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Attack on celibacy puts priesthood in ‘mortal danger,’ warns Cdl Sarah
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<div>The African cardinal said that by ‘attacking the celibacy of priests, you are attacking the Church and her mystery.’</div>
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<span><a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/attack-on-celibacy-puts-priesthood-in-mortal-danger-warns-cdl-sarah" target="_blank">https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/attack-on-celibacy-puts-priesthood-in-mortal-danger-warns-cdl-sarah</a></span>
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Cardinal Robert Sarah speaks at the Summorum Pontificum conference in Rome on September 14, 2017. <span>LifeSiteNews</span>
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<span>By Martin Bürge</span></div><div><span></span>ROME, Italy, February 10, 2020 (<a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/" target="_blank">LifeSiteNews</a>)
– <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">Cardinal Robert Sarah </span>has declared that t<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">he Catholic priesthood<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> i</span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">s
“in mortal danger”</span> and <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">“going through a major crisis</span>” </b></span>because of the
push from various voices within the Church to abolish priestly celibacy.
The African prelate called out those who want to make celibacy
optional. </div></div><div><div>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>“By attacking the celibacy of priests, you are attacking the Church and her mystery,” he said. </b></span></p>
<p>Ahead of the publication of the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation “Querida Amazonia” on Wednesday, February 12, which has been <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-pope-francis-to-abolish-priestly-celibacy-according-to-leaked-amazon-synod-exhortation" target="_blank">rumored</a> to open the doors to married priests, Cardinal Sarah told Edward Pentin of the <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/cardinal-sarah-the-priesthood-today-is-in-mortal-danger" target="_blank">National Catholic Register</a> that faithful Catholics are not asking for priestly celibacy to be overturned. </p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>“The ordination of married men is a <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">fantasy of Western academics who
are in search of violations.</span> I want to affirm it forcefully:<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> The poor,
the simple, rank-and-file Christians do not </span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">demand an end to</span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> celibacy,</span>”
he said.</b></span></p>
<p>Sarah, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the
Discipline of the Sacraments, said <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>there are voices within<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> the Church</span>
who would like to “relativize <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the celibacy of priests</span>.” </b></span></p>
<p>“<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>That would be a catastrophe</b></span>! <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>For celibacy is the most obvious
manifestation that the priest belongs to Christ and that he no longer <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)">
belongs to himself. </span>Celibacy is the sign of a life that has meaning only
through God and for him,” </b></span>he said, <br></p></div></div></div><div><div><form method="post" action="http:///" target="_blank"><div>
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<p>“To want to ordain married men is to imply that priestly life is not
full time, that it does not require a complete gift, that it leaves one
free for other commitments such as a profession, that it leaves time
free for a private life. But this is false. A priest remains a priest at
all times. Priestly ordination is not first of all a generous
commitment; it is a consecration of our whole being, an indelible
conformation of our soul to Christ, the priest, who demands from us
permanent conversion in order to correspond to him. Celibacy is the
unquestionable sign that being a priest supposes allowing oneself to be
entirely possessed by God. To call it into question would seriously
aggravate the crisis of the priesthood,” he added. </p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>With a contribution by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Cardinal Sarah has recently published a <a href="https://www.ignatius.com/From-the-Depths-of-Our-Hearts-P3550.aspx" target="_blank">book</a> defending priestly celibacy. </b></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Sarah pointed to <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">Germany</span></b></span>, where married priests have been discussed for a long time, and more <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/german-bishops-working-doc-calls-for-approval-of-contraceptionhomosexuality-womens-ordination" target="_blank">forcefully</a> since the launch of the “synodal path.” </p>
<p>“But I am uneasy. In Germany, <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>a strange synod clearly envisages the
questioning of</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>celibacy.</b></span> I wanted to cry out my concern: Do not tear the
Church apart! <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>By attacking<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> the celibacy of priests, </span>you are attacking
<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the Church and her mystery,</span>”<span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"> he said. </span></b></span></p>
<p>Explaining <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>that those who attack <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">celibacy </span>want to make <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the Church</span> a
purely human institution, </b></span>“within our power, within our reach,” the
cardinal continued, “It means renouncing the mystery of the Church as
God’s gift.”</p>
<p>If married men in the Amazon region were allowed to become priests,
Sarah argued, that “would prohibit the raising of vocations of unmarried
priests. The exception would become a permanent state.”</p>
<p>Asked about<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> priests within the Catholic Church <span style="background-color:rgb(255,217,102)">who are married,
namely as part of the Anglican Ordinariate and the Eastern churches,</span>
</b></span>Sarah clarified that<span style="background-color:rgb(246,178,107)"><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,217,102)"> those exceptions constitute “a parenthesis </span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">in the
normal and natural state of things</span></b></span>.” At the same time, he said, “the
lack of a priest is not an exception,” especially in nascent or dying
churches.</p>
<p>Cardinal Sarah also attempted to dispel a number of myths surrounding
the question of married priests<span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>. Even though married priests did indeed
exist in the first few centuries of the Church, <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">after their ordination,
“they were required to abstain completely from </span>sexual relations with
their wives.”</b></span></p>
<p>Referring to the Council of Elvira in 305, Sarah made clear that one
of the first concerns of the Church after the age of martyrdom was “to
affirm that priests must abstain from sexual relations with their
wives.”</p>
<p>He quoted the council itself, which stated, “It was unanimously
agreed that bishops, priests and deacons, that is to say, all clerics
constituted in the ministry, should abstain from their wives and should
not bear children; whoever has done so (had sexual relations) should be
declared to be deprived of the clerical office.”</p>
<p>In January, Cardinal Gerhard Müller <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cdl-mueller-benedicts-words-carry-great-weight-in-the-church-hes-not-francis-antagonist" target="_blank">said</a> that the Eastern churches, by allowing married priests, had departed “from the tradition of the early Church.”</p>
<p>Cardinal Sarah echoed this assessment. “It was only much later,
because of the corruption of the texts, that the East would evolve in
its discipline, without ever renouncing the ontological link between
priesthood and abstinence.”</p>
<p>Apart from historical considerations, Sarah also sees <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>practical
problems<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> </span></b><b>with having married priests,</b></span> without doubting the holiness of
married priests in Eastern churches. <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>“If a priest is married, then he
has a private life, a conjugal and family life. He must make time for
his wife and children. He is <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">unable </span>to show<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">, by his whole life, that he
is totally and absolutely given to God and the Church.”</span></b></span></p>
<p>Starting with statements by former Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Sarah
stated that he has shown “that at the root of the abuses committed by
clerics, there is a deep flaw in their formation.”</p>
<p>“They wanted to make the priest a man like any other. Some priests
were formed without putting God, prayer, the celebration of Mass, the
ardent search for holiness at the center of their lives,” Sarah
elaborated.</p>
<p>According to the African cardinal, priests were formed without
teaching them about God as their only support, “without making them
experience that their lives only have meaning through God and for him.”
If God is taken out of the equation, the priest is left with nothing but
power, Sarah continued.</p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">“</span><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">If </span>a priest <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">doesn</span>’t <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">daily experience (that) he is<span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"> only an instrument</span>
in God’s hands</span>,<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> if he doesn’t <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">stand </span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">constantly before God to serve him
with all his heart</span>,<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> then he risks becoming intoxicated with a sense of
power. If </span>a priest’s life is <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">not <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">a consecrated life</span></span>, t<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">hen</span> he is <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">in great
danger of illusion and diversion</span>,” Sarah cautioned</b></span>.</p>
<p>Cardinal Sarah briefly commented on the rollout of the book From the
Depths of Our Hearts, to which Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had
contributed.</p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>Sarah accused <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">the opponents of </span>t<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">he priesthood</span> of <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">making</span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the former
Pope</span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> </span>out to be an old man.</span> </b></span>He then asked, “But have you read what he
writes? Do you think one can write pages of such depth without having
all one’s faculties?”</p>
<p>He further accused “some people” of trying “to make us believe that
our publishers have manipulated us and have taken advantage of a
misunderstanding to mount I don’t know what kind of communication stunt.
This is totally false! There is no misunderstanding. Our French
publisher has simply implemented what I personally worked out with the
Pope emeritus.”</p>
<p>In this context, Sarah praised his French publisher Fayard, with
which he had already worked on many other projects, including his
trilogy of interview books that were written together with Nicolas Diat.
“All these polemics are a diversionary tactic to avoid talking about
the essential, the content of the book,” Sarah is convinced.</p>
<p>French newspaper Le Figaro first reported on the book on January 12.
The cover of the original edition of the book on celibacy portrayed
Benedict as a co-author, including a photo of the former Pope the same
size as that of Sarah.</p>
<p>Archbishop Georg Gänswein, prefect of the Papal Household and private secretary of the former Pope, <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/archbishop-ganswein-benedict-xvi-wrote-text-but-did-not-agree-to-be-books-co-author-52484" target="_blank">said</a>
January 14 that he had called Cardinal Sarah “at Benedict’s request, to
ask the book’s publisher to remove the signature of the Pope emeritus
from the introduction and conclusion, because he had not co-authored
them.”</p>
<p>Following the first backlash, Sarah said in a statement, “The polemic
which has aimed to tarnish me for several hours by implying that
Benedict was not informed of the appearance of the book ‘From the Depths
of Our Hearts’ is completely despicable.”</p>
<p>While the first edition of the book, for reasons of time, was still
printed portraying the Pope emeritus as a co-author, future editions
were announced as only referring to him as a contributor.</p>
<p>The publisher of the English version, Ignatius Press, maintains that
Benedict is a co-author. They argued: “Given that, according to Benedict
XVI’s correspondence and Cardinal Sarah’s statement, the two men
collaborated on this book for several months, that none of the essays
have appeared elsewhere, and that a joint work as defined by the Chicago
Manual of Style is ‘a work prepared by two or more authors with the
intention that their contribution be merged into inseparable or
interdependent parts of a unitary whole,’ Ignatius Press considers this a
co-authored publication.”</p>
<p>Archbishop Gänswein later said the introduction and the conclusion
were not written by both, but only by the cardinal, even though the
French publisher said otherwise.</p>
<p>The German archbishop <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-pope-francis-puts-archbishop-gaenswein-on-leave-report-says" target="_blank">has not been seen</a>
with Pope Francis at his Wednesday audiences for almost a month, which
the Vatican claims is “due to ordinary redistribution of the various
commitments and duties.”</p>
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