Cardinal Sarah Decries Paganism, Says Contemporary Church “experiencing temptation of atheism”

In essence, the fluid and practical atheism, Cardinal Sarah said, seeks “a compromise between truth and lies. This is the major temptation of our time.”

The Cardinal, who, until his retirement in February 2021, was serving as Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, said he found it regrettable that Church leaders have given room to the vice of fluid and practical atheism.

“We are all guilty of accommodating, of complicity with this major lie that is fluid and practical atheism. We pretend to be Christian believers and men of faith; we celebrate religious rites, but in fact we live as pagans and unbelievers,” he further lamented. 

According to Cardinal Sarah, “Fluid and practical atheism is elusive and slimy. If you attack it, it will entangle you in its subtle compromises. It's like a spider's web, the more you struggle against it, the tighter it gets on you. Fluid and practical atheism is the ultimate trap of the tempter of Satan.”

He decried “dissension and suspicion”, saying that these vices are “everywhere” in the Church, and added, “Fluid and practical atheism lives and feeds on all our little weaknesses, all our capitulations and compromises with its lie.”

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“We don't have to create parties in the Church; we don't have to proclaim ourselves the saviors of this or that institution. All that would contribute to the adversary's game. 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,” he said. 

The 78-year-old Cardinal, who started his Episcopal Ministry in December 1979 as Archbishop of Guinea’s Conakry Archdiocese continued, referring to the decision to embrace the light of faith, “If everyone humbly decided to do so, the system of lies would collapse of its own accord, because its only strength is the place we give it within ourselves.”

“To keep the spirit of faith is to renounce all that compromises it, to refuse to see things in any other way than through faith. It means keeping our hand in God's hand. I deeply believe that this is the only possible source of peace and gentleness,” the Cardinal who is scheduled to leave Cameroon on April 12 said.

He continued, “Keeping our hand in God's hand is the guarantee of true benevolence without complicity, true gentleness without cowardice, true strength without violence.”

Cardinal Sarah went on to decry “bitterness and partisanship” that he said have “infested” the Church.

“Only the spirit of faith can form the basis of genuine fraternal benevolence. The world is dying, eaten away by lies and rivalry. Only the spirit of faith can bring it peace,” Cardinal Sarah said in his address to Catholic Bishops in Cameroon on April 9.

Earlier, following his arrival in the Central African nation on April 2, Cardinal Sarah called upon the Lay faithful of Cameroon’s Catholic Diocese of Obala to prioritize prayer in their daily tasks.  

The following day, on April 5, he presided over the Priestly Ordination of 12 Deacons, whom he urged to live their vocation to Priesthood “attentive to the flock”.

The Guinean-born Cardinal has also urged Catholic Bishops in Africa to be keen on defending the Catholic faith, voicing their opposition to defenders of “particular cultures” during the October 2024 session of the ongoing Synod on Synodality.

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