A Light in the Darkness: Benedict XVI’s View of Church in the Midst of Crisis of the Abuse of Minors

Catholic World Report ^ | 5/26/19 | Cardinal Robert Sarah

[marshmallow]

Editor’s note: The following address was given by H.E. Robert Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, in Rome at the Centre Saint-Louis (Institut Français), May 14, 2019, on the occasion of the presentation of the French edition of The Day Is Now Far Spent. The address was translated by Zachary Thomas for CWR. Nicolas Diat’s address at the presentation can be read here.

Dear friends,

Permit me first of all to thank you for this invitation to the prestigious venue of the French Institute, the Centre Saint-Louis, on the occasion of the publication in French of my book The Day Is Now Far Spent. This book analyses the crisis of the faith, the crisis of the priesthood, the crisis of the Church, the crisis of Christian anthropology, the spiritual collapse and moral decadence of the West and all of its consequences. I am very honored to be able thus, in my own humble way, to join the ranks of theologians and Catholic thinkers of the French language who have contributed to Roman intellectual life.

But this evening, I do not wish to speak about this book. The most fundamental ideas that I develop there were dealt with, illustrated, and argued with great vigor last April by Pope Benedict XVI, in the notes he published in the context of the meeting of the Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences on sexual abuse, convoked in Rome by Pope Francis February 21-24 last. The Pope Emeritus published these notes in a Bavarian review with the agreement of the Holy Father and the Cardinal Secretary of State.

His reflection has become a true source of light in the night of faith that overshadows the entire Church. Some of the reactions it has provoked brim......

[victim soul]

God bless Pope Benedict, St John Paul II, and Cardinal Sarah.

[namvolunteer]

Thanks Marshmallow and Jim Robinson’s Free Republic for giving us this group/forum/praying ground.
Cardinal Sarah has the intellect and courage to teach us.
Many people find God in their own way and I know my Catholic doctrine is different from them.
Cardinal Sarah reminds us all to know God and love God above everything.
This is the way we can love ourselves and others.

[Biggirl]

Amen.