Cardinal Robert Sarah is not the most influential figure within the Roman Curia. Although he is prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, one of the most important Vatican departments, his power is tightly circumscribed. After he gave a speech in 2016 urging priests worldwide to celebrate Mass facing east, he received a rare public rebuke. Later the Pope made sweeping changes to the membership of his Congregation – a move that was perceived as removing his supporters and replacing them with those who do not share his liturgical vision. But despite his relative lack of sway at the Vatican, when Cardinal Sarah speaks, the world listens. Over the past week the 73-year-old Guinean has generated headlines with interviews promoting his new book, Le soir approche et déjà le jour baisse, which has just been released in France. English readers are likely to have to wait until September, when Ignatius Press is expected to publish a translation called The Day is Far Spent. The new book’s title comes from Luke 24:29, when the disciples meet the Risen Christ on the road to Emmaus and urge him to stay with them. It is the third volume in a trilogy that began with the autobiographical God or Nothing and was followed by The Power of Silence, a critique of what the cardinal called “the dictatorship of noise”. The first two books were surprise bestsellers and the new one may prove to be the most successful of all. Cardinal Sarah has described it as the “most important” of the three. As the title implies, The Day is Far Spent argues that darkness is falling over our civilisation. The cardinal believes the West is an advanced state of spiritual collapse and can only be saved by rediscovering Christ. He previewed his argument in an interview with the French Catholic magazine La Nef (available in full in English on our website):