EPISTLES

INSTEAD OF SIMPLY SAYING, “I admire Cardinals like Sarah and have no interest in Cardinals like Tagle,” I came up with the following story. Of course this is a fictional scenario for reflection only. It is not true and should not be read as factual. The book titles are referenced solely to highlight Cardinal Sarah’s works. It’s all in good spirit!

Cardinal Tagle was sitting under a tree in the quiet of the Vatican Gardens, coffee in hand, humming a tune. “Hm hm hm… imagine there’s no heaven,” he whispered to himself, just as he saw Cardinal Sarah walking back from the adoration chapel, his face set in a mask of prayerful focus.

Cardinal Tagle (cheerfully): “Hey Robert, you’re always so serious! Relax a little. Pope Francis is bringing the joy of the Gospel to life! It’s about an open Church, a Church for everyone, with no walls!”

Cardinal Sarah (raising an eyebrow): “Luis, after reflecting on the themes in God or Nothing, I realized the greatest threat today is precisely a Church that forgets to choose God first. We focus so much on the ‘walls’ that we forget Who lives inside the house.”

Cardinal Tagle (grinning): “But we must be a people of the Resurrection! Alive! Moving forward! We can’t keep the Church locked in a museum of the past.”

Cardinal Sarah (calmly): “Yes, we must be alive… but not running off a cliff. That is why I wrote The Power of Silence. In a noisy Church, truth is not found in slogans or meetings, but in the humble contemplation of the Creator. Without silence, the Spirit cannot be heard over our own chatter.”

Cardinal Tagle (laughing): “Well, I prefer to focus on the encounter! Love, mercy, and walking together—that’s where the Spirit leads us today. Why worry so much about the ‘twilight’?”

Cardinal Sarah (firmly): “Because love without truth is not charity, Luis. It is mere sentimentality. I explained this in The Day Is Now Far Spent. We are living through the collapse of Western civilization because we refuse to defend eternal truths in favor of being liked by the world.”

Cardinal Tagle (playfully): “But at least we are reaching out to the margins! That’s the mission!”

Cardinal Sarah (leaning in, serious): “The mission requires holy priests, not social workers. A vocation is about sacrifice and fidelity to the Cross, not adapting the Gospel to fit worldly fashions.”

Cardinal Tagle (laughing nervously): “Maybe we just need a new approach… a ‘synodality’ for the modern man!”

Cardinal Sarah (gently, smiling): “No, Luis. What we need is not new structures or more committees… what we need are new saints.”

Cardinal Sarah picked up his rosary, a silent prayer already forming on his lips as he walked away. Cardinal Tagle sipped his coffee and returned to his humming—”Above us only sky”—seemingly oblivious to the storm gathering over the bark of Peter.