Cardinal Robert Sarah's newly released memoir has reignited debate within the Church over the direction of liturgical reform. In the book, the retired prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments offers a candid defense of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass and a sustained critique of what he calls the horizontalism of post-conciliar worship.

The memoir covers Cardinal Sarah's formation in Guinea under French missionary priests, his decades of service in Rome, his close friendship with Pope Benedict XVI, and his reaction to the restrictions placed on the Traditional Latin Mass by the 2021 motu proprio Traditionis Custodes. The most controversial chapters deal directly with his assessment of that decision and its pastoral consequences.

The memoir has been praised by traditionalists and criticized by progressives, with some theologians questioning whether a cardinal, even a retired one, should publish such pointed commentary on current papal policy without prior consultation with the Holy See. The Vatican has not responded officially.

Silence in the face of the desacralization of the liturgy is not humility. It is negligence.

The book has already sold over fifty thousand copies in its first week across English, French, and Italian editions, with a Spanish translation expected within the month. A speaking tour is planned for the autumn, including appearances at several traditional Catholic conferences in the United States and a lecture at the Angelicum in Rome.

Liturgical scholars across the spectrum have engaged seriously with the memoir's central arguments. Even those who disagree with Cardinal Sarah's conclusions acknowledge that he raises questions about the nature and direction of liturgical reform that the Church has not fully answered — and that the conversation he is provoking is necessary, whatever one thinks of his conclusions.

Cardinal Sarah

Cardinal Sarah's New Memoir Sparks Debate on Liturgical Reform