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Guinean Vatican-based Cardinal Sarah Appointed Special Envoy to 400th Anniversary of Apparitions of St. Anne in France

Credit: Vatican Media

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Guinean-born  Robert Cardinal Sarah as his Special Envoy to the liturgical celebrations on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the apparitions of St Anne to Yvon Nicolazic in France.

The appointment of Cardinal Sarah to preside over the liturgical celebrations scheduled for July 25-26 at the Shrine of Sainte-Anne-d’Auray in France’s Catholic Diocese of Vannes was made public by the Holy See Press Office on Saturday, May 24.

In August 1623, Yves Nicolazic, a Breton peasant, experienced a vision of a radiant lady, later identified as St. Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She reportedly instructed him to rebuild a long-lost chapel dedicated to her on his land, particularly in a field called Bocenno.

The vision led to the establishment of the renowned Catholic pilgrimage site at Sainte-Anne-d’Auray in Brittany, France.

The latest appointment of Cardinal Sarah comes days after a YouTube publication claimed that Pope Leo XIV had appointed the Prefect emeritus of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments his Special Envoy to “a newly created position” of the Holy See.

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ACI Africa’s fact check established that the May 19 YouTube post was fake.

Born on 15 June 1945 in Guinea-Conakry, Cardinal Sarah was ordained a Priest in 1969 for the Catholic Archdiocese of Conakry, after periods of study in Ivory Coast, Guinea, France, Senegal, Rome, and Jerusalem.

He was appointed Archbishop of Conakry in 1979 at the age of 34. He was at the helm of the Guinean Metropolitan See until October 2001, when he was appointed Secretary of the then Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, now Dicastery for Evangelization.

He has been lauded for his resistance to Sékou Touré's Marxist dictatorship and for maintaining the unity of the Church as an independent institution as Catholic Clergy and Laity were persecuted in his native country, Guinea-Conakry.

He was appointed President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum in October 2010, and the following month, elevated to Cardinal. In November 2014, he appointed Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. He retired in February 2021.

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Cardinal Sarah was in Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi, in February 2024; he delivered his keynote address at the 2024 Theological Symposium that the School of Theology of Kenya-based Tangaza University (TU) organized.

Jude Atemanke is a Cameroonian journalist with a passion for Catholic Church communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Buea in Cameroon. Currently, Jude serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.