Rebuke of Cardinal Sarah's Comments of Eastern Rite Priests in "Night is Far Spent": "Inflammatory and push a divide between the Latin & Oriental church"; "could have an adverse affect on the Byzantine church"

Sources:

Part 1: http://brentthebyzantine.com/2019/10/married-clergy-a-rebuke-of-cardinal-robert-sarahs-comments-on-clerical-celibacy-part-1/ (24 Jan. 2020)

Part 2: http://brentthebyzantine.com/2019/10/married-clergy-a-rebuke-of-cardinal-robert-sarahs-comments-on-clerical-celibacy-part-2/ (24 Jan. 2020)

Part 3: brentthebyzantine.com/2019/10/married-clergy-a-rebuke-of-cardinal-robert-sarahs-comments-on-clerical-celibacy-part-3/ (24 Jan. 2020)

Part 4: http://brentthebyzantine.com/2019/10/married-clergy-a-rebuke-of-cardinal-robert-sarahs-comments-on-clerical-celibacy-part-4/ (24 Jan. 2020)


Excerpt (from Part 1):

 In recent comments made by Cardinal Robert Sarah in regard to the upcoming Amazon Synod it was made clear that Cardinal Sarah does not respect the traditions of the East in regard to clerical celibacy and shows that he would once again like to see the restriction placed on married men prohibiting them from entering the priesthood. Cardinal Sarah’s remarks are inflammatory and push a divide between the Latin and Oriental church, they result in an attitude that the Oriental church and her clergy are somehow inferior to those in the Latin church and ignore the years of progress made in the restoration of traditions of the east. 

In his book Le soir approche et deja le jour baisse (The Day is Now Far Spent), Cardinal Sarah argues that the answer to the priest shortage in the amazon is not married clergy, he says that, “ I note with dismay that some people would like to create a new priesthood whittled down to a human scale.” (Sarah 2019)   Cardinal Sarah makes the distinction between the two vocations of a husband and of a priest, leaving no room for a man to be called both to married life and to the priesthood. Cardinal Sarah goes further to say that allowing for married men to become priests would be a “humiliation” noting that God is able to do anything, including provide priests for the priest shortage in the Amazon. Be that as it may, his comments regarding married clergy, though at first seem like they are directed solely to the Roman church, further comments are undeniably about the Byzantine church, and could have an adverse effect on the Byzantine church, one that could set back the progress made over the past four years in the United States, or worse, cause another schism.