On the Credibility of the Catholic Church [Cardinal Sarah]

The National Catholic Register ^ | 8/14/21 | Cardinal Robert Sarah

[marshmallow]

COMMENTARY: Throughout two millennia, the Church has already played this role of guardian and ferryman of civilization. But does it still have the means, and the will, today?

Editor’s note: The essay first appeared Aug. 14 in the French-language newspaper Le Figaro. The English translation is reprinted here with the permission of Cardinal Robert Sarah. It has been edited for style.

Doubt has taken hold of Western thought. Intellectuals and politicians alike describe the same impression of collapse. Faced with the breakdown of solidarity and the disintegration of identities, some turn to the Catholic Church. They ask her to give a reason to live together to individuals who have forgotten what unites them as one people. They beg her to provide a little more soul to make the cold harshness of consumer society bearable. When a priest is murdered, everyone is touched and many feel stricken to the core.

But is the Church capable of responding to these calls? Certainly, she has already played this role of guardian and transmitter of civilization. At the twilight of the Roman Empire, she knew how to pass on the flame that the barbarians were threatening to extinguish. But does she still have the means and the will to do so today?

At the foundation of a civilization, there can only be one reality that surpasses it: a sacred invariant. Malraux noted this with realism: “The nature of a civilization is what gathers around a religion. Our civilization is incapable of building a temple or a tomb. It will either be forced to find its fundamental value, or it will decay.”

Without a sacred foundation, protective and insuperable boundaries are abolished. An entirely profane world becomes a vast expanse of quicksand. Everything is sadly open to the winds of arbitrariness. In the absence of the...........

[rlmorel]

I have to say...I left the Catholic Church some time ago, but this guy...every time I read something he writes, I am impressed with his intellect and analysis.

To an outsider, he comes across as a lonely, sane voice in a religion that has many including the Pope himself who appears to have lost their way to God.

[Lurkinanloomin]

The ImPopester has destroyed the credibility of the Church.

[Marchmain]

Great!
“Liturgical peace is the sign of the peace that the Church can bring to the world.”