Cardinal Robert Sarah | Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA.
ACI Africa, Dec 10, 2023 / 08:00 am (CNA).
The emphasis of cultural elements over Christian ones during liturgical celebrations is a distortion of the paschal mystery that defines the liturgy, Cardinal Robert Sarah has said.
In his homily during the opening Mass of the pioneer international Congress of African Liturgists that opened in Senegal’s capital city, Dakar, on Dec. 4, Sarah underscored the importance of liturgy to Christians.
“We are working to sprinkle African and Asian elements into the liturgy, thereby distorting the paschal mystery that we celebrate,” he lamented. He faulted prolonged Eucharistic celebrations, saying: “We place so much emphasis on these cultural elements that our celebrations sometimes last six hours.”
“If we look at the liturgy as a practical matter of pastoral efficiency, we run the risk of turning it into a human work, a set of more or less successful ceremonies,” he further cautioned.
The Dec. 4–8 congress in Dakar examined Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, 60 years after its promulgation, under the theme “The state of the liturgical question in Africa: achievements, challenges, and prospects.”
Reflecting on the diamond jubilee of the December 1963 document that was solemnly promulgated by Pope Paul VI, Sarah decried increased “improvisation of creativity,” which he said does not contribute to the renewal of the people of God.
“For 60 years we note that year after year the liturgical reform allied by much idealism and great hopes by many priests and laypeople turns out to be an avalanche of improvisation of creativity and a liturgical desolation instead of the renewal of the Church and the ecclesial life,” he lamented.
He looked beyond Africa, saying: “We are witnessing today, especially in the West, a dismantling of the values of faith and piety that have been handed down to us and instead of a frequent renewal of the liturgy, we are witnessing a destruction of the forms of the Mass.”
“Let us pray, dear brothers and sisters, that we may rediscover the Trinitarian origin of the liturgy,” the 78-year-old cardinal said.
He went on to laud the five-day Congress of African Liturgists as “historic” and an important milestone for the future of the people of God on the world’s second-largest and second-most-populous continent.
“This meeting is historic and of vital importance for the future of the Church of Jesus Christ in Africa, because the liturgy is vital to the Christian religion, and these liturgical specialists are here not just as experts but under the watchful eye of God, they want to help us to live our faith and our Christian religion to the full,” Sarah said.
He added: “Sixty years after the promulgation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, African liturgists are organizing this first international congress of African liturgists to compare their thoughts on liturgical practice and the fidelity of African communities to the Christian tradition and the authentic values of African cultures.”
The cardinal went on to highlight three things he said are “needed to make up a religion: first, beliefs; second, rules for living; and third, rites of worship.”
“When beliefs reach a stage of high perfection, they become dogmas or truths of faith,” he explained. “When the rules of life are precise and just, they constitute a divine law, and when the rites are fixed and defined, they are not subject to improvisation, creativity or the imagination of the priests; they form a liturgy.”
“Every religion must be judged by these things: its morality and its liturgy. In this threefold respect, the Christian religion fears no comparison; it is far superior to all the others,” he said.
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Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Feb 4, 2019 / 05:08 pm (CNA).- Catholics, Muslims and all who believe in God must work together to build a culture of love, peace and human fraternity, Pope Francis said in a joint statement he signed with Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of al-Azhar, during an interreligious meeting in Abu Dhabi.
The document, entitled “A Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,” invited “all persons who have faith in God and faith in human fraternity to unite and work together so that it may serve as a guide for future generations to advance a culture of mutual respect in the awareness of the great divine grace that makes all human beings brothers and sisters.”
The signing took place Feb. 4 during Pope Francis’ visit to Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, a trip intended to promote interreligious dialogue and give support to the country’s Christian minority. Francis is the first Pope ever to visit the Arabian peninsula.
The document discussed the importance of religion in building a peaceful and free society and the challenges of an increasingly secular world. It condemned all practices and policies detrimental to human life and freedom.
Within a paragraph about human freedom, the document states that religious plurality is willed by God. “The pluralism and the diversity of religions, colour, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings,” the document states. “This divine wisdom is the source from which the right to freedom of belief and the freedom to be different derives. Therefore, the fact that people are forced to adhere to a certain religion or culture must be rejected, as too the imposition of a cultural way of life that others do not accept.”
The Catholic Church holds that Catholicism is the one true religion.
This statement must be read in the proper context and perspective, said Dr. Chad Pecknold, associate professor of systematic theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
“In sensitive inter-religious contexts, it is fitting for the Holy See to acknowledge that despite serious theological disagreements, Catholics and Muslims have much in common, such as a common belief that human beings are ‘willed by God in his wisdom,’” Pecknold told CNA.
“The idea that God wills the diversity of color, sex, race and language is easily understood, but some may find it puzzling to hear the Vicar of Christ talk about God willing the diversity of religions,” he noted. “It is puzzling, and potentially problematic, but in the context of the document, the Holy Father is clearly referring not to the evil of many false religions, but positively refers to the diversity of religions only in the sense that they are evidence of our natural desire to know God.”
“God wills that all men come to know Him through the free choice of their will, and so it follows that a diversity of religions can be spoken about as permissively willed by God without denying the supernatural good of one true religion,” he added. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 841 speaks about the Church’s relationship with the Muslims: “The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.”
Among other things, the document also condemned terrorism. It called for equal rights and access to education for women, called on believers to care for the poor and vulnerable, and called on world leaders “to work strenuously to spread the culture of tolerance and of living together in peace; to intervene at the earliest opportunity to stop the shedding of innocent blood and bring an end to wars, conflicts, environmental decay and the moral and cultural decline that the world is presently experiencing.”
As Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Tayeb holds one of the most prominent titles in Sunni Islam, and is head of the the al-Azhar Mosque and al-Azhar University in Egypt.
Tayeb is considered a tolerant and moderate Muslim leader, and has rejected connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and condemned ISIS. He also allowed a woman to remain at al-Azhar University after she was facing expulsion for allegedly hugging a male student. However, he has also said he believes that apostasy from Islam is punishable by death.
In the interreligious meeting, Pope Francis said that people of different religions must work to build the future together “or there will not be a future.”
“The time has come when religions should more actively exert themselves, with courage and audacity, and without pretense, to help the human family deepen the capacity for reconciliation, the vision of hope and the concrete paths of peace,” he said.
Rome Newsroom, May 15, 2020 / 07:10 am (CNA).- The number of people in need of help with basic necessities in Iraq, already in the millions, is expected to rise greatly in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a Catholic priest working in … […]
An artist’s rendering of the affordable apartment complex soon to be built by Our Lady Queen of Angels Housing alliance in Los Angeles. / Courtesy of Our Lady Queen of Angels Housing alliance
St. Louis, Mo., Aug 26, 2024 / 06:30 am (CNA).
Los Angeles is one of the most expensive cities in the United States, with an average home price almost touching a million dollars in 2024 — a landscape that crowds out not only the poor, but also young families with children. The high cost of housing is one of the primary reasons why tens of thousands of people live on the streets of LA, and most of those who are housed are “rent burdened,” which means they spend more than 30% of their income just keeping a roof over their heads.
In the face of such challenges, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles recently announced it will provide land for a new housing development dedicated to serving community college students and young people exiting the foster care system.
Amy Anderson, executive director of Our Lady Queen of Angels Housing alliance and a former chief of housing for the City of Los Angeles, told EWTN News that a group of Catholic lay leaders from the business and philanthropic community reached out to the archdiocese with a vision for creating an independent, nonprofit affordable housing development organization.
“Our vision is to really collaborate with the archdiocese and [use] the resources potentially available from the archdiocese to create homes that are affordable to a wide range of populations and incomes,” Anderson told “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol.
She said they hope to break ground on the project, known as the Willowbrook development, “about a year from now.”
“The archdiocese is a fantastic partner. They are providing the land for our first development, which is already in process, and we’re working really closely with them to identify additional opportunities.”
The proposed building, which will be located steps from Los Angeles Community College, will feature 74 affordable housing units, as well as “on-site supportive services” for young people transitioning out of foster care — a population that often ends up experiencing homelessness.
The land, located at 4665 Willow Brook Ave just a few miles from the Hollywood Sign, currently hosts a Catholic Charities building, which will move its operations to another site to make way for the apartments.
“Through Catholic Charities and our ministries on Skid Row [an LA street where many unhoused people live] and elsewhere, we have been working for many years to provide shelter and services for our homeless brothers and sisters,” Archbishop Jose Gomez said in a statement to LAist.
“With this new initiative we see exciting possibilities to make more affordable housing available, especially for families and young people.”
Making land work for mission
The Catholic Church is often cited as the largest non-governmental owner of land in the entire world, with an estimated 177 million acres owned by Catholic entities.
Maddy Johnson, program manager for the Church Properties Initiative at the University of Notre Dame’s Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate (FIRE), noted that the Church as a large landowner is not a new phenomenon, but there is a need today to adapt to modern challenges like regulations, zoning, and the importance of caring for the natural environment.
Many Catholic dioceses and religious orders have properties in their possession that aren’t fulfilling their original purpose, including disused natural land and parking lots, as well as shuttered convents and schools. Sometimes, Johnson said, a diocese or religious order doesn’t even realize the full extent of what they own.
“How can the Church make good strategic decisions, strategic and mission-aligned decisions, if it doesn’t know what properties it’s responsible for?” she said.
The Church of St. Agatha and St. James in Philadelphia, with The Chestnut in the foreground, a housing unit developed on property ground-leased from the church. Courtesy of Maddy Johnson/Church Properties Initiative
Since real estate management is not the Church’s core competency, FIRE aims to “provide a space for peer learning” to educate and equip Church leaders to make better use of their properties in service of the Church’s mission.
To this end, they offer an undergraduate minor at Notre Dame that aims to teach students how to help the Church make strategic real estate decisions that align with the Church’s mission. The Institute also organizes a quarterly networking call with diocesan real estate directors, as well as an annual conference to allow Catholic leaders to convene, share best practices, and learn from each other.
Fr. Patrick Reidy, C.S.C., a professor at Notre Dame Law School and faculty co-director of the Church Properties Initiative, conducts a workshop for diocesan leaders on Notre Dame’s campus in summer 2023. Courtesy of David J. Murphy/Church Properties Initiative
In many cases, Catholic entities that have worked with FIRE have been able to repurpose properties in a way that not only provides income for the church, but also fills a need in the community.
Johnson said the Church is called to respond to the modern problems society faces — one of which is a lack of housing options, especially for the poor.
“Throughout its history, there have been so many different iterations of how the Church expresses its mission…through education, healthcare — those are the ones that we’ve gotten really used to,” Johnson said.
“In our day and age, could it be the need for affordable housing?…that’s a charitable human need in the area that’s not being met.”
Unlocking potential in California
Queen of Angels Housing’s first development, which has been in the works for several years, is being made possible now by a newly-passed state law in California that aims to make it easier for churches to repurpose their land into housing.
California’s SB 4, the Affordable Housing on Faith Lands Act, was signed into law in October 2023. It streamlines some of the trickiest parts of the process of turning church-owned land into housing — the parts most people don’t really think about. These can include permitting and zoning restrictions, which restrict the types of buildings that can be built in a given area and can be difficult and time-consuming to overcome. SB 4 even includes a provision allowing for denser housing on church-owned property than the zoning ordinances would normally allow.
Yes in God’s Backyard
The law coming to fruition in California is part of a larger movement informally dubbed “Yes in God’s Backyard,” or YIGBY — a riff on the term “Not in My Backyard” (NIMBY), a phenomenon whereby neighbors take issue with and oppose new developments.
Several Catholic real estate professionals with ties to California expressed excitement about the possibilities that SB 4 has created in the Golden State.
Steve Cameron, a Catholic real estate developer in Orange County, told CNA that he is currently working with the Diocese of Orange, which abuts the LA archdiocese, to inventory properties that could be repurposed for residential use.
He said their focus is on building apartment buildings and townhomes, primarily for rental rather than for sale, in an attempt to address the severe housing shortage and high costs in Southern California.
Unlike some dioceses, the Orange diocese has an electronic GIS (geographic information system) database showing all the properties it owns. Prepared by a civil engineering firm, the database includes details such as parcel numbers, acreage, title information, and demographic reports, which facilitate the planning and development process.
“Strategically, what we’re doing is we’re inventorying all of the property that the diocese and the parishes own, and trying to understand where there might be underutilized property that would make sense to develop some residential use,” Cameron said.
Cameron said he can’t yet share details about the housing projects they’re working on, but said they are looking to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Queen of Angels housing project as a model for how to take advantage of the new incentives created by SB 4.
“I think it’s great, and it’s exciting that they’re taking the lead and that they are able to find an opportunistic way to repurpose an underutilized property to meet the housing shortage in California,” he said.
“[We] look at them as a role model for what we’re trying to accomplish here in the Diocese of Orange.”
Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago with One Chicago Square in the background, a residential tower constructed on the former cathedral parking lot, which was sold in 2019. Courtesy of Maddy Johnson/Church Properties Initiative
John Meyer, a former president of the California-based Napa Institute who now works in real estate with J2 Development, emphasized the importance of viewing the Church’s vast real estate holdings as an asset rather than a liability.
Meyer said he is currently working with two Catholic entities on the East Coast on ground lease projects, one of which will fund the construction of a new Catholic Student Center at a university. He told CNA he often advises Catholic entities to lease the land they own rather than selling it, allowing the church to maintain ownership of the property while generating income.
Naturally, he noted, any real estate project the Church undertakes ought to align with the Church’s mission of spreading the Gospel, and not merely be a means of making money.
“Any time we look at the Church’s real estate decisions, it’s got to be intertwined with mission and values,” he said.
“We’re not just developing for the sake of developing. What we want to do is we want to create value for the Church, and we also want to create value for the community. So working closely with the municipality to make sure that needs are met, and to be a good neighbor, is important.”
He said Church leaders should strongly consider taking advantage of incentives in various states such as California for projects like affordable housing, which align with the Church’s mission and provide both social and financial benefits.
“Priests and bishops aren’t ordained to do these things, and sometimes they have people in their diocese that have these abilities, and sometimes they don’t,” Meyer said.
“This [new law] in California has created an incentive that we can take advantage of, so we need to take advantage of that incentive…it’s allowing us to unlock potential value in land while at the same time serving a social good that’s part of the mission of the Church.”
Africa and the Church at large is fortunate to have Card Sarah as a true defender of the faith. What faithful missionaries took years of toil and suffering hardship and death to successfully plant the seeds of the faith, is now being undermined, with, perhaps intent to destroy by the secularist left elements of the Church predominant at the Vatican. The apostate crowd fears the orthodox vitality of the Africans.
“I deplore the long, noisy offertory processions, embellished with endless dances, in some countries in Africa. Some of the faithful bring forward all sorts of produce and objects that have nothing to do with the Eucharistic Sacrifice. These processions give the impression of being folklore displays, which distort the bloody sacrifice of Christ on the Cross and separate us from the Eucharistic mystery; it ought to be celebrated soberly, with recollection, because we too are immersed in his death and offering to the Father. The bishops of my continent should take measures so that the celebration of the Mass does not become a celebration of one’s own culture. The death of God for love of us is beyond culture. It submerges culture” (Robert Cardinal Sarah with Nicolas Diat, “The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise,” Ignatius, 2017, n. 266).
What, too, of the noisily decadent West? And synodal verbosity, and the next conclave?
I confess to being confused by Cardinal Sarah’s words. We, Catholics in the West, are constantly told about the vibrancy of the African Church. I frequently have the impression that we are supposed to be consoled by this vibrancy. “Don’t worry so much about the decline of the Church in the West”, is the underlying message I hear. Now here comes Cardinal Sarah (who I greatly respect and admire) with a much more nuanced and to me more uncertain picture of the African scene.
Africa and the Church at large is fortunate to have Card Sarah as a true defender of the faith. What faithful missionaries took years of toil and suffering hardship and death to successfully plant the seeds of the faith, is now being undermined, with, perhaps intent to destroy by the secularist left elements of the Church predominant at the Vatican. The apostate crowd fears the orthodox vitality of the Africans.
“I deplore the long, noisy offertory processions, embellished with endless dances, in some countries in Africa. Some of the faithful bring forward all sorts of produce and objects that have nothing to do with the Eucharistic Sacrifice. These processions give the impression of being folklore displays, which distort the bloody sacrifice of Christ on the Cross and separate us from the Eucharistic mystery; it ought to be celebrated soberly, with recollection, because we too are immersed in his death and offering to the Father. The bishops of my continent should take measures so that the celebration of the Mass does not become a celebration of one’s own culture. The death of God for love of us is beyond culture. It submerges culture” (Robert Cardinal Sarah with Nicolas Diat, “The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise,” Ignatius, 2017, n. 266).
What, too, of the noisily decadent West? And synodal verbosity, and the next conclave?
A voice crying in the wilderness
I confess to being confused by Cardinal Sarah’s words. We, Catholics in the West, are constantly told about the vibrancy of the African Church. I frequently have the impression that we are supposed to be consoled by this vibrancy. “Don’t worry so much about the decline of the Church in the West”, is the underlying message I hear. Now here comes Cardinal Sarah (who I greatly respect and admire) with a much more nuanced and to me more uncertain picture of the African scene.
God bless you, Cardinal Sarah!! Thank you!!!