On Tuesday, the relator-general of the African Bishops Synod, which is currently taking place at the Vatican, denounced the "ferocious onslaught" of international abortion and contraception promoters in Africa.On the same day, the archbishop of Gulu in Uganda, called for an authentic verification of true women's rights that affirms the family and rejects abortion.
In a summary of the interventions over the last ten days, cardinal archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana, Peter Turkson, said that the Synod had identified "the destruction of an authentic idea of marriage and the notion of a sound family" as an area of major concern for the Synod.
Cardinal Turkson said that participants have "described in various ways a ferocious onslaught on the family and the related fundamental institution of marriage from outside Africa and attributed it to diverse sources."
The bishops have "vigorously denounced the ideology and international programs which are imposed on African countries under false pretexts or as conditions for development assistance," he said.
Turkson listed the ideological threats against the family, including "gender ideology, a new global sexual ethic, genetic engineering" as well as contraception and sterilization pushed by International Planned Parenthood Federation and "reproductive health education" in general.
He said the Synod had also pointed to the danger of emerging "alternative" life styles, same-sex "marriages" and sexual unions.
In Tuesday morning's session, Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Uganda denounced the "shocking rates of abortion that take away the lives of innocents even before birth."
"A culture of abortion, a dynamic of lack of respect for the unborn, a promotion of 'rights' that even allows for this denial of the right to life, is but another sign of violence against life."
The Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops began on Sunday October 4 and has been dominated so far by short individual interventions by the bishops from all over Africa. The issues of concern facing the leadership of the Catholic Church in Africa would appear staggering to western eyes.
Among the topics covered in the five-minute talks have been the epidemics of malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS; the threat of violence from fundamentalist Islam; political, tribal and ethnic violence; the problems of women and children trapped in polygamous "marriages"; the slave trade in children and women for prostitution; the abduction of children and youth for use as child-soldiers; the rise of violent occult practices including murder and assault; and the rapacious "resource extraction" practices of transnational corporations that leave vast environmental destruction in their wake.
In the midst of all this, the Synod fathers have many times identified as an equal threat to social stability foreign ideologies that undermine the monogamous family and attempt to equate abortion with women's rights.
In his intervention, Archbishop Odama called on the bishops of Africa to "pledge ourselves as Church in Africa to stand up for the 'consistent ethic' for the respect for life." He called for a "vigorous endorsement" of the "conditions necessary for life - family love, food, education, health care, jobs, housing etc."
But among these, he said, must be included the "witness especially to the rights of women in their God-given dignity."
"I say this because there are around us now many who speak of the rights of women in ways that would violate the rights of others - especially the rights of unborn children."
"We as Catholic Church must be known as strong defenders of the rights of women."
Other bishops have spoken out against the pressure by governments to adopt a "secular" health care ethic that would abandon the traditional primacy of the right to life among health care workers.
Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, head of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, said that "life today is severely tested as a value by reproductive health policies," and called on the Church leadership to "let the Church's voice be heard on the subject of life from its start to its natural conclusion."
"Many of the health services of the Church in Africa are recognised and used for their importance, but they suffer the ideological pressures of globalization and secularization with the evident drop in financial aid that places them at risk of failure." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer
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