{"id":1246,"date":"2016-05-27T13:26:08","date_gmt":"2016-05-27T13:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=1246"},"modified":"2016-08-02T16:58:10","modified_gmt":"2016-08-02T16:58:10","slug":"a-remarkable-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/a-remarkable-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"A Remarkable Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"

MAILBAG: FROM INSIDE THE VATICAN<\/a><\/span>:<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Robert Moynihan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cardinal Sarah’s Remarkable Talk Last Week in Washington (May 26, 2016, Thursday):<\/strong><\/span>
\n Cardinal Sarah Issues a Powerful Warning…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“The battle to preserve the roots of mankind is perhaps the greatest challenge our world has faced since its origins.” \u2014Cardinal Robert Sarah<\/a><\/span>, Prefect of the Holy See’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, speaking to an American audience of more than 1,000 in Washington D.C. at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast on Tuesday morning, May 17<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“Today we are witnessing the next stage \u2014 and the consummation \u2014 of the efforts to build a utopian paradise on earth without God. It is the stage of denying sin and the fall altogether. But the death of God results in the burial of good, beauty, love and truth. Good becomes evil, beauty is ugly, love becomes the satisfaction of sexual primal instincts, and truths are all relative.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

So all manner of immorality is not only accepted and tolerated today in advanced societies, but even promoted as a social good. The result is hostility to Christians, and, increasingly, religious persecution.” \u2014Cardinal Sarah, Ibid.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“This is why it is so important to fight to protect the family, the first cell of the life of the Church and every society. This is not about abstract ideas. It is not an ideological war between competing ideas. This is about defending ourselves, children and future generations from a demonic ideology that says children do not need mothers and fathers. It denies human nature and wants to cut off entire generations from God.” \u2014Cardinal Sarah, Ibid.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“I encourage you to truly make use of the freedom willed by your founding fathers, lest you lose it.” \u2014Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Holy See’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, speaking to an American audience in Washington D.C. at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast on Tuesday morning, May 17<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“We must help the Pope. We must stand with him just as we would stand with our own father.” \u2014Cardinal Sarah, in a conversation with me in Washington, D.C., on Monday evening, May 16<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

================================================<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Cardinal Warns Against “Demonic” Attack<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Cardinal Robert Sarah (photo), author of the global best-seller God or Nothing (Dieu ou rien) gave an historic address to more than 1,000 American Catholics on May 17 in Washington, D.C., warning that the rejection of God and the rising “gender ideology” are parts of a “demonic attack” on humanity.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

For a man who some Vatican observers say could be among the strongest candidates to be the next Pope, the speech, delivered in a calm tone but filled with fiery, powerful rhetoric, was an eye-opener.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sarah, the Prefect for the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Sacraments, was the keynote speaker at the annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

He gave his talk following spiritually profound remarks by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and a talk by Sister Constance Veit, the director of communications for the Little Sisters of the Poor. Numerous Catholic bishops and members of Congress, including the outgoing Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, were in attendance. I also was in the audience.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe battle to preserve the roots of mankind is perhaps the greatest challenge our world has faced since its origins,\u201d Sarah told the more than 1,000 people in the room.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sarah denounced gender ideology as \u201cideological colonization\u201d and lamented the \u201cinsidious\u201d dismantling of religious freedom in the United States.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe family is natural preparation and anticipation of the communion that is possible when we are united with God,” Sarah said. “This is why the devil is so intent on destroying the family. If the family is destroyed, we lose our God-given anthropological foundations and so find it more difficult to welcome the saving good news of Jesus Christ: self-giving, fruitful love.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

He continued: “This is why it is so important to fight to protect the family, the first cell of the life of the Church and every society. It is not about abstract ideas. It is not an ideological war between competing ideas. This is about defending ourselves, children, and future generations from a demonic ideology that says children do not need mothers and fathers. It denies human nature and wants to cut off entire generations from God.”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI encourage you to truly make use of the freedom willed by your founding fathers, lest you lose it,\u201d the cardinal told his listeners.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDo we not see signs of this insidious war in this great nation of the United States?\u201d Sarah asked. \u201cIn the name of \u2018tolerance,\u2019 the Church\u2019s teachings on marriage, sexuality, and the human person are dismantled. The legalization of same-sex marriage, the obligation to accept contraception within healthcare programs, and even \u2018bathroom bills\u2019 that allow men to use the women\u2019s restroom and locker rooms. Should not a biological man use the men\u2019s restroom? How simpler can that concept be?\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sarah offered three suggestions: be prophetic, be faithful, and pray.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Paul Ryan: “Religious liberty is going to make a comeback”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In his address, House Speaker Paul Ryan gave an eloquent defense of the transcendent. He spoke calmly but compellingly.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Strikingly, he spoke about more profound matters than any of the present candidates to become the next President of the United States.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In this sense, he seemed more “presidential” to me than any of the candidates running for the highest office in the land.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Quoting St. Thomas Aquinas, the former vice presidential nominee said that no matter one\u2019s circumstances, the ultimate purpose of human life is contemplation of God — the vision of God in his reality and glory.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Ryan said that during meetings with individuals struggling with drug addiction, he has noticed that they often seem to \u201cfeel a deep, gnawing pain inside,\u201d a lot of which \u201cstems from loneliness.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe all feel loneliness at some level,\u201d said Ryan. \u201cWe all feel that distance from God\u201d — and it is turning to God that consoles and heals us, he said.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“When faith itself is ruled out of bounds, then happiness itself is being placed out of reach, there is a spiritual void that needs to be filled,\u201d Ryan continued.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just enough to raise people\u2019s wages and give them jobs, Ryan said. The spiritual void must be filled.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you meet people who have beaten addiction,\u201d he continued, \u201cmost of them say something like this, \u2018it wasn\u2019t me. It was God.'”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing more life-changing than coming to know the Lord,\u201d Ryan said.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Little Sisters of the Poor: “We don\u2019t have a \u2018contingency plan,\u2019 we trust in God”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sister Constance Veit encouraged Catholics to be joyful and to view persecutors and adversaries as Christ would.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHate crucified love incarnate,\u201d Sister Constance said. \u201cThe forces of death killed the Lord of life. So let us not be Christians who communicate Lent without Easter, but believers who know how to speak the truth in joy and love.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEven our most cunning adversary is a person longing to love and be loved,\u201d she said.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sister Constance said that the Little Sisters of the Poor trust in God regardless of the outcome of their ongoing legal case against the Obama administration, which has been attempting to force them to violate their consciences by cooperating with actions that the Catholic Church considers intrinsically evil. On May 16, the Supreme Court chose not to rule on the case and sent the case back to the U.S. Courts of Appeals. Pro-life groups declared this an initial victory.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no contingency plan, because like [our foundress], we believe that God will never abandon us,\u201d said Sister Constance. \u201cI don\u2019t say this because it\u2019s a clever sound bite, but because I have deliberately chosen to believe it.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sarah’s Talk: Summing Up<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

American Catholic writer Gerge Weigel praised Sarah’s keynote talk in an article in First Things (link): “Cardinal Sarah is not a showman, but he made a deep impression on the 1,300 in attendance by the depth of his faith and the lucidity of his presentation. He spoke movingly of the solidarity of which human beings are capable because we\u2019re made in the likeness of the original communion of solidarity \u2014 the Holy Trinity. And in that context he defended the weakest and most vulnerable among us, in all stages of life, calling his American audience to live the truths on which the nascent nation staked its independence.”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Here below is the complete text of Sarah’s powerful talk, which may be worth printing out and keeping for future reference.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

===============================<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“The Death of God Results in the Burial of Good”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Cardinal Robert Sarah<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Talk in Washington, D.C. to the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

(link)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By Cardinal Robert Sarah<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Opening Remarks<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you for inviting me to this remarkable gathering, in the company of such a distinguished audience.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

As you well know, what happens in the United States has repercussions everywhere. The entire globe looks to you, waiting and praying, to see what America resolves on the pressing challenges the world faces today. Such is your influence and responsibility.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I do not say this lightly, because we find ourselves in such portentous times.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

1. The Situation of the World and the Mission of the Church<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Rapid social and economic development in the past half century has not been accompanied by an equally fervent spiritual progress, as we witness what Pope Francis calls \u201cglobalized indifference.\u201d1<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It is the result of giving in to the delusion that we are self-sufficient, that man is his own measure in a pervasive individualism. It is manifested in the fear of suffering in our societies, our closing our eyes and hearts to the poor and vulnerable, and, in a very despicable way, in how we discard the unborn and the elderly.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When he prophetically announced the Second Vatican Council in the Apostolic Constitution Humanae Salutis, Saint John XXIII remarked that the human community was in \u201cturmoil\u201d as it sought to establish a new world order where humanity relies entirely on technical and scientific solutions instead of God.2<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Today we are witnessing the next stage \u2014 and the consummation \u2014 of the efforts to build a utopian paradise on earth without God. It is the stage of denying sin and the fall altogether. But the death of God results in the burial of good, beauty, love and truth. Good becomes evil, beauty is ugly, love becomes the satisfaction of sexual primal instincts, and truths are all relative.<\/strong><\/span>
\n So all manner of immorality is not only accepted and tolerated today in advanced societies, but even promoted as a social good. The result is hostility to Christians, and, increasingly, religious persecution.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Nowhere is this clearer than in the threat that societies are visiting on the family through a demonic \u201cgender ideology,\u201d a deadly impulse that is being experienced in a world increasingly cut off from God through ideological colonialism.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Saint Pope John XXIII observed in 1962: \u201cTasks of immense gravity and amplitude await the Church, as in the most tragic periods of her history. The Church must now inject the vivifying and perennial energies of the gospel into the veins of the human community.\u201d3<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This remains the challenge that the Church is facing presently, more even than in 1962, and it is our task today. This is what I spoke of in my book God or Nothing: \u201cToday the Church must fight against prevailing trends, with courage and hope, and not be afraid to raise her voice to denounce the hypocrites, the manipulators, and the false prophets. For two thousand years, the Church has faced many contrary winds but at the end of the most difficult journey, the victory was always won.\u201d4<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

2. The Family<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe future of the world and the Church passes through the family.\u201d5 These prophetic words of Saint John Paul II show how the Church, in our time, must, above all, defend and promote the beauty of the Christian family in fidelity to God\u2019s design. In his post-synodal Exhortation on the Family, Amoris L\u00e6titia (\u201cThe Joy of Love\u201d), Pope Francis states clearly: \u201cIn no way must the Church desist from proposing the full ideal of marriage, God\u2019s plan in all its grandeur … proposing less than what Jesus offers to the human being.\u201d6<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This is why the Holy Father openly and vigorously defends Church teaching on contraception, abortion, homosexuality, reproductive technologies, the education of children and much more.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In my first five years as Archbishop of Conakry (Guinea, Africa), I made it my task to dedicate all of my pastoral letters to the family. Perhaps only the beauty of the family can reawaken the longing for God in the innermost recesses of the conscience of our brothers and sisters, and heal the wounds inflicted on our humanity by sin.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Saint John Paul, the Pope of the new evangelization, describes in Familiaris Consortio how the family is the first place where the Gospel is welcomed and is also the first herald of the Gospel. How true this is!7<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The generous and responsible love of spouses, made visible through the self-giving of parents, who welcome and nurture children as a gift of God, makes love visible in our generation. It makes present the perfect charity of the Trinity. \u201cIf you see charity, you see the Trinity,\u201d wrote Saint Augustine.8<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

From the beginning of creation, God, who is a communion of persons \u2014 Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three different Persons, yet one \u2014 has built a Trinitarian structure into our very nature. In the continent of my origin, Africa, we declare: \u201cMan is nothing without woman, woman is nothing without man, and the two are nothing without a third element, which is the child.\u201d The Triune God dwells within each of us and imbues our whole being: God\u2019s own image and likeness.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Every human being, like the persons of the Trinity, has the capacity to be united with other persons in communion through the vinculum caritatis \u2014 the bond of charity \u2013 of the Holy Spirit. The family is a natural preparation and anticipation of the communion that is possible when we are united with God. The family, as it were, is a natural praeparatio evangelica \u2014 written into our nature.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This is why the devil is so intent on destroying the family. If the family is destroyed, we lose our God-given, anthropological foundations and so find it more difficult to welcome the saving Good News of Jesus Christ: self-giving, fruitful love.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

St. John Paul explained: if it is true that the family is the place where more than anywhere else human beings can flourish and truly be themselves, it is also a place where human beings can be humanly and spiritually wounded.<\/strong><\/span>
\n The rupture of the foundational relationships of someone\u2019s life \u2014 through separation, divorce or distorted impositions of the family, such as cohabitation and same sex unions \u2014 is a deep wound that closes the heart to self-giving love unto death, and even leads to cynicism and despair.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

These situations cause damage to little children through inflicting upon them a deep existential doubt about love. They are a scandal \u2014 a stumbling block \u2014 that prevents the most vulnerable from believing in such love, and a crushing burden that can prevent them from opening to the healing power of the Gospel.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Advanced societies, including \u2014 I regret \u2014 this nation have done and continue to do everything possible to legalize such situations. But this can never be a truthful solution. It is like putting bandages on an infected wound. It will continue to poison the body until antibiotics are taken.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sadly, the advent of artificial reproductive technologies, surrogacy, so- called homosexual \u201cmarriage\u201d, and other evils of gender ideology, will inflict even more wounds in the midst of the generations we live with.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This is why it is so important to fight to protect the family, the first cell of the life of the Church and every society. This is not about abstract ideas. It is not an ideological war between competing ideas. This is about defending ourselves, children and future generations from a demonic ideology that says children do not need mothers and fathers. It denies human nature and wants to cut off entire generations from God.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

3. Religious Freedom<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I encourage you to truly make use of the freedom willed by your founding fathers, lest you lose it. In so many other countries, on almost a daily basis, we hear of merciless beheadings, futile bombings of churches, torching of orphanages and ruthless expulsions of entire families from homes that religious minorities suffer worldwide simply because of their beliefs. Even in this yet young twenty-first century of barely 16 years, one million people have been martyred around the world because of their belief in Jesus Christ.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Yet the violence against Christians is not just physical, it is also political, ideological and cultural. This form of religious persecution is equally damaging, yet more hidden. It does not destroy physically but spiritually; it demolishes the teaching of Jesus and His Church and, hence, the foundations of faith by leading souls astray. By this violence, political leaders, lobby groups and mass media seek to neutralize and depersonalize the conscience of Christians so as to dissolve them in a fluid society without religion and without God. This is the will of the Evil One: to close Heaven … out of envy.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Do we not see signs of this insidious war in this great nation of the United States? In the name of \u201ctolerance,\u201d the Church\u2019s teachings on marriage, sexuality and the human person are dismantled. The legalization of same-sex marriage, the obligation to accept contraception within health care programs, and even \u201cbathroom bills\u201d that allow men to use the women\u2019s restrooms and locker rooms. Should not a biological man use the men\u2019s restroom? How simpler can that concept be?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

How low we are sinking for a nation built on a set of moral claims about God, the human person, the meaning of life, and the purpose of society, given by America\u2019s first settlers and founders! God is named in your founding documents as \u201cCreator\u201d and \u201cSupreme Judge\u201d over individuals and government. The human person endowed with God-given and therefore inalienable rights to \u201clife, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.\u201d George Washington wrote that \u201cthe establishment of Civil and Religious Liberty was the motive that induced me to the field of battle.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Today, we find ourselves before the battle of a sickness that has pervaded our world. I repeat: the battle of a sickness. That is what we face. I call this sickness \u201cthe liquidation, the eclipse of God.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Pope Francis describes the causes of this \u201csickness.\u201d I quote: \u201cReligious liberty is not only that of thought or private worship. It is freedom to live according to ethical principles consequent upon the truth found, be it privately or publicly. This is a great challenge in the globalized world, where weak thought \u2013 which is like a sickness \u2013 also lowers the general ethical level, and in the name of a false concept of tolerance ends up by persecuting those who defend the truth about man and the ethical consequences.\u201d9<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

What are the remedies to this sickness? What should we do to protect the family, religious freedom, and marriage \u2013 as revealed to us by God?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Concluding Remarks<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Before such a distinguished gathering, I offer three humble suggestions.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

1. First: Be prophetic. The Book of Proverbs tells us: \u201cWhere there is no vision, discernment, the people perish\u201d (29, 18). Discern carefully \u2013 in your lives, your homes, your workplaces \u2013 how, in your nation, God is being eroded, eclipsed, liquidated. Blessed Paul VI saw that in 1968 when, for the Church, he so courageously wrote Humanae Vitae. What are the threats to Christian identity and the family today? ISIS, the growing influence of China, the colonization of ideologies such as gender? How do we react?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

2. Be faithful. This is my second suggestion. Specifically for you, as men and women called to influence even the political sphere you have a mission of bringing Divine Revelation to bear in the lives of your fellow citizens. Uphold the wise principles of your founding fathers. Do not be afraid to proclaim the truth with love, especially about marriage according to God\u2019s plan, just as courageously as Saint John the Baptist, who risked his life to proclaim the truth. The battle to preserve the roots of mankind is perhaps the greatest challenge that our world has faced since its origins.10 In the words of Saint Catherine of Siena: \u201cProclaim the truth and do not be silent through fear.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

3. Third: Pray. Sometimes, in front of happenings in the world, our nation or even the Church, the results of our prayer might tempt us to become discouraged. Like Sisyphus in the Greek myth: condemned to roll a large boulder uphill, only to see it roll down again as soon as he had reached the top. Pope Benedict XVI in Deus Caritas Est encourages us : \u201cPeople who pray are not wasting their time, even though the situation appears desperate and seems to call for action alone.\u201d11<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Whether in doctrine or morality or everyday decisions, the heart of prayer is to discern God\u2019s will. This can only happen in prolonged moments of silence where, like Elijah before the horrendous threats of Queen Jezebel, we allow the \u201cgentle breeze\u201d of God to enlighten us and confirm us along our journey to do God\u2019s will. Such was the virginal silence of the Blessed Mother. At a marriage, the wedding feast of Cana, when for a new family \u201cthey have no wine,\u201d Mary our Mother trusted in the grace given by Jesus to bestow the joy of love overflowing \u2013 Amoris L\u00e6titia. She pronounced her very last words, \u201cDo whatever He tells you\u201d (John 2: 1-12). Then she remained silent.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Be prophetic, Be faithful. Pray.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

That is why I came to this prayer breakfast. To encourage you. Be prophetic, Be faithful. And, above all, pray.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

These three suggestions make present that the battle for the soul of America, and the soul of the world, is primarily spiritual. They show that the battle is fought firstly with our own conversion to God\u2019s will every day.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And so I wholly welcome this initiative, and join you in prayer that this great country may experience a new great \u201cspiritual awakening\u201d, and help stem the tide of evil that is spreading in the world. I am confident that your efforts will no doubt contribute to protecting human life, strengthening the family, and safeguarding religious freedom not only here in these United States, but everywhere in the world.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

For in the end: it is \u201cGod or nothing.\u201d Thank you very much.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Footnotes<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

1 Pope Francis, Address in Lampedusa, 8 July 2013: \u201cThe culture of comfort, which makes us think only of ourselves, makes us insensitive to the cries of other people, makes us live in soap bubbles which, however lovely, are insubstantial; they offer a fleeting and empty illusion which results in indifference to others; indeed, it even leads to the globalization of indifference. In this globalized world, we have fallen into globalized indifference.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

2 Pope John XIII, Apostolic Constitution Humanae Salutis, 25 December 1961: \u201cToday the Church is witnessing a crisis underway within society … the effects of a temporal order that some have wanted to reorganize by excluding God.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

3 Pope John XXIII, in Walter M. Abbott, S. J., ed. and trans., The Documents of Vatican II: All Sixteen Official Texts Promulgated by the Ecumenical Council 1963-1965 (New York: Herder and Herder, 1966), 703-707.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

4 Robert Cardinal Sarah, God or Nothing. A Conversation on Faith with Nicolas Diat (San Francisco, Ignatius Press, 2015), 158.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

5 Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio (November 22. 1981), 75.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

6 Pope Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Amoris L\u00e6titia (March 19, 2016), 307.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

7 Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio: \u201cBy virtue of their ministry of educating, parents are through the witness of their lives the first heralds of the gospel for their children. Furthermore, by praying with their children, by reading the word of God with them and by introducing them into the Body of Christ\u2014both the eucharistic and the ecclesial body\u2014they become fully parents, in that they are begetters not only of bodily life, but also of the life that through the Spirit’s renewal flows from the cross and resurrection of Christ” (39).<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

8 De Trinitate, VIII. 8, 12: CCL 50, 287<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

9 Pope Francis, Address to the International Congress organized by the Department of Jurisprudence of LUMSA, Rome, June 20-21, 2014.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

10 Robert Cardinal Sarah, ibid., 166.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

11 Pope Benedict XVI, Encyclical Deus Caritas Est (25 December 2006), 36.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

=====================<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

His Eminence Robert Cardinal Sarah<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Archbishop emeritus of Conakry (Guinea), was born on June 5, 1945 in Ourous, Guinea. His native language is French, but he speaks English perfectly, as well as Italian. He is 70 years old.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

After middle school, he was obliged to leave home in order to continue his studies at the minor seminary in Bingerville, Ivory Coast. Following Guinea\u2019s independence in 1958, he returned home and completed his studies.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

He was ordained priest on July 20, 1969 in Conakry.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

After his ordination, he earned a licentiate in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and a licentiate in Scripture at the \u201cStudium Biblicum Franciscanum\u201d in Jerusalem.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Upon completion of his studies, he was nominated rector of the minor seminary of Kindia, and served as parish priest in Bok\u00e8, Katace, Koundara and Ourous.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

On August 13, 1979, he was appointed Archbishop of Conakry at the age of 34, making him the youngest bishop in the world and called \u201cthe baby bishop\u201d by John Paul II. He was consecrated on December 8, 1979.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

On October 1, 2001, he was appointed Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

On October 7, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him president of the Pontifical Council \u201cCor Unum\u201d.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

On November 23, 2014, he was named Prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

========================<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

To Recapitulate<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Cardinal Sarah asked all of us to discern how \u201cin your lives, your homes, your workplaces \u2014 how, in your nation, God is being eroded, eclipsed, liquidated.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Faithfulness requires Catholics to be courageous in speaking the truth.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And prayer, he said, is essential to discerning God\u2019s will and to avoid discouragement.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat is why I came to this prayer breakfast,” Sarah said. “To encourage you: be prophetic, be faithful, and above all, pray.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Moynihan Letters are posted here.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Note: The Moynihan Letters go to over 20,000 people around the world. If you would like to subscribe, simply email me an email address, and I will add you to the list. Also, if you would like to subscribe to our print magazine, Inside the Vatican, please do so! It would support the old technology of print and paper, as well as these Moynihan Letters. Click here.<\/strong><\/span>
\n What is the glory of God?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“The glory of God is man alive; but the life of man is the vision of God.” \u2014St. Irenaeus of Lyons, in the territory of France, in his great work Against All Heresies, written c. 180 A.D.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Robert Moynihan | MoynihanReport@gmail.com | Urbi et Orbi Communications | PO Box 57 | New Hope, KY 40052-0057<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

For more updated news, click here\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MAILBAG: FROM INSIDE THE VATICAN: Dr. Robert Moynihan Cardinal Sarah’s Remarkable Talk Last Week in Washington (May 26, 2016, Thursday):.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[73,206,132,207],"class_list":{"0":"post-1246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-church","7":"tag-cardinal-sarah","8":"tag-god-or-nothing","9":"tag-prayer","10":"tag-sister-constance-veit","11":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}