Fiducia Supplicans: More Reactions from Catholic Bishops in Africa on Same-sex Blessings

They invited Priests, the people of God and all other Congolese who may be “shocked by the terms blessing of couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples used in the Declaration to pray and live in peace.”

“Live the faith as we have received it from our elders, consider the unions that God blesses; those defined by the Church's millenary theology, and be proud to bear our values, which invite us to respect the person, but not to indulge in evil,” CEC members say.

On their part, members of the Episcopal Conference of Benin (CEB) say the Vatican Document contains “highly complex issues which, if misinterpreted or misunderstood, could lead to ambiguities in discourse, teaching and practice.”

CEB members further say FS contains “general recommendations whose acceptance must take into account the specificity of the socio-cultural contexts of each particular Church in order to favor the rooting of the Gospel in the culture of the latter.”

“We ask ordained ministers incardinated or passing through Benin to refrain from any form of blessing of same-sex couples or couples in an irregular situation,” the Bishops say in a statement dated December 31.

They invite pastoral agents to “continue in serenity their commitment to the pastoral care of the family.”

Members of the Episcopal Conference of Togo (CET) on their part have invited their Priests to “refrain from blessing homosexual couples.”

The Catholic Bishops explain FS is “far from being an approval or sacramental validation of same-sex unions.”

“This Declaration does not change the teaching of the Bible and the Church on marriage, which is defined by the Second Vatican Council and recognised as a matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman form between themselves a community for life, ordered by its natural character to the good of the spouses and to the generation and education of children,” CET members say in a statement dated December 20.

However, Catholic Bishops in Togo say, “The Church recommends that people in same-sex relationships be welcomed with respect, compassion and sensitivity.”

“These people are called to carry out God's will in their lives, and if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter because of their condition,” they add.

On their part, members of the Central African Episcopal Conference (CECA) invite the people of God in the Central African Republic (CAR) to remain calm and serene.

They reassure members of the Church Family of God in CAR of their “deep attachment to the teachings and practices of traditional blessings of the Church.”

The Bishops further say CECA is part of the continental process initiated by the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), which aims to establish a common position valid for all the Churches of Africa and its adjacent islands.”

They invite the people of God to be “firm in their faith and to be constant prayer.” 

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For members of the the Episcopal Conference of Chad (CET), the Sacrament of Marriage has not changed and is not to be confused with other blessings.

“It remains an exclusive, stable and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to the generation of children,” CET members say in a statement dated December 24.

They call on members of the Clergy and all the faithful to remain "confident" and not let their faith waver as a result of the DDF statement.

Such acts “cannot be approved under any circumstances”, they say, referencing the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Sacred Scriptures.