CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Some Catholic bishops in Africa, Poland, and elsewhere have stated that they will not adopt the new Vatican policy allowing blessings for same-sex couples.
Others dismissed Francis’ statement as merely reinforcing the Vatican’s long-standing teaching that marriage is exclusively a relationship between a man and a woman.
The replies demonstrate how divisive the subject is and how Francis’ decade-long attempt to make the church more inclusive to the LGBTQ+ community continues to elicit opposition from traditionalist and conservative Catholic officials.
Bishops in Africa, home to 265 million Catholics, or roughly a quarter of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics, provided some of the strongest comments. Many of those Catholics live and work in societies where homosexuality is vilified and illegal.
Some Catholic Bishops Reject Pope’s Stance On Blessings For Same-Sex Couples. Others Are Confused
According to the Human Dignity Trust, which advocates for LGBTQ+ rights, 31 of the continent’s 54 countries have laws criminalizing homosexuality, more than any other continent.
Same-sex couple blessings, according to Zambia’s bishops conference, are “not for implementation in Zambia.” Malawi’s bishops conference stated that “blessings of any kind” for “same-sex unions of any kind” would be prohibited.
In Zambia, gay sex is criminal by 15 years to life in prison, and the law classifies it as bestiality. In Malawi, gay sex is punishable by up to 14 years in prison, with the potential of corporal punishment for those convicted.
Zambian bishops stated there should be “further reflection” on the blessings, citing the country’s anti-homosexuality laws and “cultural heritage” that opposes same-sex partnerships as justifications for their decision.
The Polish bishops conference, which is among the most conservative in Europe and a reference point beyond the continent due to its ties to St. John Paul II, has stated that it has no plans to bless same-sex couples.
Some Catholic Bishops Reject Pope’s Stance On Blessings For Same-Sex Couples. Others Are Confused
According to the conference, marriage can only be between a man and a woman, and any sexual activity outside of that is “always an offense against God’s will.” Rev. Leszek Gsiak, a conference spokesperson, made this statement.
It is unusual for an entire national bishops conference to publicly oppose a Vatican policy, though the declaration from the Vatican doctrine office did not instruct bishops to allow same-sex couples to be blessed but provided guidance on how they could be done if people requested them.
The document, titled “Fiducia Supplicans,” states that blessings can be given to people in same-sex partnerships as long as they are not mistaken with marriage rituals and reaffirms that marriage is a permanent union between a man and a woman.
The Vatican office announced on Monday that it has changed its 2021 statement that had ruled out blessings for same-sex couples because God “cannot bless sin.”
In an attempt to downplay any shift, the US bishops conference stated that the church’s teachings on marriage have not changed and that the announcement “articulated a distinction between liturgical (sacramental) blessings and pastoral blessings, which may be given to persons who desire God’s loving grace in their lives,” according to a statement.
Some of the most vehement resistance came from Francis’ typical detractors.
The pronouncement, according to German Cardinal Gerhard Müller, who previously headed the Vatican doctrinal office, is “self-contradictory” because it still says same-sex partnerships are against God’s law while enabling same-sex couples to receive a blessing.
“The church cannot celebrate one thing and teach another,” Müller said in an essay published in religious publications.
Kazakh Bishop Athanasius Schneider, who has long been critical of Francis’ progressive stance, described the new policy as a “great deception.” “The evil that resides in the very permission to bless couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples,” he stated.
Some Catholic Bishops Reject Pope’s Stance On Blessings For Same-Sex Couples. Others Are Confused
In a statement on the Catholic Herald magazine’s website, he and Kazakh Archbishop Tomash Peta stated they had forbidden priests in their archdiocese from delivering “any form of blessing whatsoever” for same-sex couples.
Bishop conferences and church leaders from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, and South Africa also issued public statements, most of which sought to clarify what they described as confusion among their flock about whether the new policy recognized and accepted same-sex relationships.
Many people were concerned that the move was a step toward the Catholic church tolerating homosexuality.
The bishops of Nigeria said there had been different interpretations of the policy in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and home to 20-30 million Catholics, and that they needed to make it plain that the Vatican declaration does not allow for a blessing and formal approval of same-sex partnerships.
“The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria assures the entire People of God that the teaching of the Catholic Church on marriage remains the same,” it stated in a statement. “There is, therefore, no possibility in the Church of blessing same-sex unions and activities.”
Abbé Jean-Marie Djibo, a priest in the Archdiocese of Bamako in Mali, a Muslim-majority West African country, stated the Catholic church in his country would not obey any new policy and demanded that the Vatican explain its decision.
“The church in Mali does not agree with the Vatican’s decision concerning homosexual couples, and the bishops and priests here are calling the church faithful to reassure them that this decision will not be applied,” he went on to say. “This decision concerns only the Vatican, not us.”
“In his message, the Pope used coded words that have been variously interpreted, so we want him to clarify this position for us,” he said.
In the United Kingdom, an organization representing 500 Catholic priests issued a signed letter confirming the Church’s doctrine on marriage and same-sex relationships following “widespread confusion.”
In Zimbabwe, which also has anti-gay policies, LGBTQ+ rights campaigner Chesterfield Samba believes the pronouncement will not affect Zimbabwean same-sex couples whom the church rejects. He stated that he had anticipated opposition from some church branches.
The Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference, based in South Africa, where a liberal constitution allows same-sex weddings, appeared to welcome the possibility of blessings for homosexual couples as proof that “nobody is outside God’s grace.”
However, it said its reading of the pronouncement was that “the blessing is done with the hope of conversion.”
Reporters from the Associated Press Noel Sichalwe in Lusaka, Zambia; Baba Ahmed in Bamako, Mali; Sello Motseta in Gaborone, Botswana; Farai Mutsaka in Harare, Zimbabwe; and Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this story.
SOURCE – (AP)
