𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐡: 𝐧𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐥 𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧
The priesthood is something unique, and no council or synod can invent the priesthood of women, Cardinal Robert Sarah said. The retired prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments delivered a conference on the priesthood, titled "Joyful Servants of the Gospel," in Mexico City on July 3.
The Guinean-born purpurate asserted that no one has the power to transform this divine gift, to adapt it and reduce its transcendent value only to cultural and environmental dimensions. "No council, no synod, no ecclesiastical authority has the power to invent the priesthood of women (...) without doing serious damage to the eternal face of the priest, his sacramental identity, within the framework of a renewed ecclesiological vision of the Church, mystery, communion and mission." - he stressed.
Cardinal Sarah recalled that "the Catholic faith confesses that the sacrament of Holy Orders, instituted by Christ the Lord, is one, is identical for the universal Church. For Jesus, there is no African, German, Amazonian or European priesthood. The priesthood is unique, it is the same for the entire universal Church."
The retired prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments also reflected on "being a priest" and stressed that "the priesthood is an overwhelming mystery, a gift so great that it would be a sin to waste it. It is a divine gift that must be accepted, understood and lived, and the Church has always sought to understand and enter more deeply into the true and proper essence of the priest, as a baptized man, called to be alter Christus, another Christ, and even more ipse Christus, Christ Himself, to represent Him, to be conformed to Him, to be formed and mediated in Christ through priestly ordination." - he explained.
According to the curial purpurate, "a priest is a man of God who stays day and night in the presence of God to glorify and adore Him. The priest is a man immersed in sacrifice, to extend Christ's sacrifice for the salvation of the world." Cardinal Sarah reminded that the first task of priests is prayer, because a priest is a man of prayer: he begins his day with the liturgy of the readings and ends it with the completa. "A priest who does not pray will soon die. A Church that does not pray is a dead Church," he warned.
Referring to the lack of priestly vocations, the retired prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments encouraged the faithful to pray, because it's not that there are few of us. "Christ ordained the Twelve for the whole world. How many of us are priests today? There are nearly 400,000 priests in the world. There are too many of us," - he said, quoting an observation made by Pope Gregory the Great in the seventh century. "Many have accepted the priesthood, but they are not doing priestly ministry," he added. - Cardinal Sarah explained. "So we must pray. To ask the Lord to send laborers into his harvest, to beg. And show that we priests are happy, because if young men see that we are sad, we won't attract anyone. We must be joyful, even if we are suffering." - Cardinal Robert Sarah stated.
—Excerpted from the recent conference visit to Mexico
Fr. Chad Ripperger's Breastplate of St. Patrick (Modified) & Binding Prayer ("In the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, and by the power of the Most Holy Catholic Church of Jesus, I render all spirits impotent...")
Deliverance Prayers II The Minor Exorcisms and Deliverance Prayers compiled by Fr Chad Ripperger: Breastplate of St. Patrick (Modified) I bind (myself, or N.) today to a strong virtue, an invocation of the Trinity. I believe in a Threeness, with a confession of an Oneness in the Creator of the Universe. I bind (myself, or N.) today to the virtue of Christ’s birth with his baptism, to the virtue of his crucifixion with his burial, to the virtue of his resurrection with his ascension, to the virtue of his coming to the Judgment of Doom. I bind (myself, or N.) today to the virtue of ranks of Cherubim, in obedience of Angels, in service of Archangels, in hope of resurrection for reward, in prayers of Patriarchs, in preaching of Apostles, in faiths of confessors, in innocence of Holy Virgins, in deeds of righteous men. I bind (myself, or N.) today to the virtue of Heaven, in light of Sun, in brightness of Snow, in splendor of Fire, in speed of l...
Comments
Renato
Many chosen sons do not see the Church's orientation being shifted from preaching the gospel towards building a worldly utopia as the deception of the antichrist and his ecclesiastical agents.