{"id":61592,"date":"2025-07-20T11:33:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T09:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?p=61592"},"modified":"2025-07-20T11:33:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T09:33:07","slug":"sarah-named-special-envoy-but-it-was-francis-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/20\/sarah-named-special-envoy-but-it-was-francis-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"Sarah Named Special Envoy. But It Was Francis\u2019 Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-68327\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/card_sarah_francesco.webp\" alt=\"sarah pope francis\" width=\"568\" height=\"325\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i>It was <strong>Pope Francis<\/strong> who appointed <strong>Cardinal Robert Sarah<\/strong> as his &#8220;special envoy,&#8221; and <strong>Leo XIV<\/strong> simply ratified a decision already made. A small <strong>media short circuit<\/strong> that teaches us a lot.<\/i><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Last May, <strong>Pope Leo XIV<\/strong> appointed <strong><mark>Cardinal Robert Sarah<\/mark><\/strong> as special envoy to preside over several liturgical celebrations in France.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The occasion is the 400th anniversary of the <strong>apparitions of Sainte\u2011Anne\u2011d\u2019Auray<\/strong>, to be held on July 25 and 26.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The truth behind the appointment, however, emerged yesterday in <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vatican.va\/content\/leo-xiv\/la\/letters\/2025\/documents\/20250625-lettera-auray.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a brief letter<\/a><\/strong><\/em> in Latin written by <strong>Pope Leo<\/strong>: the decision had already been made by <strong>Pope Francis<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<h2>Cardinal Sarah as the Pope\u2019s special envoy<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This appointment of Cardinal Sarah as &#8220;special envoy&#8221; <strong>sparked a great deal of discussion<\/strong>, but today we are likely <strong>the only ones<\/strong> to make a &#8220;mea culpa.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Yes, because we too <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/2025\/05\/26\/la-doppia-mossa-di-leone-xiv-incarica-sarah-e-premia-tagle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported the news<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, highlighting at the same time the appointment of <strong>Cardinal Tagle<\/strong> as Suburbicarian Bishop of Albano, a post vacated by Leo himself.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Thus, <strong>UCCR<\/strong> interpreted these choices as <strong>a message of unity and reconciliation<\/strong> from the Pope amid tensions between traditionalists and progressives.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Other outlets, however, <strong>went a step further<\/strong>, aiming to strike at Francis.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In Italy, for instance, the conservative daily <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ilgiornale.it\/news\/vaticano\/mano-tesa-leone-ai-tradizionalisti-2484395.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Il Giornale<\/i><\/a><\/strong> claimed that the appointment was <i>\u201can outstretched hand\u201d<\/i> to traditionalists, commenting that the choice of Sarah <i>\u201cwould have <b>seemed unlikely<\/b>\u201d<\/i> under Pope Francis, whose <i>\u201cestablished pattern was to <b>sideline<\/b> cardinals considered \u2018traditionalist\u2019 or \u2018conservative.\u2019\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Other websites spoke of <strong>Sarah\u2019s \u2018promotion\u2019<\/strong> as a snub to Bergoglio, some of a \u201cchange of direction,\u201d and some even went so far as to claim it was <strong>fake news<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<h2>The appointment of Cardinal Sarah was Francis\u2019 decision<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Yesterday, perhaps with <strong>subtle irony<\/strong> (though, again, this is our interpretation\u2014and likely wrong), <strong>Leo XIV<\/strong> emphasized that <strong>the decision to appoint Cardinal Sarah<\/strong> was not his: it had already been made by <strong>Pope Francis<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Pope Prevost explains that <strong>Bishop Raymond Cent\u00e8ne<\/strong> of Vannes had approached Pope Bergoglio, requesting he <i>\u201cappoint <strong>a distinguished Cardinal<\/strong>\u201d<\/i> to preside over the celebrations <i>\u201con behalf of the Supreme Pontiff and deliver words of spiritual encouragement.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Francis<\/strong>, who had already appointed the African cardinal in 2014 as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, evidently thought of him once again. He did so despite Cardinal Sarah having <strong>voiced criticism<\/strong> of some decisions made by Bergoglio himself (in particular concerning <em>&#8220;Fiducia Supplicans&#8221;<\/em> and <em>&#8220;Traditionis Custodes&#8221;<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It was a modus operandi reminiscent of <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/2025\/05\/26\/francesco-e-la-telefonata-con-mario-palmaro-suo-critico\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the affectionate phone call<\/a><\/em><\/strong> Francis made to <strong>Mario Palmaro<\/strong>, a journalist highly critical of him and suffering from a terminal illness.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<h2>What we can learn from the media short circuit<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The curious <strong>media short circuit<\/strong> reveals just how many facets we often <strong>overlook<\/strong> within the Holy See\u2014and yet we still <strong>do not refrain from commenting<\/strong> and attempting to interpret them. And, too often, unfortunately, from condemning.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Church follows <strong>complex, elusive, and unpredictable dynamics<\/strong> that the world tries to grasp by <strong>boxing them into worldly and political categories<\/strong>. So many pointless debates, so many controversies, so many speculations, so many interpretations of improbable shifts in direction.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This small <strong>media \u201cincident\u201d<\/strong> should remind us\u2014especially those of us who write\u2014that above all, <strong>the Church is not an arena for ideological confrontation<\/strong>, but a spiritual reality marked more by continuity than rupture, and that its acts should be received with discernment, not just with suspicion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was Pope Francis who appointed Cardinal Robert Sarah as his &#8220;special envoy,&#8221; and Leo XIV simply ratified a decision already made. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1594,1593,1591,1592],"class_list":["post-61592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-church-divisions","tag-leo-xiv-appointments","tag-robert-sarah","tag-sarah-pope-francis"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sarah Named Special Envoy. 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