Ambongo said the Vatican’s Fiducia Supplicans declaration, issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on Dec. 18, “caused a shockwave” in Africa and “has sown misconceptions and unrest in the minds of many lay faithful, consecrated persons, and even pastors.”
In response, Ambongo said that the African bishops remind the faithful, “as Fiducia Supplicans clearly does,” that “the Church’s doctrine on Christian marriage and sexuality remains unchanged.”
“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 African cardinal said.
The letter is the first instance of the Church in an entire continent rejecting same-sex blessings as proposed in Fiducia Supplicans.
Ambongo said that the language used in Fiducia Supplicans is “too subtle for simple people to understand” and that it is “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 letter goes on to list many more reasons why the African Church will not be offering same-sex couples blessings, citing multiple biblical passages. One of the passages cited by the African bishops is what they called the “scandal of the homosexuals in Sodom” in Genesis 19, which they said demonstrates that “homosexuality is so abominable that it will lead to the destruction of the city.”
