Catholic Bishops in Ivory Coast have expressed their concern about the possibility of blessing of “same-sex couples” and couples in other “irregular situations” as explained in Fiducia Supplicans, the December 18 Declaration of the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith (DDF).
“We cannot conceal the risk of confusion and scandal that the blessing of same-sex couples could generate within our local Church,” members of the Episcopal Conference of Ivory Coast in (CECCI) say in their statement shared with ACI Africa on Friday, December 29.
The “confusion and scandal” is based on the fact that “the acts of homosexuality are intrinsically disordered”, CECCI members say, and cite the DDF 29 December 1975 “Declaration on certain questions concerning sexual ethics”, Persona Humana.
Homosexuality is also “contrary to natural law”, Catholic Bishops in Ivory Coast say, adding that homosexual acts “close the sexual act to the gift of life, and do not stem from true affective and sexual complementarity.”
Such acts “cannot be approved under any circumstances”, they say, referencing the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Sacred Scriptures.
“Also, knowing the culture of our peoples strongly attached to the values deriving from Natural Law in matters of marriage and family, we note that the reception of this possibility given by the Declaration Fiducia Supplicans to bless same-sex couples is problematic in our ecclesial context,” CECCI members says.
They add that homosexuality “offends our ancestral and cultural values” and Fiducia Supplicans “gives the impression that our Church approves and encourages a reality that is intrinsically evil, unnatural and contrary to our customs and habits.”
“Consequently, we your Archbishops and Bishops, your spiritual guides … reaffirm our attachment to the values of the family, of the sacrament of marriage between a man and a woman, as willed by God from the beginning. We therefore ask ordained ministers to refrain from blessing same-sex couples and couples in irregular situations,” Catholic Bishops in Ivory Coast direct.
They invite the people of God under their pastoral care “to prayer, serenity and peace”.
Since its release, Fiducia Supplicans has elicited mixed reactions and deep division among Catholic Bishops around the globe.
In directing against the imparting of blessings to “same-sex couples and couples in irregular situations”, CECCI members join their counterparts in other African countries and particular Episcopal Sees, including the Southern African nations of Malawi and Zambia, the Central African nation of Cameroon, and Kenya’s Archdiocese of Nairobi, and the Diocese of Wote, among others.
The Prefect of the DDF, Víctor Manuel Cardinal Fernández, has reportedly weighed in on the reluctance on a section of Catholic Bishops to implement Fiducia Supplicans, encouraging Local Ordinaries “to make that discernment.”
In an interview that the Spanish newspaper ABC published, Cardinal Fernández noted that in his understanding, the objections to the DDF Declaration have to do with “the impropriety of giving blessings in their regional contexts that easily would be confused with a legitimation of an irregular union.”
He reportedly cited Africa, where he said that “there is legislation that penalizes with prison the mere fact of declaring oneself to be gay,” and added, “Imagine [what a] a blessing [would do].”
“It’s proper for each local Bishop to make that discernment in his Diocese or in any case, to give further guidance,” the Argentine Cardinal who has been at the helm of DDF since September 2023 following his July 1 appointment has been quoted as saying.