African Bishops Say ‘No’ to Blessing Same-Sex Unions

In effect, the Catholic leadership of Africa has issued an emphatic, and unified, “no” in response to a Dec. 18 Vatican declaration authorizing the non-liturgical blessing of same-sex unions, indicating such blessings would cause confusion on the continent and will not be administered. The reaction came in a Jan. 11 letter signed by Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo of the Democratic Republic of Congo, president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), saying it was based on feedback from the various bishops’ conferences across the continent.