The vital importance of sacred music to the liturgy, the need for every Catholic to be watchful and prepared for the Four Last Things, and the recognition that only Christ\u2019s kingship will bring true peace were among the key messages Cardinal Robert Sarah brought to the United States late last year.<\/p>\n
Cardinal Sarah\u2019s visit to the U.S. was centered around the launch of his new book, The Song of the Lamb: Sacred Music and Heavenly Liturgy<\/i><\/a>, <\/i>co-written with Church musician Peter Carter.\u00a0<\/p>\n In two talks<\/a> on Nov. 21 and 22, 2025, delivered at Princeton University, where Carter serves as director of sacred music for the Aquinas Institute, Cardinal Sarah underscored that at a time when, for decades, the Church\u2019s liturgy has \u201ctoo often been instrumentalized,\u201d it is important to understand what the liturgy is and why sacred music is a central part of divine worship.\u00a0<\/p>\n Noting that the liturgy \u201chas become politicized\u201d in recent decades, the prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments also defended those who have legitimately highlighted abuses, denouncing as \u201cwrong\u201d the fact that some Church authorities have \u201cpersecuted and excluded\u201d these critics.\u00a0<\/p>\n Recalling Benedict XVI\u2019s hermeneutic of continuity between the reformed and pre-reformed liturgy and the late pontiff\u2019s emphasis on \u201cwhat earlier generations held as sacred remains sacred and great for us too,\u201d Cardinal Sarah said liturgical abuse detracts from the twofold nature and purpose of the liturgy: to \u201crender to Almighty God the worship that is his due\u201d and to recognize that the liturgy \u201cis not about what we<\/i> do,\u201d but rather about what the Lord \u201cdoes for us and in us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Through the worship offered by the Church in her liturgical rites, \u201cwe<\/i> are sanctified,\u201d Cardinal Sarah stressed, which is why \u201cfull, conscious and actual participation in the liturgy is essential.\u201d By participation, he said he was not referring to many external actions but rather attuning \u201cour minds and hearts and souls\u201d to the \u201cmeaning of the sacred rites and chants and prayers of the Church\u2019s liturgy.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat is how we \u2018plug-in\u2019 to, or connect with, the saving action of our Lord Jesus Christ in the liturgical rites,\u201d he said. \u201cThis, my friends, is why the liturgy is \u2018sacred.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The liturgy, the cardinal added, \u201cis not something that you or I can make up or change, even if we think we are experts or even are bishops. No. We must be humble before the sacred liturgy, as it has been handed on to us in the Church\u2019s Tradition.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Having explained this essence of the liturgy and the \u201ccritical\u201d importance of music within it, he differentiated between liturgical and sacred music and that which is neither, saying it was \u201ceven scandalous at times\u201d to play or sing music in churches that is not of a liturgical or sacred genre. Quoting Benedict XVI, he said: \u201cAs far as the liturgy is concerned, we cannot say that one song is as good as another.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Music is in his blood, the Guinean cardinal said, adding that he had learned from his parents and from French missionaries who evangelized his village that different types of music belong in different places and that liturgical music is set apart for the worship of God and \u201chence it is rightly called \u2018sacred.\u2019\u201d He also pointed out that as an African, music used in the liturgy does not have to be \u201cexactly the same as the music of my own culture\u201d and that it does not even have to be in one\u2019s own language. He learned the meaning of chants and sang them devoutly \u201cbecause of the wider Catholic tradition into which they immersed us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n His community \u201creceived\u201d the liturgical music they sang, the cardinal said, adding that those who composed sacred music did so having \u201cfirst received and come to know and live in, and from, the tradition itself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Sacred music \u201chas an objectivity to it,\u201d he said, and that objectivity is rooted in the liturgical tradition of the Church. \u201cThat is to say, what is sung in the liturgy can truly be said to be \u2018The Song of the Lamb,\u2019 praising and giving glory to Almighty God and supplicating him for the needs of his people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI think that if the music we sing in the sacred liturgy conforms to this criterion, we can truly call it \u2018sacred\u2019 and, in conformity with the relevant stipulations of the liturgical books, with Gregorian chant always having pride of place.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The cardinal concluded by encouraging those who prepare and celebrate the sacred liturgy, sometimes in the face of opposition, and urging them to form others in the Church\u2019s liturgical and musical tradition. Sacred music, he said, \u201cis not a \u2018nice\u2019 addition to the liturgy; it is an essential component of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe are created to sing the praises of Almighty God for all eternity,\u201d Cardinal Sarah said. \u201cIn doing so as well and as beautifully as we possibly can in the sacred liturgy in this life, we prepare ourselves and others for eternity \u2014 indeed, by doing so we are able all the more faithfully to live our supernatural vocation in the daily circumstances of our particular vocation here and now.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Cardinal](\"https:\/\/publisher-ncreg.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/pb-ncregister\/swp\/hv9hms\/media\/20260102140156_174e33b3284a91d14ebda3406ae1cca6a7ff48f94b722ebaac636daf118263f2.jpg\")
Christ\u2019s Kingship and True Peace<\/b><\/h3>\n
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