Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service)- “I learn with sadness and concern that Spain has approved a law to equal same sex unions to marriage” Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu, northern Uganda, told Fides with regard to the law legalising unions of homosexual couples passed yesterday by the Spanish parliament.
“As a Christian and a Bishop it is my duty to say that the human being is complete in the couple formed of a man and a woman. Man and woman united in an act of reciprocal self-giving generate life . The is the plan which God gave humanity” the archbishop said.
“The law approved in Spain goes against God’s plan. We respect homosexuals but we cannot approve a law which equals their unions to marriage between a man and a woman” said the archbishop of Gulu.
“I hope other countries will not follow Spain. Europe seems to be losing is soul, in the grip of relativism without morals. John Paul II was right and so is his successor Benedict XVI to remind Europeans of their Christian roots” the archbishop concluded.
“It is a shame that a traditionally Christian country which contributed so much towards the Christian civilisation should adopt a law like this” said Archbishop Théodore Adrien Sarr of Dakar, President of the Bishops’ Conference of Senegal. “This law is a step backwards not forwards in human civilisation because it goes against natural law ” he said. “All Africans, irrespective of their religion, are dismayed at this decision because the natural law is deeply rooted in the culture of our continent”. Archbishop Sarr doubts the attitude will be adopted in Africa for the moment but “in future who knows with advancing globalisation and relativism it might penetrate Africa too”.
The Archbishop of Nairobi, Raphael S. Ndingi Mwana’a Nzeki agrees with those who are against ‘marriage’ of homosexual couples because it goes against “the law of God and fails to respect the real nature of the human person”. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 1/7/2005 righe 35 parole 397)
