Catholic World News April 21, 2017
Cardinal Robert Sarah spoke of the “grave risk of fragmentation of the Church” in an interview with the charitable group Aid to the Church in Need.
Cardinal Sarah said that Church unity is “threatened by confusion,” and that without a clear understanding of a common faith, “can slide into dispersion and schism.”
The cardinal, a native of Guinea, discouraged a reference to the “African Church.” He observed that “there is no such thing as an ‘African Church’ and, as distinct from it, a ‘universal Church.’“ He said that an emphasis on “national identities” leads some Catholics to assume that they can decide for themselves on crucial questions of doctrine and morals.
Questioned about the particular challenges that the Church faces in Africa, Cardinal Sarah mentioned disease, war, and hunger. But he also spoke of “the toxic temptations of Western-born ideologies,” and lamented that “Africa has become the dumping ground of contraceptive products, of weapons of mass destructions. And she is also the scene of the organized theft of primary mineral resources.”