Catholic Bishops in Nigeria Maintain Opposition to Fiducia Supplicans’ Recommendations

“In furtherance of our pastoral and prophetic mission, we must also continue to stress that God loves the sinner unconditionally and calls him to repentance so that he might live,” he said.

FS stresses that pastoral blessings of same-sex couples should not be imparted “in concurrence with the ceremonies of a civil union, and not even in connection with them. Nor can it be performed with any clothing, gestures, or words that are proper to a wedding.”

According to Archbishop Ugorji, documents from the Holy See should normally foster unity and communion among Catholic Bishops on matters of doctrine, morals and liturgy.

FS, on the other hand, is ambiguous and “tends to hurt the unity and catholicity of the Church”, the Local Ordinary of Nigeria’s Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri since his installation in June 2022 said, referring to the mixed reactions and deep division FS has elicited since its release on December 18.

He recalled that at its publication, FS had “quickly aroused mixed reactions of acceptance, skeptical reserve and outright rejection from Episcopal Conferences and individual bishops across the world.”

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“With the media hype that ambushed the text, its publication generated shock, outrage and disbelief among the faithful in our country as elsewhere in Africa and other parts of the world,” Archbishop Ugorji recalled during his 16-point address to Nigeria’s Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Priests, women and men Religious and the Laity on February 18.

He continued, “Many devout Catholics in our communities seriously wonder how a Priest could bless same-sex couples who live permanently in a sinful union without causing confusion and scandal.”

“In the midst of this confusion and pushback, we must, as pastors with the pastoral task of safeguarding the deposit of faith in its purity and integrity, uphold the teaching of the Church based on Holy Scripture and Tradition,” the 72-year-old Nigerian Catholic Archbishop, who started his Episcopal Ministry in July 1990 as Bishop of Nigeria’s Umuahia Diocese said.

According to him, the “New Age” has “the protagonists and sponsors of post-modern secularist ideologies” who he said are using the powerful opinion-shaping instrument of the mass media to spread a permissive culture in the name of freedom and human rights.

In such times, the President of CBCN said, “we should be able to properly discern and differentiate between the “voice of God” and the “voice of the world”.