Africa’s Prelates Refuse to Bless LGBTQ+ Couples; One Archbishop Breaks Ranks

The debate over Fiducia Supplicans, the Vatican’s declaration allowing blessings for couples in “irregular” situations, continues unabated. In posts yesterday and today, Bondings 2.0 is reporting on the latest developments. Today’s post focuses on global bishops’ responses, particularly in Africa.

African Bishops Collectively Reject Blessings

Africa’s bishops have rejected blessings for same-gender couples via a letter issued by the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), which represents bishops across the continent. Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu of Kinshasa, SECAM’s president, published the five-page letter which claims to synthesize how African bishops responded to Fiducia Supplicans. Ambongo began:

“[Within Africa,] this Declaration has caused a shockwave, it has sown misconceptons and unrest in the minds of many lay faithful, consecrated persons and even pastors and has aroused strong reactions. The synthesis of the responses of the African Episcopal Conferences highlights a common understanding and approach on their part. It encompasses their views on the unchanged doctrine of marriage within the Church, the pastoral care extended to all members of the Church and their unified position on same-sex unions.”

The letter then touched on each of these points: marriage, pastoral care, and same-gender unions. The cardinal explains in one part that the African bishops’ opposition to such blessings is both scriptural and cultural. He notes that episcopal conferences’ statements cited both the Catechism and the Bible to “condemn homosexuality,” and Ambongo Besungu specifically cites scriptural passages such as Genesis 19 and Romans 1 often (improperly) used against gay people. He continues in a telling passage:

“In addition to these biblical reasons, the cultural context in Africa, deeply rooted in the values of the natural law regarding marriage and family, further complicates the acceptance of unions of persons of the same sex, as they are seen as contradictory to cultural norms and intrinsically corrupt. . .

“For this reason, we, the African Bishops, do not consider it appropriate for Africa to bless homosexual unions or same-sex couples because, in our context, this would cause confusion and would be in direct contradiction to the cultural ethos of African communities. The language of Fiducia supplicans remains too subtle for simple people to understand. Furthermore, it remains very difficult to be convincing that people of the same sex who live in a stable union do not claim the legitimacy of their own status.”

The SECAM letter was published after review by both Pope Francis and Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith who initially issued the declaration. The letter is the result of Ambongo Besungu’s request shortly after Fiducia Supplican’s December release for African bishops to send him their thoughts with the goal of developing a unified position for the continent. Notably, Ambongo Besungu is a member of the pope’s Council of Cardinals.

Benin Archbishop Breaks Ranks, Supports Blessings

One bishop from Africa, however, broke with the continent-wide rejection and chose instead to welcome the declaration, even if such blessings in his country may not occur immediately. La Croix International reported:

“Archbishop Pascal N’koué of Parakou in Benin, on the border with Nigeria, has declared himself in favor of the authorization given by Fiducia supplicans, even if, he considers, ‘for the moment, it is not a priority to face in our region [in Africa, editor’s note].’ The archbishop said he ‘entirely agrees’ with Pope Francis. ‘Many will not understand what the pope is saying [but] he comes back to what Jesus did: not excluding people.’ And the Archbishop of Parakou insists: ‘The Catholic Church without the poor, the sick, the left behind, the rejected including homosexuals, is not the Church of Jesus Christ.'”

More National and Local Resistance in Africa

Most other bishops in Africa did not share N’koué’s perspective. Bishops in Cameroon, Zambia, and Malawi were some of the quickest—and harshest—critics of Fiducia Supplicans when it first became public. More criticism came with time. Bans on blessing same-gender couples were later issued by episcopal conferences in Angola and São Tomé, Benin, Burundi, Republic of the Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda, Togo.

At times, the bans by African church leaders were issued in harsh terms. The Episcopal Conference of Burkina Faso and Niger issued a statement against blessings that misrepresented church teaching by suggesting homosexuality is “an abomination” and “this truth of the Catholic faith finds echo in our African cultures.” The Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference said blessings would not be allowed to show respect for the country’s laws—which criminalize homosexuality. In Gabon, an episcopal conference official said to “give thanks to God for” the country’s military rulers, for by banning homosexuality, the rulers have ensured Fiducia Supplicans is “automatically cancelled.”

Individual bishops issued their own bans, too. In Kenya, Archbishop Philip Anyolo of Nairobi and Bishops Michael Odiwa of Homa Bay, Cleophas Oseso Tuka of Nakuru and Paul Kariuki Njiru of Wote were all quite negative, as was Ghana’s Bishop John Kobina Louis, auxiliary of Accra.

What to Make of African Bishops’ Resistance?

African Catholic leaders’ reactions to Fiducia Supplicans are a prime example of the intensifying tension in the church on LGBTQ+ issues. The African church is growing rapidly and gaining influence in the church universal, yet it often remains extremely LGBTQ-negative. The clash over LGBTQ+ inclusion at the Synod on Synodality’s first General Assembly last October was, in part, due to African delegates’ opposition to such inclusion.

What are Catholics—those concerned with LGBTQ+ equality, but also with church unity, decentralization, and an embrace of a world church—to make of this situation? Several commentaries have been published on the topic in relation to the blessings debate. At Outreach, theologian and Jesuit Fr. James Bretzke argued that African bishops who rejected Fiducia Supplicans are not opponents of Pope Francis, but were applying pastoral judgements. Bretzke writes sympathetically, in part:

“Pastoral sensitivity to sharply differing concrete theological contexts is, in fact, a hallmark of Pope Francis’ papacy—a hallmark that had often been derided by people rejecting the trajectory of ‘Fiducia Supplicans.’ Many African bishops sought to underscore that, in their dioceses, embarking upon giving explicit blessings to those in irregular situations very likely would not be understood by a good number of the faithful. . .

“While St. Paul did not employ the term, I believe that what we are witnessing here is a crucial and key theological aspect of inculturation. While the Gospel always remains the same in its essentials, how it is presented in its particulars will necessarily differ from culture to culture.”

Less sympathetic is Vatican journalist Robert Mickens, who criticized the SECAM letter sharply in La Croix International. Mickens writes of the letter:

“The SECAM statement, however, reads as if it were written by an Evangelical fundamentalist, not by a cardinal with degree in moral theology from the prestigious ‘Alfonsianum’ in Rome. . .’One episcopal conference added the scandal of the homosexuals of Sodom (cf. Gen 19, 4-11),’ Cardinal Ambongo continues. ‘In the narration of the text,’ he reminds us, ‘homosexuality is so abominable that it will lead to the destruction of the city.’

“These are incendiary words, indeed, in the ‘cultural context’ of Africa where 33 of the 54 nations across the continent have laws that make homosexual activity a crime punishable with fines and even lengthy prison sentences. In Somalia and some of the states of Nigeria homosexuals can even be put to death by law. The SECAM statement. . .will be a useful tool in the hands of homophobes in Africa, especially those who are responsible for making laws and those who enforce them.”

Finally, the National Catholic Reporter captured responses from two LGBTQ+ advocates on what Fiducia Supplicans and the debate over it could mean. NCR reported:

“Ricus Dullaert, an LGBTQ activist, described the declaration as an ‘enormous breakthrough’ for the community.

“Dullaert, who is the founder of an LGBTQ support group at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Johannesburg, said the approval by the church hierarchy is an enormous step forward and a radical shift from the previous policies held by Pope Francis’ predecessors.

“‘We are happy about that,’ he said. ‘This will give more progressive forces in the church an opening to do something in that field of blessing gay relations which is quite a revolution. . .Now if you start to bless people, then the question will be what’s the idea behind it? Do you accept their relationship which sex is part of or do you do it to encourage them to lead a chaste life?”

Henry Ugwu, an LGBTQ+ activist in Nigeria, commented:

“‘There is no reason why gay individuals should be excluded from the Catholic Church. They are part of the society. . .Fifty years from now, there’s a greater chance that the church will fully accept gay people and gay marriage. There were generations where women had no rights to vote. We look at that generation now as barbaric. Maybe 100 years from now, the generation at the time will look at the Catholic Church as barbaric for not allowing married adults into the church. . .

“These discussions have the power to outlast the biases of current priests, paving the way for substantial and lasting change in the future.'”

—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, January 18, 2024

Related Articles

The New York Times, “Blessing of Same-Sex Couples Rankles Africa’s Catholics“