VATICAN CITY: Outspoken on same-sex blessings and immigration, Robert Sarah of Guinea is a leading figure among conservative Catholic cardinals seeking a break with the late Pope Francis.
At 79, Sarah is one of the oldest cardinals taking part in next week’s conclave — and almost missed out taking part as he turns 80 on June 15, an age that would make him ineligible.
Trained by French missionaries and championed by conservative Catholics in the French-speaking world, Sarah has some explosive views.
“What Nazism, Fascism and Communism were to the 20th century, Western ideologies on homosexuality and abortion and Islamic fanaticism are to today,“ he declared at a meeting in 2015.
More recently, in January 2024, he spoke for many African bishops in decrying as “heresy” the Holy See’s text paving the way for the blessing of same-sex couples.
In October 2023, he was also one of five conservative cardinals who publicly called on Francis to reaffirm Catholic doctrine on same-sex couples and the ordination of women.
On immigration, he has criticised the wave of migration from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe, saying young people were drawn by the idea of an “El Dorado” life that doesn’t exist.
“We are removing young people from Africa, vital forces that could develop” it, he stated in 2021.
“Europe, if it continues in this direction, will have no future — it will be invaded by a foreign population,“ he added in the same interview on France’s Europe 1, speaking of “self-destruction”.
Many experts believe his views make him too controversial to attract the two-thirds majority he would need to become pope.
Youngest bishop
Sarah was born in 1945 in Ourous, when Guinea was still a French colony, the only son in a farming family.
He went abroad to study, including being taught by French missionaries in Ivory Coast, but returned after Guinea declared independence in 1958.
He was ordained a priest in Conakry in 1969.
A decade later, he was made a bishop by Pope John Paul II — at age 34 the youngest at the time.
The Polish pontiff called him the “baby bishop”.
Sarah’s conservative views on societal issues chime with many in the majority-Muslim nation of Guinea, and have also made him popular among traditionalist Catholics.
In France he made the cover of top weekly magazine Paris Match in 2022 — sparking protests from staff over his views.
He is also the author of numerous works, notably on John Paul II, who appointed him secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in 2001, and on Pope Benedict XVI, who made him cardinal in 2010.
An admirer of Benedict, Sarah advocates a strict approach to the liturgy.
He has argued: “We are striving to sprinkle the liturgy with African and Asian elements, thus distorting the Paschal Mystery (core Catholic doctrine) we celebrate.”
Francis appointed him prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2014, but his appointment to that Vatican department was not renewed in 2021.
