Cardinal Sarah Never Said the Virgin Mary Appeared to Him Contrary to Video Claim

David Martin | The Daily Knight

There is a video circulating that shows Cardinal Robert Sarah, the former prefect for the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and discipline of the Sacraments, making the claim that the Virgin Mary appeared to him and gave him an urgent and prophetic message about 2026. The video shows the cardinal speaking for nearly an hour on the coming worldwide "Illumination" or “Warning,” but upon consulting credible sources we learn that the video was AI produced. It wasn’t Cardinal Sarah speaking.

The advanced artificial intelligence model, Grok 4 AI, was asked: Is “Last Night’s Vision, Virgin Mary Warns Cardinal Sarah” AI generated? The answer was “Yes.”

• The narration is produced using AI text-to-speech technology…

• The visuals consist entirely of stock footage, generic religious images (e.g. Marian icons, symbolic reflections), and no authentic clips of Cardinal Sarah speaking about any vision.

• The content itself is scripted and fabricated: It invents a “vision” not reported anywhere by Cardinal Sarah or credible sources, while mixing in real elements of his teachings for plausibility.

• The channel that produced the video, Cardinal Sarah’s Inspirations, includes a clear disclaimer that the video is artificially produced (AI) and not official.

An affiliate channel that promotes the video states that it is satirical and fan-based and that they are not affiliated with Cardinal Sarah. They claim that their videos are simply “inspired” by his teachings and spiritual writings when in fact they are using his writings to mock and discredit the cardinal by saying that he said things he never said.

When comparing the voice of Cardinal Sarah in an EWTN interview with the voice in the AI video, they are not the same voice. His real voice is deeper and heavily accented with slower speech and frequent pauses while the voice in the AI video is very fluent with very little accent and has a slightly different timbre and tone. It almost sounds Indian; Cardinal Sarah is from New Guinea.

Spiritual Points Called into Question

Our own assessment of the video message clinches our position that it is fraudulent. For while many of the points made sound true, e.g. the need to repent and go to confession, that we must pray and never fight in the home, etc, the whole thing downplays the urgency of the Warning to tranquilize those who fear the coming intervention knowing that this event will be an explosive worldwide cataclysm that will come from the sky and shake the entire world – something that "Sarah" denies in the video. He basically says that the Illumination is just a gentle glow from within that will give everyone a chance to make the right choice. Soft talk like this only serves to deceive and mislead.

Moreover, the discourse of "Sarah" is vague throughout and lacks that crystal clarity so typical of the Virgin Mary in her true apparitions where she is brief, to the point, and reprimanding at times, as we see in her messages at Fatima, La Salette, Akita, Garabandal, and Bayside.

Pacifist Deception

Another disturbing point is that "Sarah" repeatedly emphasizes that truth must never be whitewashed to please men and gain their acceptance, while he spends almost an hour evading and watering down the truth about the coming cataclysm, war, and final tribulations by which God will chastise the world. The video clearly was designed to pacify people about the tribulations so that they won't be prepared for them. A true pastor would never do this.

Still another disturbing point is a statement from "Sarah" that when one dies after receiving Extreme Unction (Last Rites) he immediately enters upon a 'dawning of peace,’ but this is not true if the newly deceased has months or years of suffering to undergo in Purgatory. The whole thing comes off as pacifist. 

What is more disturbing is “Sarah’s” comment that it is ego and not heresy that divides the Church. His exact quote was: “It is not heresy that divides the Church.” Throughout the video “he” repeats that confusion is the major ill that is afflicting the Church, yet heresy is the major evil that is dividing and confusing the Church so that people don’t know what to think anymore. His statement almost comes off as saying that if we don’t flow with heresy we are dividing ourselves from the Church, which he insinuates is “ego.”

Even more alarming is a point made by “Sarah” that sinners are in spiritually in better shape than those who undergo spiritual dryness and long-suffering for the Faith, arguing that a hard sinner can repent and return to Christ “with energy” while the fatigued and wearied are more apt to forget God. This shows lack of compassion for suffering souls. We all know that God is closest to those who feel unrelenting dryness, desolation, and abandonment. These sufferings are our trophies in the spiritual life – sufferings that God himself has given us. It is the cross that he has fashioned for us. Modern technology has served to eliminate the way of the cross and to replace with a cozy lifestyle that makes man vulnerable to satanic deception.

While artificial intelligence (AI) can be used for good it was developed by the enemies of God for deceptive and defamatory purposes. Just the term artificial intelligence indicates something fake, which in turn is being used today to promote things that are fake. St. Paul spoke of that time in the last days when God would send the “operation of error, to believe lying” (2 Thess. 2:10) because man will have turned away from the love of the truth and filled his ears and eyes with things that are phony.

This Christmas season is a time to refocus on the infant Jesus in the manger since he is the truth who can make us free (John 8:32) if we simply lend our ears to him and not to fake media inventions.