself.(sic)
        The willful actions of disobedient, defiant, permissive, enabling, faithless Bishops who allowed and encouraged the admittance to seminaries and the ordination of homosexuals in violation of Church teaching is what got the Church in the situation it finds itself.

      • I think, rather. that trying to keep up with our societies’ changes
        may be what got us into the mess we have. The barque of Peter is our
        refuge atop the everchanging seas of human “progress”. I’ll always
        take 2000 years of tradition before the latest societal preference.

  1. The Cardinal left out something else: the people treating Amazonia as if they’re incapable of understanding or accepting the disciplines of the Church are cultural snobs, looking down from their lofty heights at those poor ignorant primitives who aren’t nearly as sophisticated as *they* are.

    • I heard someone mention on EWTN radio this morning that no one proposed that Catholic missionaries adopt polygamous marriage to better serve communities in Africa who practised that.
      Why do we expect so little from the folks in the Amazon? It seems extremely patronizing to me also.

      • “Anyone who says that celibacy is inconceivable for the African mentality tells a lie . . . .”

        Cardinal Peter Turkson recalled, on the occasion of the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist in 2005, that priests of the African traditional religions abstain for three days from sexual relations before performing their religious rites. He therefore affirms that ‘anyone who says that celibacy is inconceivable for the African mentality tells a lie’ (30 Giorni, October 2005).

        “In fact, among the Igbos of Nigeria the period of abstinence was sometimes longer than three days, according to the significance of the event, and was accompanied with special rituals of self-preparation purported to create contacts with the spiritual and ancestral world. At the conclusion of this period, the ‘priest’ was regarded as laden with particular spiritual powers.

        “Such practices were a helpful background to the missionaries for teaching the permanent chastity, inherent in sacerdotal celibacy. They also explain, to some extent, the high regard that such people have had for Catholic priests who, beyond the temporary continence practiced by their own traditional ‘priests’, embrace a life of perpetual abstinence.”

  2. It is time. This isn’t about schism any more. This about pruning dead wood before the whole tree is nothing but rot. Cardinal Sarah must lead us from the top and every discerning Catholic must stop contributing financially to the institutional church.

    I would worship in a stable,
    if I knew Christ to be there.

  3. If they were really intent on “listening to” (as opposed to using) the Amazonian people’s, they would hold the synod in the Amazon.

      • Dear Mrs. Cracker, our Evangelical and Pentecostal brethren are not “evangelizing” Latin America. I’m a revert and in my “Protestant phase” I was part at different times of 7 different denominations, including Evangelical and Pentecostal. Even as a Catholic, I still have Pastors as friends or friendly acquaintances. My direct experience and theirs is that those in Latin America are the most radical, ruthless, opportunist and Catholic-hating branches of both Evangelical and Pentecostals.

        They seek alliances with corrupt government officials, especially those now pushing power-hungry, false-advocates-of-the-poor socialism all over these afflicted countries. Many of them have also transformed into Pastor Joel Osteen’s Popularity Gospel style churches, sucking out the limited finances of these poor people with their deranged, falsely Biblical promises. That’s not evangelization, that’s a social, moral and spiritual crime!

        • Phil,
          You must have had different experiences, but I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Evangelical Christians from Latin America and they are wonderful people.
          You can find good and bad examples everywhere. And among Catholics too.

          • Mrscracker, it’s not just about “experiences” or meeting “nice and wonderful” people. All churches have the “good face” that they use to attract members. As I did mention, as a former Protestant, I still have good friends, Pastors included, in Protestant churches. It is those good Protestants over here that are ashamed of the actual strategies and anti-evangelization of a large majority of their peers in Latin America.

            It was at a Protestant seminar that I was invited to that these disgraceful behaviors of these Protestant branches was exposed. I would not have known about it otherwise and I was the only Catholic in attendance. Kudos for the honesty of unmasking these disgraceful opportunists even when other Protestants attack them because, according to them, “they should be attacking Catholics only and not fellow Churches”. That’s why we are friends: brave honesty and integrity far above any bias of emotions and feelings, just like Jesus wants it. Same thing with opportunist pharisee Prosperity Pastor Joel Osteen and the groups who imitate him and pillage the poor in Latin America.

            I will always love my Protestant brethen, as I was one of them in the past, but brave honesty and integrity rising above warm feelings and friendship are virtues for them and should be infinitely more for us Catholics, as we are the True Church of God founded by Jesus Christ Himself.

        • Phil,
          Thank you for your comments.
          I’ve read about both Protestants and Catholics importing false ideologies into Latin America. I’m not sure which is worse, the false gospel of prosperity or liberation theology.
          There are dedicated missionaries from a number of denominations who make enormous personal sacrifices to spread the love of Christ. I’ve known both Catholic and Protestant laypeople who do this work.
          I’m a devout Catholic but my Mennonite and other Protestant friends are no less devoted in their own way to Christ and spreading his Word.

          • Mrscracker, you’re welcome! Again, it’s not about questioning whether there are very sincere, devoted and sacrificed people in Protestant churches. Certainly, there are those and I’m priviled that some of them are my friends. I even consider late Presbyterian Pastor D. James Kennedy as greater than Billy Graham and an example for all Catholics. Check anything from him (he never attacked the Catholic Church; a true, consistent sign of high spiritual quality).

            That’s not the issue at all, it’s about the fact that you presented Evangelicals and Pentecostals as always doing true evangelization, which is not true, and with the implication that maybe we should follow them somehow. Honest, true Protestants are always proto-Catholics, and end up becoming Catholics like former Pastor Scott Hahn. I personally can also find good Protestants in Latin America and around the world, but like peaceful Muslims eclipsed by aggressive, ruthless ones, the good Protestants down there in Latin America are almost totally eclipsed by the most aggressive and fanatical ones which usually end up in leadership positions, something they crave.

            Those good Protestants are to turn with the help of the Holy Spirit, follow the Catholic Church and help us evangelize. We Catholics are not to follow the dominant style of evangelization from them in Latin America or anywhere. Yes, by God’s Grace, we can learn something positive from (almost) anyone but that does not mean that they should have unrestricted emotional, spiritual, etc. influence over us or that we should follow them in any way. I learn even from Buddhists but see their denial of evil and sin as a mortal threat. I was just clarifying that point and revealing some Protestant traps, very similar to NON-Catholic Liberation Theology. I deeply appreciate the privilege of this conversation with you. That’s how we grow. God bless you and all you hold dear!!

  4. Whatever the West thinks and wishes for the church,will only prosper if it is so wished by God. The church in this time needs teachers and fathers in the class of cardinal Sarah,who will not give anything in exchange for God’s Kingdom on earth. The Church at this time must be careful and heed to the warnings of Fatima.

    • Chris in Maryland, thanks for posting this truly sickening article alongside yet another “encouraging” Cardinal Sarah article…that fails to encourage me. I am not “shocked” by this pathetic attempt to cover up knowledge of infanticide. It is not incompetence really but their arrogance and sense of really being “right” that allows them to do so in such a clumsy manner. They are first and foremost liars, like most character disordered individuals, liars like those whose true inspiration is the “first revolutionary,” Satan. And they have to lie because “it cannot be put in writing at this time.”

      “Sarah, who is participating in the Amazon synod in his capacity as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, noted that he has heard that some people want this synod assembly to be a ‘laboratory’ for the universal Church, and others think after the meeting everything will have changed.”

      “ ‘If this is true, this is dishonest and misleading,’ the cardinal commented.’ ”

      “He added that he was ‘shocked and indignant that the spiritual distress of the poor in the Amazon was used as an excuse to support typical projects of bourgeois and worldly Christianity. It is abominable.’ ”

      Cardinal Sarah is “shocked?”

      Cardinal Sarah “speaks clearly” and always manages to steer clear…of Bergoglio…and I’ve stopped listening at this point. No apologies. I have ultimately a higher regard for Vigano and the signers of the Open Letter at this point. But that goes for the rest of cowards in the hierarchy.

      Sarah has no problem, though, saying you’re “automatically excommunicated” if you oppose Bergoglio.

      There is ad orientem…and ad veritatem…and the supreme law in Canon Law…Salus Animarum. I like all three.

      The Amazon Synod is pure new world order ethics and anti-christ/ eco-deity filth and NOT an attempt to minister to anyone’s “spiritual distress” but an actual, happening right now moving far beyond any “laboratory” to create a new religion that goes beyond concerns about priestly celibacy. BTW this stuff has been floating around on Jesuit campuses for decades…while maintaining a somewhat tidy but now no worries front office. This deliberate “mess” starts with the full approval of the man Sarah will never point to…Bergoglio! The man who got his tucum ring! The Pope who sat there watching a circle of “Amazonians” in “spiritual distress” reverence? worship? fertility idols? maybe one was Our Blessed Mother? who knows?

      Do not “oppose” this and the man sitting there waiting to add an “Our Father” to this desecration (a part of the game being played by the German Church) so I can support an ultramontanist view of the papacy? This is a pope who WITHOUT QUALIFICATIONS believes in the Divinity of Christ and Christ as the unique Savior of the World? A man fond of the phrase or this paraphrase?…”not in writing, not at this time yet?” The man who required a walking back/clarification of his “all religions willed by God?”

      They had to take infanticide off the website..the way it was left out of the Laboris Instrumentum.

      I have come to conclude it is ultimately about money…a corrupt financially sinking sodomite Vatican-Vatican bank (and yes German Church) bailed out/propped up by globalists not by the support of “pseudo-schismatics” or humble “dummies,” a hierarchy (and a good number of “Catholic” or “Ignatian values” universities) rolling the dice on the side of secularism and the loss of faith as “the future of faith” and alternate benefactors/money sources…who are willing to betray Christ as Savior and the Teachings of the Church…and simply call the way of the world (and the flesh and the devil) a “new path.”

      • Joseph-

        I am in great agreement. I also appreciate much more the Dubia Cardinals, more so than Cardinal S, but I hold back my estimation of him, as he may be trying to “thread the needle.” Time will tell.

        It is interesting to read the very next article on Settimo Cielo, and finally see what how the “6th Commandment Flex Cult” has re-defined their dog whistle term “fundamentalism.” It’s in the article about Bishop Krautter (? sp), who opposes a law against infanticide, because supporting a law against infanticide would be “fundamentalism.”

        And I thought (40 years ago) it only meant a literal interpretation of the Bible.

        Now I realize that, using Krautter’s standard, Jesus is really just a crypto-fascist.

        The worm turns…

        • Chris, I went to that 2nd article on Kräutler and infanticide and decided to post the full quote (thanks BTW):

          “In that 2009 declaration Kräutler cited one specific incident where an Indian woman buried her baby alive, saying she gave her daughter ‘back to the Earth’ because she could not handle twins at the same time. ‘That is to say,’Kräutler explains, ‘it was the custom, in case of the birth of twins, to entrust [sic] to the earth one of the children.’ Thankfully, this buried baby girl was then rescued.”

          “Kräutler explicitly rejects the idea that the state could prosecute those who commit such crimes. He is, rather, in favor of ‘convincing the people, with pastoral patience, that the culturally prescribed death of a child is anachronistic and undercuts their own strategy of life.’”

          “’We have always fought for the physical and cultural survival of the Indians,’he continues, ‘and we do so on the foundation of the Gospels, and not with help of the gospel of fundamentalism.’ ”

          “‘Thus, he rejects ideas of penalizing infanticide, because ‘here, in the name of human rights and under the pretext of suppressing infanticide, a broad ethnocide, a cultural murder, is being installed.’”(Settimo Cielo)

          I need a beer to go with this pretzel. I’ll opt for the Czech pilsner Czechvar, my favorite.

          Everything gets brought into the recipe not the least of which is infanticide and while not referenced, euthanasia. Ah, how much the globalists and Germans have in common with the Amazonians!

          But is the “culturally prescribed death of a child” really considered “anachronistic” by Kräutler, the Amazon Synod lovers and Bergoglio? Kräutler manages to short circuit both the Gospel and even concerns for human rights!

          For me, this is what makes bringing in various soil samples, planting a tree, reverencing fertility idols…Mama Earth/Pachamama, that desecration in the Vatican Garden with Bergoglio sitting there to add on the blessing of an Our Father all the more chilling.

          Even if “woman priesthood” is not established in holy orders in the ordination of “woman priests” but as a “spirituality” we still arrive at a “faith” that is invariably pantheistic and shortly Chthonic and Christless. In short, the installation of even simply “Amazonian spirituality” or an Amazonian rite? gets the job done. That’s all they need.

          Bergoglio and friends have no problem burying the Catholic Church alive…trusting that “something else” will grow. And to give credit where credit is due, this “entrustment” is being directed by demons. It is NOT about proclaiming Christ as Savior.

          Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

          • I predict that five years from now, Joseph will still be posting comments about the imminent burial of the Catholic Church.

            Sedevacantists are never happy, are they? I think it’s psychological.

  5. I wish Cardinal Sarah was the Pope.Francis will divide the Church if he doesn’t take care of all he’s been doing of late.

  6. I applaud Cardinal Sarah for defending authentic Catholic teachings and Tradition. I pray that the Clergy who are attending and have ulterior motives will ponder on this wise and faithful Cardinal’s comments. I am sure there are many, like me, who are praying a Novena for this Synod to not decide on anything which is a scandal, a heresy and an apostasy. Authentic Catholic Tradion and Doctrines have served God’s Church for 2,000 years. Faithful Catholics are watching!

  7. CHRISTIANITY WITHOUT CELIBACY IS NOT CHRISTIANITY

    Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) was a brilliant Lutheran philosopher from Germany. He made some astonishing statements on the elimination of asceticism and self-denial from Protestantism, especially on the elimination of celibacy, asceticism’s most brilliant embodiment. Without asceticism, without celibacy, religion is a comfortable religion, but it’s not Christianity, according to this eminent philosopher. He writes:

    “By eliminating asceticism and its central point—namely, the meritorious nature of celibacy—Protestantism has already given up the innermost kernel of Christianity, and to this extent is to be regarded as a breaking away from it . . . . It is a good religion for comfortable, married, and enlightened Protestant parsons, but it is not Christianity. Luther . . . went too far in his well-meant zeal, for he attacked the heart of Christianity in the ascetic principle.”

  8. Good Morning, Our Holy Father Pope Francis has been given to us by Almighty God. He is a great gift to Our Church. I am a 100% pro-life, pro-family, pro-10 Commandments, pro-Sacraments, pro-virtues and pro-saintly behavior, Catholic homeschooling mother. Have you seen this quote by Cardinal Sarah:
    “The truth is that the church is represented on earth by the vicar of Christ, that is by the pope. And whoever is against the pope is, ipso facto, outside the church,” the cardinal said in an interview published Oct. 7 in Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily. Later in the interview, he added: “I would add that every pope is right for his time,” the cardinal said. “Providence looks after us very well, you know.”

  9. The clergy should start thinking of how to save the church.If we still think that these Freemason men in cassock will ever defend the church and so lead the church in orthodoxy.we are are not facing realities.Newman prophesied that the laity will save the church.Pachamama sign is a sign that invalidates the entire synod and shows the spirit behind it.

  10. My sister Jane,thank God for your faith,to face the reality,we have had anti Popes in the history of the church. Does defending the truth constitue opposition to the pope. What if the Pope says we should all start venerating idols like Pachamama,the fertility goddess,calling the earth our mother instead of the church,are we still to remain docile and just follow? The Bible says there is only one way to our heavenly father- Jesus.

  11. All we hear since Holy father’s papacy is change,change. The petrine office I learnt is not about change but about confirming the brethren in faith,defending orthodoxy and sound doctrines and transmitting faithfully the whole deposit of faith as he received.Defending Jesus and His bride- the church could be a better way to be HIS vicar on Earth.I encourage every Catholic to learn the faith.Time has come for the laity to learn the faith, if possible to the same level with the clergy. If we do,no man no matter under any guise,will take away our beautiful mystical and heavenly church from us and replace it with a new world order

  12. All we hear since Holy father’s papacy is change,change. The petrine office I learnt is not about change but about confirming the brethren in faith,defending orthodoxy and sound doctrines and transmitting faithfully the whole deposit of faith as he received.Defending Jesus and His bride- the church could be a better way to be HIS vicar on Earth.I encourage every Catholic to learn the faith.Time has come for the laity to learn the faith, if possible to the same level with the clergy. If we do,no man no matter under any guise,will take away our beautiful mystical and heavenly church from us and replace it with a new world order.please note that it was Arch Bishop Fulton Sheen that prophesied that the laity will save the future church. Sorry for this misrepresentation in my earlier post.

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