Card. Sarah: “Many Western Prelates Are Tetanized… the Dream of Being Loved by the World”

'We are grateful for the Church in Africa and for the work of all those who made enormous sacrifices to plant there the seeds of the Faith that now bear fruit when needed most.'

From Fr Z's Blog

At Crux there is an account of an address that Robert Card. Sarah gave to the Bishops Conference of  Cameroon.

Some tastes with my emphases and comments…

“Many Western prelates are tetanized* by the idea of opposing the world. They dream of being loved by the world; they’ve lost the desire to be a sign of contradiction,” said the 78-year-old Sarah.

Sarah told the Cameroonian bishops he believes “the Church of our time is experiencing the temptation of atheism. Not intellectual atheism, but that subtle and dangerous state of mind [of] fluid and practical atheism.”

“The latter is a dangerous disease, even if its initial symptoms seem benign,” he said.

It doesn’t take long to identify the symptoms.

*A tetanized state, physiologic tetanus is a sustained muscle contractions at a very high rate.  The disease of tetanus is also called “lockjaw”.

Back in the day, when I was more active in the “conference” environment, I often spoke to crowds about “immanentism lite” that prevails today widely in the Church, also among the clergy, which explains their liturgical preferences and the opposition of some to the traditional forms.  There is a conformity to this world’s “wisdom” against which Paul warned in no uncertain terms.  Immanentism is at the core of modernism: the reduction of the supernatural to the natural.  It is a numbed-embrace of the Golden Calf.

Sarah made an argument for a radical stand.

Sarah described “fluid and practical atheism” as a treacherous and elusive force. He compared it to being caught in a spider’s web, where efforts to escape only tighten its grip. This brand of atheism, he argues, is a masterful trap set by Satan himself. [To escape Shelob’s web, Frodo had the intercessory help of the gift of Galadriel, the light of Earendil.]

The Church leader emphasized that this form of atheism preys on human frailties and on man’s tendencies to give in to its deceptions. He urged that within the Church, there should be no factions or self-proclaimed saviors, as such divisions play into the adversary’s hands.  [This is one reason why I stress our rites.  “We are our rites!”  We don’t depend on this or that, but on the numberless vanguard of our forebears who have handed down to us a sure and lovingly tended identity that unifies across borders, cultures, centuries.]

“We don’t have to create parties in the Church; we don’t have to proclaim ourselves the saviors of this or that institution,” he said.

[NB] “But each of us can decide today: the lie of atheism will no longer pass through me; I no longer wish to renounce the light of faith; I no longer wish, out of convenience, laziness or conformism, to allow light and darkness to cohabit within me,” Sarah said.

Do I hear an “Amen!”?

“The Church in Africa will soon have to defend the truth of the priesthood and the unity of the faith. The Church in Africa is the voice of the poor, the simple and the small,” he said.

We are grateful for the Church in Africa and for the work of all those who made enormous sacrifices to plant there the seeds of the Faith that now bear fruit when needed most.