Que sera Sarah?

Jul 28, 2016

By Robert Mickens
At the Sacra Liturgia Conference in London attended mainly by enthusiasts of the Tridentine Mass — before it was reformed in the wake of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) — Cardinal Robert Sarah said the Pope had asked him to form a commission to study the possibility of carrying out a “reform of the reform.”

The Guinea native also appealed to all priests around the world to return to the pre-Vatican II custom of celebrating Mass versus orientem (facing East), or what is often called “priest with his back to the people.” He suggested they implement this on the first Sunday of Advent (next November 27).

But a statement from the Holy See Press Office on July 11, though written in the classic diplomatic style of the Roman Curia, made it clear that Pope Francis — like most of the world’s bishops — is opposed to making ad orientem worship normative. And, even more importantly, it indicated that he does not support any such “reform of the (post-Vatican II liturgical) reform,” despite Cardinal Sarah’s claim.

There is no other way one can read the Vatican communiqué except that the Pope corrected the cardinal — and distanced himself from his views — in a very clear and public way.

And, in doing so, he has sent a strong message to the tiny minority of Catholics who continue to push for incorporating parts of the (unreformed) Tridentine Rite into the (reformed) post-Vatican II liturgy. It’s not going to happen.

This is a liturgical hot potato that the 79-year-old Francis had sought to avoid. In fact, he appointed Cardinal Sarah to his current job precisely in order to keep the peace with the neo-Tridentinists — a small, but well-organized, well-funded and extremely vocal group that gained prominence disproportionate to its numbers under Benedict XVI. It has been lukewarm (to say the least!) towards the current Pope.

After Pope Francis moved the previous CDW prefect, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares, back to a diocese in Spain, the top post at the worship office remained vacant for nearly three months — an unprecedented amount of time in that office’s history.

Several Vatican sources said the Pope had intended to make Archbishop Piero Marini the prefect of CDW,

But the the neo-Tridentinists or the so-called “Ratzingerians” in the Curia (those more attached to the retired pope’s style and vision of the Church rather than to his successor’s) warned Francis against the appointment of Archbishop Piero Marini. They said his appointment would “cause a war.” Some say that the former pope himself advised against it.

They feared that Archbishop Marini would work to counter some of the controversial and retrograde liturgical changes that Benedict XVI had instituted throughout the church, especially his normalization of the Tridentine Rite through the 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum.

The group then suggested Cardinal Sarah for the post. When John Paul II brought the African prelate to the Vatican in 2001 he was known as pious and doctrinally conservative, but did not seem to be an ideologue thanks to his twenty-two years as Archbishop of Conakry (Guinea).

People continue to scratch their heads in total confusion as to why Francis gave him such a high-profile post in a pontificate in which Sarah seems so out of step. Some believe it was meant to neutralize the cardinal by putting him in charge of an area of church life (the liturgy) that the Pope simply takes for granted and about which he is contemplating no further developments.

Others fear he miscalculated the depth of the cardinal’s commitment to the neo-Tridentinists and the “reform of the reform” movement.

Up until he caused the stir with his recent talk in London, the Pope remained remarkably tolerant with him. But that lecture may have been the final straw.

On July 9, Pope Francis called the 71-year-old cardinal into his office and took him to task for the divisive and controversial remarks on the liturgy that the prefect had made just few days earlier in London.

This was not the first time since his appointment as CDW prefect that the cardinal has said controversial things that seem so incongruent with the tone and style Francis has tried to set for his pontificate and the entire Church. --NCR