Disunity among followers of Christ is counterproductive to the mission of witnessing the Gospel message and evangelization, Cardinal Robert Sarah said recently at a symposium in Kenya.
Sarah, who served as prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments from 2014–2021, in delivering the keynote address at the 2024 Theological Symposium organized by the School of Theology of Kenya-based Tangaza University College (TUC), warned that divisions among Christians expose them to “exploitation.”
“If we are not one, if we are divided, then our witness to Christ is divided and the world will not believe in the Gospel,” Sarah said Feb. 22, the first day of the two-day event.
Sarah urged followers of Jesus Christ in Africa to prioritize their adherence to the Gospel message, allowing the principles of the Christian faith to trump all other identities, including tribe, nationality, and race, among other affiliations.
“Seek unity first in Christian faith, and then with our fellow countrymen and fellow Africans,” he said in his address titled “Make Disciples of all Nations: The Missionary Mandate of Christ.”
To emphasize the need for unity among followers of Jesus Christ, the 78-year-old Guinean-born cardinal warned that divisions leave Christians “vulnerable to exploitation.”
“If we do not strive for unity in Christ then we are even worse off. The divisions among us — religious, ethnic, and political — are vulnerable to exploitation; they may be exploited by corrupt politicians or even foreign powers,” he said.
Sarah has previously expressed his opposition to Fiducia Supplicans, the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) declaration that has elicited mixed reactions and deep divisions among the people of God in general and Catholic bishops around the world in particular since its release on Dec. 18, 2023.
In a Jan. 6 reflection that he shared with Settimo Cielo, an Italian blog, Sarah maintained his previous stance of not opposing the Holy Father.
“We do not oppose Pope Francis, but we firmly and radically oppose a heresy that seriously undermines the Church, the body of Christ,” Sarah said, clarifying his opposition to the recommendations of Fiducia Supplicans, permitting members of the clergy to bless “same-sex couples” and couples in other “irregular situations.”
Persons practicing homosexuality are “in the prison” of sin and in need of the truth of “the word of God” to liberate them, he said, adding: “The truth is the first of the mercies that Jesus offers to the sinner.”
“The freedom we must offer to people living in homosexual unions lies in the truth of the word of God,” he said. “How could we dare to make them believe that it would be good and desired by God for them to remain in the prison of their sin?”
The DDF declaration’s lack of clarity “has only amplified the confusion that reigns in hearts, and some even seized it to support their attempt at manipulation,” Sarah wrote in his Jan. 6 reflection, referring to divisions caused by Fiducia Supplicans’ recommendations.
In his Feb. 22 address in Kenya, Sarah linked unity of the disciples of Jesus Christ with progress. “Only together can we prosper,” he said.
According to Sarah, challenges hindering the mission of witnessing the Gospel message and the evangelization ministry can be addressed “by turning to God in prayer and fasting.”
“By turning to the Lord in prayer and fasting, by this means, God lifts us up. He frees us from selfishness and narrowness and reveals himself to us in one way or another. He disciplines us, so we do not allow mild differences to prevent us from working together in every permissible way,” he said.
The cardinal went on to emphasize the need to combine prayer and fasting, two of the three pillars of the Lenten season, alongside charity through almsgiving.
“Evangelization must involve prayer and fasting together, even with those of other religious traditions in response to evils that we recognize together. By praying and fasting, the obstacles to evangelization will be overcome,” Sarah said.
This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.
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Thousands of pro-life advocates gathered outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 1, 2021, in conjunction with oral arguments in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion case. / Katie Yoder/CNA
Washington D.C., Dec 2, 2021 / 08:04 am (CNA).
Anna Del Duca and daughter, Frances, woke up at 5 a.m. Wednesday morning to brave the 30-degree weather outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. They arrived hours before oral arguments began in the highly-anticipated abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The case, which involves a Mississippi law restricting most abortions after 15 weeks, challenges two landmark decisions: Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which upheld Roe in 1992.
“We’re looking forward to the end of Roe versus Wade in our country,” Anna, who drove from Pittsburgh Tuesday night, told CNA. In her hands, she held a sign reading, “I regret my abortion.”
Anna Del Duca (right) and her daughter, Frances, traveled from Pittsburgh to attend a pro-life rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021, in conjunction with oral arguments for the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion case. Katie Yoder/CNA
“I would like to use my testimony to be a blessing to others,” she said, so that “others will choose life or those who have regretted abortion or had an abortion would turn to Jesus.”
Anna remembered having an abortion when she was just 19. Today, she and her daughter run a group called Restorers of Streets to Dwell In Pittsburgh that offers help to women seeking healing after abortion.
Anna and Frances were among thousands of Americans who rallied outside the Supreme Court before, during, and after the oral arguments. To accommodate them, law enforcement closed the street in front of the court. Capitol police also placed fencing in the space in front of the building in an attempt to physically separate rallies held by abortion supporters and pro-lifers.
At 21-weeks pregnant, pro-life speaker Alison Centofante emceed the pro-life rally, called, “Empower Women Promote Life.” The event featured a slew of pro-life women of diverse backgrounds and numerous politicians.
“It’s funny, there were so many diverse speakers today that the only unifying thread was that we want to protect preborn children,” Centofante told CNA. They included Democrats, Republicans, Christians, Catholics, agnostics, atheists, women who chose life, and women who regretted their abortions, she said.
She recognized women there, including Aimee Murphy, as people who are not the typical “cookie cutter pro-lifer.”
Aimee Murphy, 32, founder of pro-life group Rehumanize International, arrived at the Supreme Court around 6:30 a.m. She drove from Pittsburgh the night before. Her sign read, “Queer Latina feminist rape survivor against abortion.”“At Rehumanize International, we oppose all forms of aggressive violence,” she told CNA. “Even as a secular and non-partisan organization, we understand that abortion is the most urgent cause that we must stand against in our modern day and age because it takes on average over 800,000 lives a year.”
She also had a personal reason for attending.
“When I was 16 years old, I was raped and my rapist then threatened to kill me if I didn’t have an abortion,” she revealed.
“It was when he threatened me that I felt finally a solidarity with unborn children and I understood then that, yeah, the science told me that a life begins at conception, but that I couldn’t be like my abusive ex and pass on the violence and oppression of abortion to another human being — that all that I would be doing in having an abortion would be telling my child, ‘You are an inconvenience to me and to my future, therefore I’m going to kill you,’ which is exactly the same thing that my rapist was telling me when he threatened to kill me.”
On the other side of the police fence, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the National Abortion Access Coalition and NARAL Pro-Choice America participated in another rally. Yellow balloons printed with the words “BANS OFF OUR BODIES” escaped into the sky. Several pro-choice demonstrators declined to speak with CNA.
Voices clashed in the air as people, the majority of whom were women, spoke into their respective microphones at both rallies. Abortion supporters stressed bodily autonomy, while pro-lifers recognized the humanity of the unborn child. Chants arose from both sides at different points, from “Whose choice? My choice!” to “Hey hey, ho ho, Roe v. Wade has got to go!”
At 10 a.m., the pro-life crowd sudddenly went silent as the oral arguments began and the rally paused temporarily as live audio played through speakers.
Hundreds of students from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, traveled to Washington, D.C. for a pro-life rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021, in conjunction with oral arguments in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion case. Katie Yoder/CNA
During the oral arguments, students from Liberty University knelt in prayer. One student estimated that more than a thousand students from the school made the more than 3-hour trip from Lynchburg, Virginia.
“Talking about our faith is one thing, but actually acting upon it is another,” he said. “We have to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. So to me this is part of doing that.”
Sister Mary Karen, who has been with the Sisters of Life for 21 years, also stressed the importance of prayer. She drove from New York earlier that morning because, she said, she felt drawn to attend. She came, she said, to pray for the country and promote the dignity of a human person.
“Our culture is post-abortive,” she explained. “So many people have suffered and the loss of human life is so detrimental, just not knowing that we have value and are precious and sacred.”
Theresa Bonopartis, of Harrison, New York, was among the pro-life demonstrators outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021. She runs a nonprofit group called Entering Canaan that ministers to women and others wounded by abortion. Katie Yoder/CNA
She stood next to Theresa Bonopartis, who traveled from Harrison, New York, and ministers to women and others wounded by abortion.
“I’ve been fighting abortion for 30 years at least,” she told CNA.
Her ministry, called Entering Canaan, began with the Sisters of Life and is observing its 25th anniversary this year. It provides retreats for women, men, and even siblings of aborted babies.
Abortion is personal for Bonopartis, who said she had a coerced abortion when she was just 17.
“I was kicked out of the house by my father and then coerced into getting an abortion,” she said. “Pretty much cut me off from everything, and that’s something people don’t really talk about … they make it try to seem like it’s a woman’s right, it’s a free choice. It’s all this other stuff, but many women are coerced in one way or another.”
She guessed that she was 14 or 15 weeks pregnant at the time.
“I saw my son. I had a saline abortion, so I saw him, which I always considered a blessing because it never allowed me to deny what abortion was,” she said. Afterward, she said she struggled with self-esteem issues, hating herself, guilt, shame, and more. Then, she found healing.
“I know what that pain is like, I know what that experience is like, and you know that you can get past it,” she said. “You just want to be able to give that message to other people, that they’re able to heal.”
Residents of Mississippi, where the Dobbs v. Jackson case originated, also attended.
Marion, who declined to provide her last name, drove from Mississippi to stand outside the Supreme Court. She said she was in her early 20s when Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.
“At the time, of course, I could care less,” she said. Since then, she had a change of heart.
“We were the generation that allowed it,” she said, “and so we are the generation who will help close that door and reverse it.”
Marion, who declined to provide her last name, was among those who attended a pro-life rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021, from Mississippi, where the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion case originated. Katie Yoder/CNA
The crowd at the pro-life rally included all ages, from those who had witnessed Roe to bundled-up babies, children running around, and college students holding up homemade signs.
One group of young friends traveled across the country to stand outside the Supreme Court. They cited their faith and family as reasons for attending.
Mathilde Steenepoorte, 19, from Green Bay, Wisconsin, identified herself as “very pro-life” in large part because of her younger brother with Down syndrome. She said she was saddened by the abortion rates of unborn babies dianosed with Down syndrome.
Juanito Estevez, from Freeport, a village on Long Island, New York, at a pro-life rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021. Katie Yoder/CNA
Juanito Estevez, from Freeport, a village on Long Island, New York, arrived Tuesday. He woke up at 6 a.m. to arrive at the Supreme Court with a crucifix in hand.
“I believe that God is the giver of life and we don’t have the right [to decide] whether a baby should live or die,” he said.
He also said that he believed women have been lied to about abortion.
“We say it’s their right, and there’s a choice,” he said. When girls tell him “I have the right,” his response, he said, is to ask back, “You have the right for what?”
Mallory Finch, from Charlotte, North Carolina, was among the pro-life demonstrators outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021.
Mallory Finch, from Charlotte, North Carolina, also woke up early but emphasized “it was worth it.” A pro-life podcast host, she called abortion a “human-rights issue.”
“I hope that it overturns Roe,” she said of the case, “but that doesn’t mean that our job as pro-lifers is done. It makes this, really, just the beginning.”
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Vatican City, Dec 1, 2021 / 05:15 am (CNA).
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We read: “Sarah has previously expressed his opposition to Fiducia Supplicans, the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) declaration…”
And this “opposition” to facile novelty is, in fact, an affirmation of the unity of both the revealed and catholic Faith and the inborn and universal Natural Law. As in Veritatis Splendor (VS): “The Church is no way [!] the author or the arbiter of this [‘moral’] norm” (VS, n. 95).
Noticing, too, that the Natural Law and moral absolutes are now explicitly part of the Magisterium:
“This is the first time, in fact, that the MAGISTERIUM of the Church has set forth in detail the fundamental elements of this [‘moral’] teaching, and presented the principles for the pastoral discernment necessary in practical and cultural situations which are complex and even crucial” (VS, n. 115).
Cardinal Sarah’s warning is realism. We’re increasingly a divided Church, less so in Africa because of their far greater consistency in doctrinal faith practice, a legacy of the early missionaries and African recently acquired sense of deliverance from idolatry and witchcraft. A newer, fresher Church not having the hundreds of years to become excessive in its intellectual sophistication, and jaded, like the Western.
America however struggles to maintain a traditional revelation oriented posture in opposition to a presumably less rigid Christianity closer to heterodoxy, although ironically quite rigid in its contradictory idea of diversity limited to university. The unique brand of liturgy, interpretation of Christian mercy.
Sarah’s good Lenten message is a response to the dilemma by prayer and fasting. “Homosexuals are imprisoned”, true, although they are the prison keepers and wardens within the Church. There must be a willingness to resist this, which means disruption. Division insofar as witness to the truth in response to fabrications and lies an unavoidable reality.
What a wonderful statement by Cardinal Sarah.
We read: “Sarah has previously expressed his opposition to Fiducia Supplicans, the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) declaration…”
And this “opposition” to facile novelty is, in fact, an affirmation of the unity of both the revealed and catholic Faith and the inborn and universal Natural Law. As in Veritatis Splendor (VS): “The Church is no way [!] the author or the arbiter of this [‘moral’] norm” (VS, n. 95).
Noticing, too, that the Natural Law and moral absolutes are now explicitly part of the Magisterium:
“This is the first time, in fact, that the MAGISTERIUM of the Church has set forth in detail the fundamental elements of this [‘moral’] teaching, and presented the principles for the pastoral discernment necessary in practical and cultural situations which are complex and even crucial” (VS, n. 115).
Cardinal Sarah’s warning is realism. We’re increasingly a divided Church, less so in Africa because of their far greater consistency in doctrinal faith practice, a legacy of the early missionaries and African recently acquired sense of deliverance from idolatry and witchcraft. A newer, fresher Church not having the hundreds of years to become excessive in its intellectual sophistication, and jaded, like the Western.
America however struggles to maintain a traditional revelation oriented posture in opposition to a presumably less rigid Christianity closer to heterodoxy, although ironically quite rigid in its contradictory idea of diversity limited to university. The unique brand of liturgy, interpretation of Christian mercy.
Sarah’s good Lenten message is a response to the dilemma by prayer and fasting. “Homosexuals are imprisoned”, true, although they are the prison keepers and wardens within the Church. There must be a willingness to resist this, which means disruption. Division insofar as witness to the truth in response to fabrications and lies an unavoidable reality.