The leader of Africa’s Catholic bishops pushed back Tuesday on the narrative that it was only Africans who objected to a 2023 Vatican declaration permitting blessings for same-sex couples.
Newsroom (02 July 2025, Gaudium Press ) – Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, the influential leader of Africa’s Catholic bishops, on Tuesday rejected the notion that opposition to the Vatican’s 2023 declaration permitting blessings for same-sex couples was confined to African bishops, emphasizing that resistance extended to Europe and beyond.
“The position taken by Africa [on the declaration] was also the position of so many bishops here in Europe. It’s not just an African exception,” Ambongo, the 65-year-old archbishop of Kinshasa and president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), told EWTN News on July 1.
The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) issued Fiducia Supplicans on Dec. 18, 2023, allowing nonliturgical blessings for same-sex couples, a move that sparked widespread debate. Ambongo, a Capuchin Franciscan, flew to Rome shortly after to express African bishops’ concerns directly to Pope Francis. He collaborated with DDF prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and the pope to issue a Jan. 11, 2024, SECAM statement clarifying that the permission for such blessings did not apply in Africa. The statement cited biblical prohibitions of homosexual acts and described same-sex unions as “intrinsically corrupt.”
Ambongo framed homosexuality as a “doctrinal, theological problem,” underscoring that the Church’s moral teaching on the issue remains unchanged. He also highlighted a cultural disconnect, noting that Africa “experienced [Fiducia Supplicans] as something that was being imposed from outside on a people that has other priorities.” Speaking after a Vatican press conference on climate justice and ecological conversion, he added, “The pastoral priority for us is not a problem of gay people, it’s not a problem of homosexuality. For us, the pastoral priority is life: How to live, how to survive.”
The DDF acknowledged regional differences in a Jan. 4, 2024, statement, noting that pastoral contexts might require a gradual reception of the declaration. Pope Francis, in a January 2024 interview with La Stampa, described the Church in Africa as “a separate case,” suggesting that cultural views in Africa render homosexuality “ugly” and intolerable.
Ambongo, a former member of Pope Francis’ advisory Council of Cardinals (often called the “C9”), also addressed future papal governance. During pre-conclave discussions, cardinals expressed a desire for broader consultation with the entire College of Cardinals, potentially through annual meetings. Whether Pope Leo XIV will form a new advisory group like the C9, Ambongo said, “depends on him.”
- Raju Hasmukh with files from CNA
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