Pope Leo XIV has named Cardinal Robert Sarah as his Special Envoy to preside over the July liturgical celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the apparitions of Saint Anne to Yvon Nicolazic in France.
The announcement on May 24 is likely to be welcomed by many in the Catholic Church who deeply admire the African and traditionalist cardinal, and many of whom likely hoped that Cardinal Sarah would be chosen as the new pope to succeed Pope Francis.
Sarah was famously at odds with Pope Francis over several issues, and once came under fire for suggesting that he had co-authored a book with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, which condemned proposals to end priestly celibacy just as Francis himself was considering those proposals, thereby appearing to pit Benedict and Francis as being at odds, reports Crux.
An avid supporter of the Traditional Latin Mass, which Pope Francis restricted, Sarah was allowed to remain in leadership by Francis, but with his hands effectively tied until he retired promptly upon reaching the age of 75 in 2021.
He has remained a hero, and even a martyr of sorts, for more conservative-minded Catholics who felt slighted by Pope Francis, and Leo’s choice to give him an admittedly relatively insignificant task is seen as an effort by the pontiff to extend an olive branch amid what likely continues to be a painful situation, reports Crux.
“Were the cardinals of the Catholic Church to revisit the assessment of the cultural antagonism the Western secular spirit embodies, they might well find both satisfaction and a solution in the choice of Cardinal Sarah,” Herald contributor Gavin Ashenden wrote in his article “Is Cardinal Sarah the man to save the Church as the next pope?”, before the conclave that elected Cardinal Robert Prevost.
“The combination of being black, being African and being truly and wholeheartedly Catholic might offer just the antidote to the fracture, disorder, ambiguity and discontinuity that the last pontificate has burdened the Church with.”
At one point before the conclave, it appeared that Cardinal Sarah was gaining momentum, at least on social media and amid the digital “public square”. In the betting markets, he went from just a 2 per cent chance at becoming the next pope, to the British betting company William Hill quoting him at 14/1, making him the “seventh favourite” in betting terms.
But after white smoke was seen coming out of the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, when the protodeacon of the College of Cardinals, Dominique Mamberti, announced Habemus papam and that “We have a new pope”, it turned out that it was to be another Robert.
Photo: 5 March 2015, Francois-Regis Salefran photo of Cardinal Sarah
