Malawi’s Bishops Organize Protests Against Court’s Possible Legalization of Homosexuality

Catholic leaders in Malawi organized and led an interfaith protest against LGBTQ+ rights as the nation’s laws which criminalize queer people currently face a court challenge, ending in the overturning of these punitive measures. Meanwhile, Catholic bishops in Cote d’Ivoire decried that country’s more permissive laws on LGBTQ+ rights.

Protest marches in Malawi took place nationwide on July 13th after the Catholic bishops called on citizens to do so.  The bishops were joined by ecumenical and interfaith partners. VOA reported on one march:

“Hundreds of people in Malawi’s commercial capital, Blantyre, gathered Thursday to protest what they call the potential legalization of same-sex marriage in the country. The protesters came from both of the country’s major religions — Christianity and Islam.

“Archbishop Thomas Luke Msusa led the protests in Blantyre. He said same-sex marriages are a sin, and allowing such unions would lead to the extinction of the human race.

“‘If we change the way we live as a family, it means we will cease to exist,’ he said. ‘If we continue to marry a man with a man, surely the offspring, no children will come, then no life in the world, no life in Malawi.’ . . .

“At Thursday’s demonstration, protesters presented a petition to the office of the district commissioner, in which they appealed to lawmakers never to accept any bill or pass any law aimed at legalizing same-sex marriage.”

Preceding the protests, Fr. Alfred Chaima, secretary general for the Episcopal Conference of Malawi, explained the bishops’ decision to lead the protests. He equated expanded LGBTQ+ rights with an attack on the church, saying in a statement reported by Malawi 24:

“‘As Africans and deeply religious people, in spite of our poverty, we must stand up in defiant defence of the family and culture even when we are under severe pressure from the rich but virtually pagan societies which sadly appear to push us back to the path of colonization after the foundation fathers of our nation won bloody battles against all forms of colonization.'”

Homosexuality is already criminalized in Malawi with punishments up to 14 years imprisonment. However, that law is facing a legal challenge. According VOA, “the nationwide protests come as the Constitutional Court in Malawi continues to hear a case in which Dutch national Jan Willem Akstar and transgender Malawian woman Jana Gonani argue that Malawi’s anti-homosexuality laws violate their fundamental rights, including privacy and dignity.”

LGBTQ+ advocates criticized the religious leaders’ day of protests for enhancing discrimination against already vulnerable populations, including cisgender and heterosexual people living with HIV/AIDS. VOA reported:

“Eric Sambisa, executive director for Nyasa Rainbow Coalition, which fights for the rights of LGBTQ people in Malawi, said it is sad that religious leaders are fostering discrimination.

“‘The church is a powerful organization in society,’ he said. ‘And seeing the church being in the forefront to demonstrate can actually fuel violence against an already disadvantaged community. So, it’s sad that this is happening like this.’

“Sambisa told VOA that he has gone into hiding following death threats from anonymous callers. The threats came a few weeks after his office was burned down in Blantyre.”

In related news, at a meeting of the Episcopal Conference of Cote d’Ivoire (CCEI), Catholic bishops, including the outgoing and incoming presidents of the conference, made several strongly anti-LGBTQ+ remarks  . La Croix International reported:

“During his homily at the CECCI assembly’s closing liturgy, Bishop Marcellin Yao Kouadio [of Daloa] also blasted Western society for corrupting Africa with its lack of morals. ‘Immorality is exported through homosexuality,’ he assailed. ‘We speak of LGBT as if it were a real estate company; we speak of zoophilia, legalized abortion, euthanasia, the practice of the death penalty,’ he continued. . .

“Archbishop Ignace Bessi, the outgoing CECCI president, was equally outspoken during the opening Mass for the bishops’ plenary. ‘Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender populations need to be healed, not presented as a canon of behavior to be embodied,’ he insisted.

“The plenary assembly’s final communiqué also took up the issue, while assuring that “the Church remains open to accompanying all its daughters and sons’.”

Despite Catholics being minority populations in Malawi and Cote d’Ivoire (about 33% and 17% respectively), church leaders in both nations have had outsized influence in politics and law. Malawi’s bishops are seen as central to the country’s turn to democracy in the 1990s.

Sadly, this influence has been used repeatedly to target LGBTQ+ people. For instance, in 2016, Malawi’s bishops used a pastoral letter for the Year of Mercy convened by Pope Francis to call on the civil government to restart enforcing criminalization laws, which had been paused. In 2017, they organized protests similar to those of this year to stop any legalization of homosexuality. Individual bishops have made other troubling remarks, too.

Fr. Joseph Loïc Mben, SJ, a Cote d’Ivoire theologian, suggested earlier this year that political and ecclesial leaders’ focus on anti-LGBTQ+ laws is a way of distracting from the leaders’ failings in other areas. Mben commented, “‘Criminalization’ adds nothing and is rather part of a political one-upmanship in which governments lacking inspiration in the face of the real problems of our societies seek outlets.”

Both Malawi and Cote d’Ivoire face real social problems, as Mben points out. Millions in each nation live in poverty, while human rights and democratic structures need significant improvements. Catholic bishops should be focusing on addressing these material concerns rather than organizing against the false threats they conjure up when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights.

—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, August 16, 2023