African clergy balk as the Pope okays blessings for same-sex couples
Cameroon archbishop says marriage is ‘witchcraft’ if it’s not between a man and a woman
Roman Catholic bishops in Cameroon, like their brethren in many other African nations, have rejected the decision by Pope Francis to allow homosexual couples to receive blessings from the Roman Catholic Church.
The Pope announced his decision on Dec. 18, though he remained firm in his opposition to gay marriage.
An official explanation from the Vatican stated, “It is possible to bless couples in an irregular situation and couples of the same sex, in a form which must not be fixed ritually by the ecclesial authorities, so as not to create confusion with the blessing specific to the sacrament of marriage.”
This blessing “will never be performed at the same time as the civil rites of union, nor even in connection with them”, the Vatican insisted, reserving the sacrament of marriage exclusively for heterosexual couples.
On Dec. 21 in Yaoundé, the Bishops of Cameroon objected to the Vatican’s new position and declared that no blessings of same-sex couples would be allowed in Cameroon.
Bishops in Kenya, Malawi and Benin have taken similar positions. So have bishops in Angola, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
The Cameroonian bishops declared that blessings for non-heterosexual couples would violate Christian principles as well as the traditional and historical values of African society. The Vatican’s approval of same-sex blessings is hypocritical, they said.
In a formal declaration, the bishops rejected any form of blessing for same-sex couples, saying that it would undercut the Christian understanding of the fundamental difference between the sexes, of marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and of the importance of marriage as the foundation of the family.
They called for prayer and compassion towards those who are “inclined to homosexuality,” inviting them to radical conversion and encouraging them to move away from the mentality of victimization. The bishops called on LGBT people to stop “considering themselves ‘victims’, ‘weak’, ‘minorities’ ” and “to seize the opportunity for conversion that God gives them”.
Mgr Andrew Nkea Fuanya, Archbishop of Bamenda, commented, “In Africa, we understand marriage as the union between a man and a woman, and anything outside of that is witchcraft.”
