AFRICAN BISHOPS DISAVOW VATICAN’S BLESSING OF GAY MARRIAGES

The Roman Catholic Bishops of Africa and Madagascar recently had a gathering and issued a statement asserting that the Vatican’s endorsement o homosexual blessings is unbecoming.

Indeed, the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar has come out against the point of blessing gay couples expressed through “Fiducia Supplicans”.

“Fiducia Supplicans is a document signed by His Holiness Pope Francis and by the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. It is a document that is binding on the whole Church as a document that deals with blessings. It is therefore applicable in our Church in Africa. There’s only one point on which the Churches of Africa are in difficulty and can’t apply it, and that’s the one that concerns the blessing of homosexual couples, quite simply. But the rest of the document is good », clarifies Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, Archbishop of Kinshasa.

Citing the cultural specificity of Africa, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo stressed that Western values cannot necessarily be valid in Africa. “We live today in a multicultural world. What is good for the West is not necessarily good for Asia or Africa. I think that’s where we are. In every church in the world, we bless everyone, we even bless criminals, we even bless animals, we bless cars, and that’s not a problem. The blessing of homosexuals as individuals is not a problem. What is a problem for us is blessing the link between the two, because it blurs the theology of marriage”.

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, Archbishop of Kinshasa and President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, points out that the Episcopal Conferences have spoken out responsibly against the blessing of same-sex couples. And it was in agreement with the Pope that the message from the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar was made public.

“As soon as the document came out, there was a sort of outcry throughout Africa. Personally, as President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, I took my responsibility. I invited not only the bishops, priests or faithful individually, but the bishops’ conferences, to give their opinion. This enabled us to recover the file instead of letting it go in all directions. It was the conferences that gave their opinion, and I summarised all these reactions. But I’m not just the president of SECAM. I’m also a member of the Council of Cardinals, the C9. I’m also an advisor to the Pope, and it’s in that capacity that I came to see him. We spoke with him, we spoke with the prefect of the dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and it was at the end of all these exchanges, in agreement with the Pope and the prefect of the dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, that I signed my message today”.

Recently, several bishops of the Roman Catholic Church have disclaimed Pope Francis in some of his outing against the Vatican’s wish, which was at other times considered divine.

These decisions have left several pending questions in the minds of the audience that will soon be aired and discussed on.

Pope Francis approved blessings for same-sex marriages on December 18^th 2023, which was welcomed by LGBTQ Catholics.

Delia Nyadi