Father Augustin Shako Yodi responds to Andrea Cionci’s attempt to portray Cardinal Sarah as his supporter: “It was simple courtesy — now we will take action.”

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«A serious violation and an unjust instrumentalization of Cardinal Sarah».

Speaking with UCCR by phone, Father Augustin Shako Yodi, personal secretary to Cardinal Robert Sarah, appeared deeply saddened and outraged by what had happened.

At the center of the matter, once again, is writer and art critic Andrea Cionci.

Yesterday he published a video and several screenshots containing brief replies received in 2022 from Father Augustin himself and Cardinal Sarah, following his persistent requests to send them one of his articles and the book “The Ratzinger Code” (ByoBlu 2022).

The gesture is particularly serious because the Roman writer publicly used the Cardinal’s name to portray him as a supporter of his thesis regarding the alleged invalid resignation of Ratzinger and the invalidity of Pope Francis, whom he describes as an antipope and usurper.

 

 

The “Ratzinger Code” and canon lawyers

Several times we have covered this “investigation,” according to which Benedict XVI supposedly placed himself in an impeded see, scattering throughout his speeches a series of secret codes to communicate this condition outside the Vatican.

In addition to contesting the validity of Francis’ pontificate, Cionci extends the same accusations to the current Pope, Leo XIV.

These are claims that several professional canon lawyers have dismissed as “visibly inconsistent amateur canon law improvisation” (Geraldina Boni), “a sensationalist thesis without foundation” (Fr. Silvio Barbaglia), “the product of sick ideas without the slightest theological and/or juridical basis” (Rosario Priore), and “a personal fantasy in the style of Dan Brown” (Archbishop Georg Gänswein, secretary to Benedict XVI).

 

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Andrea Cionci’s new attempt

What happened yesterday, however, crossed an uncrossable line, driven by the frustration that Andrea Cionci himself says he feels due to the lack of support and the absence of responses he has constantly received despite six years of frenetic activity.

On “Quotidiano Web” — an online outlet close to No Vax circles — and on his YouTube channel¹A. Cionci, The emails from Cardinal Sarah to Andrea Cionci: “We hope your book ENLIGHTENS CONSCIENCES”, from the channel Andrea Cionci – Codice Ratzinger, 11/05/2026, the Roman writer published an email from August 2022 in which Cardinal Robert Sarah responded to his request to send him the book “The Ratzinger Code”.

In the text, the eminent prelate used simple courtesy formulas and customary pleasantries, greeting the recipient “with my prayer and blessing.”

Cionci also published the replies received on the same occasion from Sarah’s secretaries, Fr. Francesco Morena and Father Augustin Shako Yodi, which likewise contained expressions of kindness, gratitude, and blessings.

The Roman writer then used these replies in his own favor: “Cardinal Sarah,” Cionci writes, “was blessing a journalist who categorically stated at least 20 times in one article that Bergoglio was an ANTIPOPE.”

Attention focused especially on one sentence contained in the email from the Cardinal’s personal secretary, Father Shako Yodi, which ended as follows: the Cardinal “thanks you for your courteous sending, hoping that it may enlighten consciences.”

According to Cionci, therefore, Cardinal Sarah supposedly hoped “that ‘The Ratzinger Code’ would enlighten consciences,” referring to a book that describes “the impeded see of Pope Benedict XVI” and “the heresies of Bergoglio and his tragic antipapacy.”

Perhaps aware that he had ventured onto dangerous ground, the writer added: “Your Eminence, if you now wish to sue me for publishing these emails, go ahead: if I am condemned, I will pay what is due.”

Cionci finally described the Guinean Cardinal as “one of the few truly Catholic men left,” claiming that he is “probably isolated” and offering him “all our support: we are ready to defend you wholeheartedly.”

He also wanted to inform him of the existence of “an entire army of faithful ready to follow their shepherd,” who “will support you with conviction. The usurpation of the Petrine throne must end immediately.”

 

Cionci was not authorized by Cardinal Sarah

Having understood Andrea Cionci’s attempt, UCCR immediately got in touch with Father Augustin Shako Yodi, personal secretary to Cardinal Sarah and author of one of the messages published by the writer.

After being informed in detail about the affair, Father Augustin expressed to us in writing his “great sorrow” over what he describes as a “violation and unjust instrumentalization of the Cardinal’s name, who merely responded courteously.”

In several messages exchanged between him and Andrea Cionci in August 2022, authorization to publish His Eminence’s replies was in fact explicitly denied.

Those exchanges also included the writer’s promise to abide by that decision and his assurance that he would never make public those communications.

During the subsequent lengthy phone call, Father Augustin reiterated to us that “Cardinal Sarah explicitly refused authorization to publish the replies, aware that this gentleman would use them as an endorsement for himself.”

The secretary does not accept that a simple courteous reply from Cardinal Sarah should be manipulated in this way.

“Cionci knows very well that I have all the emails,” he told us, and “he was clearly told that he must not publish those replies, and he had promised not to do so.”

For the moment we prefer not to make public the conversations mentioned, out of respect for the privacy of the people involved, while reserving the right to do so should the situation make it necessary.

 

“Cardinal Sarah stands with Francis”

The secretary says he is astonished by the manipulation of those few lines to make it appear that Sarah supported such theses.

“Not only has the Cardinal never endorsed these positions,” says Father Augustin Shako Yodi, “but it would be absurd for him to do so or to cast doubt on Francis’ pontificate.”

With Ratzinger, he explains, the Cardinal had “a great friendship and strong attachment” and, at the same time, “also some alleged minor disagreements with Pope Francis, as can be read in his books.”

But obviously “he never mentioned theses like those of Cionci.”

“It is truly sad and false,” Father Augustin repeated sorrowfully, also recalling those who had previously warned him that “many people instrumentalize the Cardinal” against Pope Francis. “But I have never heard him say anything against Francis,” on the contrary, “he celebrated in communion with him.”

And yet he would have had every authority to distance himself and denounce his magisterium; instead, he stresses, “he stood with him,” with Pope Francis.

 

“A serious act, we will take action to protect ourselves”

For Sarah’s secretary, what happened constitutes a serious act of instrumentalization.

For this reason, he intends to move forward “with His Eminence, and we will proceed through the appropriate channels.” Because, he adds, “this gentleman has instrumentalized not only the Cardinal’s name but mine as well.”

A person “with a Christian heart,” he observes, should not go so far, reiterating his conviction that “we will not stop here: at the moment I do not know what the Cardinal will do, but as far as I am concerned, I will continue through other avenues.”

 

“What Cionci does is not truth”

When asked why the wish “that it may enlighten consciences” was included in the reply to Cionci, Sarah’s secretary recalled that the phrase referred first and foremost to the conscience of the recipient himself.

Indeed, he explains, the Cardinal meant that “the research” of Cionci “and what he is doing, may enlighten his own conscience and that of his readers to understand that it is something untrue.”

Sarah himself, Father Augustin recalls, told him: “There is no need to explain it to him, but that is what I want to tell him. Write it and stop there.”

His Eminence, the secretary adds, “did not want to enter into the matter nor did he want to offend him. He limited himself to that wish” toward Cionci “to make him understand that what he is doing does not serve the good of the Church nor even his own growth.”

 

Cardinal Sarah never even opened the book

Final question: did Cardinal Sarah ever read the book “The Ratzinger Code” that Andrea Cionci wanted to send him?

The answer from his personal secretary is unequivocal: “No, the Cardinal never even opened that book.”

Many people send texts and volumes to Sarah, but “when that book arrived, he did not even place it where books awaiting reading are kept. I do not know what became of it.”

 

The statement from the secretary of Cardinal Robert Sarah is a clear and definitive position, one that debunks Andrea Cionci’s latest attempt to portray the Guinean Cardinal as a supporter of his theses.

An operation that further drags the “Ratzinger Code” affair toward an increasingly low and murky level.

 

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