The recent Vatican statement endorsing priests to bless homosexual couples has caused enormous discomfort in the most conservative sectors of the Church. This division has materialized with the formal opposition of the African Church, the continent where the faithful grow the most on the planet, to apply the directive. They justify it by saying that it goes against “the will of God”, but they promise that they will continue to be faithful to Pope Francis.
In a public letter signed by Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, Archbishop of Kinshasa, as president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), the African bishops assure that blessings to homosexual couples cannot be given in Africa “without exposing itself to scandal”. The cardinal considers that, since the Church’s doctrine on marriage has not changed – it continues to be exclusive to heterosexual couples -, blessing gay unions is not “appropriate” for Africa because, in its “context”, “it would cause confusion and be in direct contradiction with the cultural ethics of African communities”. In fact, Ambongo mentions the “biblical reasons” that condemn homosexuality and argues that it further complicates the acceptance of same-sex unions in Africa, since “they are considered contradictory to cultural norms and intrinsically bad”.
The rejection of the African bishops is a historical precedent because it had never happened that all the bishops of the same continent opposed a Vatican directive. Both Jorge Mario Bergoglio and his prefect for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, author of the statement, have authorized the refusal of the African episcopal conferences, says the Archbishop of Kinshasa. “His Holiness Pope Francis, firmly opposed to any form of cultural colonization in Africa, wholeheartedly blesses the African people,” he writes. With this approval, Francis opens the door to a Church that walks at different speeds. The prefect of the old Holy Office already recognized in an explanatory note that it could not be applied simultaneously in all places in the world.
Francesc has not yet spoken publicly on the matter. The health of the 87-year-old Pontiff is again in the spotlight after yesterday he preferred not to read a prepared speech to a group of French communicators on the pretext that he had “a little bronchitis”. In the two subsequent hearings he did deliver the planned speeches, albeit with a visibly tired voice.
