Synodality,
the Mass in the ancient rite, the blessing of homosexual couples, Africa: a
conversation with the Prefect Emeritus of Divine Worship. Reprinted from Secretum
meum mihi, since reproduction from Avvenire is forbidden. *
Your Eminence, Leo XIV frequently refers to the unity of the Church. Would this be an urgent matter ?
We must defeat an ideological approach that has
promoted two opposing visions of the Church, which feed off each other. On the
one hand, there are those who cancel and deny Tradition in the name of unrestricted
openness and assimilation to the world and its criteria of judgment. On the
other, there are those who consider Tradition something crystallized and
mummified, removed from any fruitful historical process. The mission of the
Church is unique and, as such, must be carried out in a full spirit of
communion. The charisms are diverse, but the mission is one and presupposes
communion.
The Pope invites us to proclaim,
"Christ with clarity and immense charity." Is there a
"weak" proclamation today?
The proclamation is always the same and cannot
be otherwise. Man abandons the Church, or the faith, when he forgets himself,
when he censors his own fundamental questions. The Church has never abandoned
and will never abandon man. Some Christians, at all levels of the hierarchy,
may have abandoned men when they were not themselves; that is, when they are
ashamed of Christ, hiding the reason for their Christian existence and reducing
pastoral care to a question of social advancement.
Your latest book is entitled ‘Does
God Exist? The Cry of Man Asking for Salvation’ (Cantagalli, 312 pages, 25
euros). Has the West lost its sense of the transcendent?
The idea that we can do without God has now triumphed
in the West. This is the age in which man himself, who in dethroning God, has
taken His place, thus creating a new order of things that distinctly denies
what God created, and which can be recognized even by those who do not believe
in God. Etsi Deus daretur ("live
as if God existed"): this is the invitation that Benedict XVI addressed to
everyone, at the beginning of his pontificate, believers and non-believers
alike. The West ignores, or pretends to ignore, the presence of God in the
world, the ‘Word Who became flesh and came and dwelt among us.’
Why did you decide to write a
book answering Cantagalli's questions about God?
God has become a foreigner in our lives, and His
place has been taken by idols of every kind. Modern man seems to have even
given up searching for meaning to his existence: in life, in death, in joy, in
suffering. Everything it seems began by chance: living, abiding, and ending – all by chance.
The new idols are themselves products of chance: success, wealth, power,
possession of things and even people. But God is not an idea, not a vaguely
rational or emotional personal conviction. God is a certainty: the certainty
that the Son of Man truly existed and still dwells among us. The truth exists.
The Incarnation occurred. Just as 2,025
years ago some encountered Him and recognized Him, today it is still possible
to encounter Him, recognize Him, follow Him, and die for Him.
Pope Francis called for a thorough
reform of the Roman Curia. Leo XIV said that the Curia remains while popes
pass. How should we interpret these words?
The Church is a highly complex institution, and
each of its components is vital in accomplishing its mission. Ultimately, the
Church belongs to the Risen Christ, and the Pope is simply His humble servant.
Specifically, it was also about a way to encourage the Curia to heal some real
divisions from the past.
Synodality was a central theme
of Francis's pontificate. And it was the subject of one of the Dubia. What do
you hope for?
I believe the synodal dimension needs to be
explored and clarified. Possibly it should be theologically grounded in the
much older and richer notion of communion, also to avoid ideological drifts
that pit two ecclesiologies against each other: synodal and communion.
Communion is an end; synodality is a means, still to be verified. Communion is
hierarchical, because that's how Jesus wanted his Church; synodality, as Pope
Leo recalled, is more of a style.
Pope Francis spoke several
times about the Mass in the ancient rite, or rather, the use of the 1962
Missal. Is it necessary to speak to
those who are tied to this form of celebration?
All the baptized in the Church have citizenship,
on their sharing the Creed and the morality that comes from it. Over the
centuries, the diversity of celebratory rites of the one Eucharistic Sacrifice
has never created problems for the authorities, because the unity of faith was
clear. Indeed, I believe that the variety of rites in the Catholic world is a
great enrichment. A rite, after all, is not composed in a writing room, but is
the outcome of theological and ceremonial stratifications and sedimentations. I
wonder if it is possible to "prohibit" a rite that is over a thousand
years old. Finally, if the liturgy is also a source of theology, how can we
deny access to the "ancient sources"? It would be like prohibiting
the study of St. Augustine to anyone who wishes to reflect correctly on grace
or the Trinity.
Several episcopates have been perplexed about Fiducia
Supplicans, the declaration on the blessing of "irregular"
couples, including homosexual couples. What do you think will happen now?
I hope the content of Fiducia Supplicans can be
clarified and possibly redeveloped. The declaration is theologically weak and hence
unwarranted. It endangers the unity of the Church. It is a document to be
forgotten.
Do your eighty years tell you that you are a
"bridge" between continents?
I don't know if I am a "bridge." I seek to
be a witness: a reminder to the "satiated and desperate" North and a
voice of hope for the South, which has not lost the reason to live and die, to
fight and love, but is restrained by problems that are solvable, but which no
one seems prepared to resolve out of vile interests.
What moments do you remember with special fondness?
By an unmerited gift of Divine Providence, my life has
been filled with experiences that have far exceeded my wildest imagination. If
I had to name one of the most beautiful, it would certainly be the grace of
being born into a Christian family. And then the gift of my vocation and
priestly ordination. There, everything changed. A definitive love story began
that is never-ending, and at the same time, is a tremendous and fascinating
task: to be alter Christus and ipse Christus. With the words
"This is my Body" and "This is my Blood," the priest
experiences an enormous responsibility and a grace that always awaits renewal.
What can Africa bring to the universal Church?
The African churches can offer a freshness of faith, an authenticity and enthusiasm that at times fail to surface in the West. [Let us never forget the high price the Africans are paying in terms of violent martyrdom: it will undoubtedly be fruitful - the seed of new Christians.
*An interview with
Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship
(now a dicastery), published in the Italian bishops' newspaper, Avvenire, on
September 12, 2025. Translated from the Blog, Secretum Meum Mihi. https://secretum-meum-
H/T https://chiesaepostconcilio.blogspot.com/2025/09/fiducia-supplicans-un-documento-da.html
