| Styles of Théodore-Adrien Sarr |
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|---|---|
| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
| See | none |
Théodore-Adrien Sarr (born November 28, 1936) is a Senegalese Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He currently serves as Archbishop of Dakar, having previously served as Bishop of Kaolack from 1974 to 2000, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 2007.
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Théodore-Adrien Sarr was born in Fadiouth to Rog and Louis (née Diakher Diouf) Sarr, as one of seven children (including two sons and four daughters). He completed his secondary studies at the minor seminary in Hann, from where he received a baccalaureate. Sarr then studied philosophy and theology at the Major Seminary of Sébikhotane.
He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Hyacinthe Thiandoum on May 28, 1964, and furthered his studies at the University of Dakar, from where he obtained his licentiate in the classical languages of Latin and Greek.
Sarr then did pastoral work at the parish of Saint-Thérèse in Dakar, as assistant to the groups of Catholic Action. He also served as a professor at the Minor Seminary of N'Gasobil, later as its superior from 1970 to 1974.
On July 1, 1974, Sarr was appointed the second Bishop of Kaolack by Pope Paul VI. He received his episcopal consecration on the following November 24 from Archbishop Thiandoum, with Bishops Théophile Cadoux, MSC, and Augustin Sagna serving as co-consecrators, in an open-air ceremony at the grand square of Collège Pie XII in Kaolack. Sarr was later named the third Archbishop of Dakar on June 2, 2000.
In addition to his duties as Archbishop, the Cardinal also serves as President of the Episcopal Conference of Senegal, Mauritania, Cape Verde, and Guinea-Bissau, and the first Vice-President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar.
Pope Benedict XVI created him Cardinal-Priest of S. Lucia a Piazza d'Armi in the consistory of November 24, 2007. Sarr will be eligible to participate in any future papal conclaves until he reaches the age of eighty on November 28, 2016. On 17 January 2009 he was appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture by Pope Benedict. [1]
Abortion, the Cardinal declared, is not a practice to encourage. He noted how the synod fathers have affirmed that life must be respected from its beginning to its natural end. He further stated that pastoral ministers in Africa must seek to help women with difficult pregnancies, and that there is an out to difficult maternity that is not abortion.[1]
In 2009, Cardinal Sarr defended the Pope over a controversy on the refusal to give any kind of approval to condoms in the fight against AIDS.[2]
| Preceded by Théophile Cadoux, MSC |
Bishop of Kaolack 1974–2000 |
Succeeded by Benjamin Ndiaye |
| Preceded by Hyacinthe Thiandoum |
Archbishop of Dakar 2000–present |
Succeeded by incumbent |