Catholic bishops in Africa are defying a new directive from the Vatican regarding blessing same-sex marriages.
The bishops from a collective of African nations are refusing to allow priests under their leadership to bless same-sex couples, stating that to do so would be “contrary to the will of God.”
In a statement – signed by Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo on behalf of the symposium of African national bishops conferences – the bishops expressed concern about the confusion and scandal the blessings could cause.
Ambongo wrote that LGBTQ marriages “are seen as contradictory to cultural norms and intrinsically corrupt” in African cultures.
“Within the church family of God in Africa, this declaration has caused a shockwave, it has sown misconceptions and unrest in the minds of many lay faithful, consecrated persons and even pastors, and has aroused strong reactions,” he stated, per AP News.
Ambongo also encouraged “Christian communities not to allow themselves to be shaken.”
“His Holiness Pope Francis, fiercely opposed to any form of cultural colonization in Africa, blesses the African people with all his heart and encourages them to remain faithful, as always, to the defense of Christian values,” he wrote, per The Catholic Register.
The Roman Catholic Church formally authorized priests to bless same-sex couples on Dec. 18. The blessing cannot occur during regular Church rituals or liturgies and would not be the equivalent of a civil union.
The declaration was far from universally celebrated and caused enough controversy to prompt the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to issue a clarification in early January.
“That original declaration stated that such blessings were for the couples, not for the particular situation in which the two people happened to be—whether divorced and remarried or in a same-sex union,” notes American Magazine. “By issuing this five-page clarification in the form of a press release, the D.D.F. is seeking to eliminate much of the confusion that has arisen either through a hasty reading of the original document, from insufficient communication in its initial presentation or from its misrepresentation in some of the media.”
Catholic Bishops in Eastern Europe also rejected the Vatican’s decree. The Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference released a statement on Dec. 27 stating that the decree “does not change the Catholic Church's faith and teaching on marriage and sexual morality.” The Hungarian conference noted that priests “can bless every person individually, regardless of their gender identity and sexual orientation, but it must always be avoided, to give a common blessing to couples living together in a pure relationship, in a non-church marriage or in a same-sex relationship,” according to a translation of the message.
Jesuit Fr. Leszek Gesiak, the spokesperson for Poland’s Catholic bishops, told a reporter on Dec. 21 that blessings may be “given to individual persons with homosexual inclinations” but only individuals “who manifest the will to live in fidelity to the revealed plans of God” in order to maintain “hermeneutic of continuity” with a decree issued by the Vatican in 2021.
The Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops in Ukraine blamed the same-sex unions blessing authorization for “a storm of reactions and misunderstandings about issues of morality and doctrine in the Catholic Church about such blessings.”
“The notion of the blessing of same-sex couples, or also sacramentally unregulated couples, may be perceived as the legalization of this relationship,” the conference said in a translation of its Dec. 19 statement.”We see danger in ambiguous formulations that cause different readings among the faithful. We have been struck in the document that the Gospel calls sinners to conversion, and without calling for the sinful life of homosexual couples, the blessing may seem like approval.”
