Even if the Holy Spirit Doesn’t Choose Robert Sarah – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator

We columnists are the prostitutes of public debate. Yesterday we were experts on tariffs, the day before on geopolitics, and today on the Vatican curia, or even papal candidates. Now that Francis has returned to the Father’s House, the trend is to join the betting pools on the Holy Spirit’s next pick. Nothing seems more secular and anti-Christian to me than dueling with the winds of Providence, with more than a few ready to tell the Holy Dove which skullcap to drop the twig on. The good thing is, with their effort as superhuman as it is ridiculous, they make God laugh out loud.

Be that as it may, about ten illustrious cardinals are bubbling up in the Vatican lottery drum as potential popes. Without presuming to tell the Holy Spirit what to do, I feel thrilled to see Cardinal Sarah among the pundits’ favorites — not because I think the opinions of Vatican analysts matter one bit in the Conclave of Heaven, but because seeing his face in the news these days gives me an excuse to write a few words about him. Whether he’s the next Pope or not, engaging with his figure, and even more so with his literary work, is an immense source of joy. (RELATED: Who Are the Potential Replacements for Pope Francis?)

It’s funny. Cardinal Sarah could be the first African Pope, the first Black Pope, and that should thrill progressives. But BLM doesn’t care about black people, only their black people. And Cardinal Sarah is a staunch defender of Christian tradition, Catholic liturgy, and a clear opponent of the new world order, the multiculturalism that displaces European cultures, and, in general, everything that’s wrong with the world. So don’t expect progressives, who only believe in your money, to champion Sarah the way they did Obama, who was far less Black and far more dangerous.

When have you ever seen the left on the right side of history?

Robert Sarah is an intellectual, a theologian, and probably a great saint. He’s the author of one of the most important Christian essays of the century, The Power of Silence. When that book fell into my hands, I barely knew this serene Guinean with a soft voice and calm demeanor. By the time I finished it, I started it again. And I return to it every time the fog and urgency of daily life keep me from hearing God, or even hearing people.

The Power of Silence should be required reading for all bishops, priests, religious, and, frankly, all Christians. Even agnostics might enjoy its invitation to contemplate the world and its beauty. Maybe, without meaning to, they’d end up face-to-face with the God they don’t believe in (this is for the agnostics, not the bishops).

Later, he published another essential work for understanding the moral decline of the West, The Day Is Now Far Spent. It’s one of those books that those running the Catholic Church should recite every night until they know it by heart. I haven’t read a clearer meditation on the loss of Christian identity in our nations from any other bishop.

“At the root of the West’s collapse is a cultural and identity crisis,” he writes in the book. “The West no longer knows who it is, because it no longer knows and does not want to know who made it, who established it, as it was and as it is. Many countries today ignore their own history. This self-suffocation naturally leads to a decadence that opens the path to new, barbaric civilizations.”

But it was the book From the Depths of Our Hearts: Priesthood, Celibacy, and the Crisis of the Catholic Church, co-authored with the great Benedict XVI, that led every dimwitted journalist to label him a “dangerous,” “controversial,” “polarizing,” “extremist” papal candidate, and whatever other nonsense I’ve read today. Some of them claim to be Catholic, and as for those who aren’t, I wonder: why the hell should I care about their opinion on my faith?

For these empty-headed types, it’s not “dangerous,” “controversial,” “polarizing,” or “extremist” that Berlin looks like Kabul thanks to the 2030 Agenda, that Islamists are martyring Christians by the hundreds in Congo, that there are priests advocating for ending celibacy, cheering on mafias trafficking people in illegal immigration, or joyfully promoting the sin of sodomy as if they’d read the Old Testament through a ChatGPT summary. (RELATED: Wave of Attacks on Christian Communities in Nigeria)

No, the “controversial, extremist, dangerous, and polarizing” one, for them, is Cardinal Sarah. There are brothers in faith and trade colleagues practically begging for the 10 plagues of Egypt from Exodus, one after another: from frogs to boils, from gnats to the death of the firstborn, and, of course, the beautiful, moving, sweet, and always effective plague of locusts.

I don’t know if the Holy Spirit will choose Sarah. And, horrible as it is to admit, I don’t know if certain cardinals would listen to the Holy Spirit if He suggested his name. But what’s certain is that this small, great man represents everything that’s right with the Church. He holds the keys to the Church’s salvation and the necessary purge within Western Christianity, and for that alone, he deserves to be heard and read carefully.

Less Robert Sarah means more darkness, and I don’t think I need to remind anyone that darkness was also a plague for the Egyptians.

READ MORE from Itxu Díaz:

After the Cross: The Eternal Paradox of the Christian

The Joy of Living: Starting the Day Wrong Is in Your Hands

Looking Back to Where the Sky Silences Us