Posted on 08/30/2024 10:04:39 AM PDT by ebb tide
In an apparent rebuke of Pope Francis, the president of the Cameroon Episcopal Conference reiterated that African clerical resistance to “female deacons” and LGBT ideology is not based on the continent’s conservative cultural outlook but rather on “fidelity to what Christ taught.”
“Africa was not defending a cultural idea. Africa was defending the teaching that the Church has had for 2,000 years,” Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya explained while speaking about opposition to homosexual “blessings” during a synodal discussion organized by the Conference of Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar (COMSAM) on August 23.
“Our stand had nothing to do with culture; it was about fidelity to the truth; fidelity to what Christ taught. It was about fidelity to what the Apostles handed down to generations,” he said.
Archbishop Fuanya, 56, was appointed by Francis in December 2019 to lead Cameroon’s Bamenda archdiocese. His remarks are the latest in a long line of comments by African clergy expressing vehement disagreement with Pope Francis, who, in a January 2023 interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa, attributed Africa’s resistance to Fiducia Supplicans’ promotion of homosexual “blessings” as being “a special case” of opposition because “for them, homosexuality is something ‘ugly’ from a cultural point of view; they do not tolerate it.”
READ: Cardinal Sarah strongly rejects Fiducia Supplicans, ‘heresy’ of same-sex ‘blessings’
Francis’ blaming of African “culture” for why its priests and bishops reject Fiducia Supplicans did not go over well with the African Church. Leading African Cardinal Robert Sarah criticized the pope’s condescending claim in a speech to clergy in Cameroon in April 2024. Among other things, Cardinal Sarah praised the Cameroonian bishops for issuing a statement in December 2023 that rejected Fiducia Supplicans and forbade priests from “blessing” homosexual “couples.”
“Some in the West wanted to make believe that you acted in the name of an African cultural particularism. It is false and ridiculous to attribute these purposes to you,” Cardinal Sarah declared.
Archbishop Fuanya himself pushed back against Francis’ insinuation that African clergy are simply unable to comprehend Catholic teaching.
“Theologians here, you must tell us whether the African brain is inferior when it comes to reflecting on African culture and civilization,” he said at the COMSAM gathering.
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, the president of the African bishops’ conference and an advisor to Pope Francis, endorsed Cardinal Sarah’s remarks during a press conference just weeks later on April 25, declaring that Fiducia Supplicans “has been buried” in Africa.
READ: Cardinal Sarah calls on African theologians to resist Western woke ideology
The 2023 Cameroon bishops’ statement, which was signed on behalf of the 33 prelates of the country by Archbishop Fuanya, had noted that to offer a “blessing” to a homosexual pair “would be tantamount to encouraging a choice and practice of life that cannot be recognized as being objectively ordered to the revealed designs of God.”
Archbishop Fuanya was one of the bishops on the ordinary council overseeing the process for the Synod on Synodality, which will hold its next meeting in Rome from October 2-29. It is expected to discuss an array of controversial topics, including “female deacons.” In remarks at the COMSAM meeting, he explained that African bishops who previously took part in the synod “did not want to be seen as presenting points of Africa because of the culture from which we came. Our stand had nothing to do with culture; it was about fidelity to the truth; fidelity to what Christ taught.”
As reported by LifeSite in 2018, Archbishop Fuanya told a press conference at the Youth Synod in Rome that he “would not vote for any article that has ‘LGBT’” in it. He also denounced what he called the ideological colonization of Africa, stating that “some Western governments,” “funding agencies” and “pressure groups” offer aid to Africa, but “tie it to these acronyms” and the acceptance of abortion and homosexual so-called “marriage.”
During an interview with the National Catholic Register’s Edward Pentin in October 2023, Archbishop Fuanya said that African bishops strove to hold the line on Catholic sexual morality during the Synod debates and insisted strongly on the Church’s teaching on marriage as a union between a man and a woman. He also decried anything that departs from that teaching as a form of “witchcraft.”
‘They are sending us missionaries of evil’: Clerics lament Western homosexual push in Africa
Ping
“Archbishop Fuanya himself pushed back against Francis’ insinuation that African clergy are simply unable to comprehend Catholic teaching.
Theologians here, you must tell us whether the African brain is inferior when it comes to reflecting on African culture and civilization.....”
Frank is RAAAAYCIIIIST!!
It’s the teachings of Pope Francis vs the teachings of Jesus.
“Opposition to homosexuality is not ‘cultural’ but about fidelity to Christ”
NO! Its BOTH!
Its WRONG, regardless of sin. Of course it is one of a list of “abominations”.
For example Leviticus 20:13 New King James Version
If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.
This protestant agrees completely.
God first.
God alone.
God Eternal.
Judas Iscariot was a homosexual.
?!
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