The Vatican’s recent declaration allowing the blessing of same-sex couples has caused an uproar around the world, but perhaps especially in Africa, an emerging center of the Roman Catholic Church’s future. In one statement after another, bishops in many countries spoke of the fear and confusion the statement has caused in their flocks and said it was out of step with the continent’s culture and values.
The bishops also harbored a deeper fear: that in a place where the church is growing faster than anywhere else in the world, and where many forms of Christianity compete for believers, the proclamation could slow the church’s expansion on the continent.
Bishop John Oballa of Ngong Diocese near Nairobi said a woman had written to him saying a friend had told her she wanted clarification on the statement or she would convert to the Methodist Church.
“There is a lot of vitality in many, many dioceses in Africa,” Bishop Oballa said in an interview. “We have to guard against anything that could derail that growth.”
He said he would advise his priests to give blessings to same-sex couples only if they asked for God’s power to help them “stop living in same-sex unions.”
But if the couple just wanted a blessing and planned to continue living as they were, “it can give the impression of recognition,” he said, adding that he would advise clergy “not to bless because it might be scandalous to others. it can weaken the faith of others.”
Last week, the Vatican sought to placate those bishops worried by the new rule, saying measures would have to be taken for “local culture” but that it would remain church policy. Bishops who oppose the change, she said in a statement, will have to go through an “extended period of pastoral reflection” to wrap their heads around why the Vatican says blessing same-sex couples is in line with church teaching.
Africa was home to 236 million of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics more than half of the 16.2 million people who joined the church worldwide in 2021. As bishops and other church leaders on the continent grapple with the fallout among their parishes over the proclamation, broader concerns have been raised about whether it could lead to a rift between Pope Francis and a region that is a demographic bright spot for Catholicism.
“I think there’s already a rebellion that’s starting to say, ‘We’re not going to implement this,'” said Father Russell Pollitt, director of the Jesuit Institute of Southern Africa, referring to the responses of bishops across the continent.
Some African clerics said they expected the Vatican and church leaders in Africa to work out their differences. But the statement has complicated the relationship and will force difficult talks between the church’s central authority and its African leaders. Some bishops have even hinted that there is a split between the values of African nations and the West, where some clerics have for years resisted the Vatican’s guidance in blessing same-sex unions.
“In our African context, while we recognize the confusion that exists in more developed countries of new, non-Christian models of ‘marriage’ and ‘lifestyles’, we are very clear about what family and marriage are,” said a statement from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Kenya.
Without exception, church leaders in Africa stressed to their flocks that the statement approved by Francis was clear in saying that marriage remained a union between a man and a woman. They emphasized that the church’s doctrine on marriage has not changed and that the proclamation is about the blessing of individuals, not their relationships.
Bishops in Malawi and Zambia have already said that, to avoid confusion, their clergy will be instructed not to give blessings to same-sex couples. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria did not take a firm stand on the matter and said in a statement that “asking for God’s blessing does not depend on how good one is”. But he added that there is “no possibility for the church to bless same-sex unions and activities,” a nod to the nuance of the statement that it blesses gay people, not relationships.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of South Africa confirmed this distinction in her statement. But he went further to say that the church’s position was that “all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, should be treated with the dignity they deserve as children of God, feel welcome in the church and not be discriminated against or harmed. .”
The Vatican’s statement has revealed a tension for the church in Africa: How can it welcome homosexuals while not upsetting believers who stand firmly behind the church’s teaching that homosexuality is a sin?
Some African church leaders feel strongly that they should not even talk about homosexuality “because it is not African,” said Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of the Diocese of Mthatha in South Africa, who is also president of the South African conference. Others, he added, felt differently because they knew homosexuals personally. “It’s not our experience that it’s this thing they took from Europe,” he said.
His conference interpreted the proclamation to mean that people in same-sex relationships can be blessed, he said, but individually and not presented together.
Months before the Vatican’s statement, Bishop Martin Mtumbuka of the Diocese of Karonga in Malawi delivered a fiery sermon accusing Western pastors of trying to bend God’s word to accept homosexuals as a way of attracting a larger pool of priests and other religious vocations.
“Any of us pastors who defend this is just a heretic and fooling himself,” Bishop Mtumbuka said, according to an audio recording of the sermon, which was widely circulated on social media after the Vatican’s statement.
Francisco Maoza, 48, a parishioner living in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe, said he was relieved when his country’s bishops told him they would not allow same-sex couples to be blessed.
“I still think the pope’s position is wrong,” said Mr. Maoza, a carpenter. “In the African context, even in the Malawian culture, we do not allow men and women to marry people of their own sex. So why should priests be allowed to bless such unions?’
Another Catholic in Malawi, Josephine Chinawa, said she felt Francis should resign because of the statement.
“I really couldn’t understand his motivation,” she said. “Maybe he’s too old.”
However, Father Pollitt said some church leaders in Africa were being hypocritical. While they strongly criticize homosexuality, he said, they say little about other “irregular unions” identified in the Vatican statement, such as unmarried heterosexual couples living together. The document says priests can also bless them. There have also been many cases on the continent of priests breaking celibacy rules by having children, but this does not receive the same scrutiny among church leaders, he said.
“Let’s face the facts: There is a lot of homophobia in Africa,” Father Pollitt said.
How the debate over the blessing of same-sex couples in Africa will play out in the long run remains an open question. Some analysts say there may end up being very little tension, mainly because few gay couples are expected to actually ask for blessings.
“I don’t think they would have the courage to introduce their partners to their parents, let alone come to receive a blessing from the priest,” Bishop Oballa said.
Bishop Sipuka said the Vatican and African church leaders will eventually find a way forward.
“I foresee a softening of the position, perhaps, from some who reacted too strongly, as the document is explained and discussed,” he said.
Golden Matonga contributed to the report.