SA CARDINAL & VATICAN BACKTRACK ON PRO-GAY STATEMENT
Cardinal Wilfred Napier
The Archbishop of Durban is among conservative Catholic leaders who are backing out of a ground-breaking Vatican statement on gays and lesbians.
On Monday, the Church’s Synod on the Family released an interim report stating that “homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer the Christian community” and calling for flexibility when dealing with divorce, homosexuality, and civil unions.
The statements were seen as a major departure from traditional Catholic dogma and made headlines around the world. They immediately received a backlash from conservative Catholics.
On Tuesday, South Africa’s homophobic Cardinal Wilfred Napier, who is taking part in the two week Synod that ends on Sunday, stepped into the fray, claiming that the document should not have been released.
“Just like you, I was surprised that it was published, you people got the document before we got it, so we couldn’t have possibly agreed on it,” he said at a press briefing in Rome.
“I think that’s one of the reasons why there has been such an upset among the synod fathers, is that we are now working from a position that is virtually… irredeemable,” he said.
“That would be my worry is that the message that has gone out – and it’s not a true message – that this synod has taken up these positions and whatever we say here after is going to be as if we’re doing some damage control, which is certainly not what is in my mind,” Napier added.
The Vatican also responded that the report was a “working document” and was not final. It said that it does not wish to give “the impression of a positive evaluation” of same-sex relationships, civil unions or of unmarried couples living together.
America’s Cardinal Raymond Burke, a senior Vatican official, also slammed the report in an interview, stating that “it, in fact, advances positions which many synod fathers do not accept and, I would say, as faithful shepherds of the flock cannot accept.”
In 2013, Napier accused America of enslaving Africa by trying to force it to accept homosexuality, said same-sex marriages go against “reason and revelation,” and stated that sexually active gay people do not belong in the Catholic Church.
He claimed that he couldn’t be accused of homophobia “because I don’t know any homosexuals.”
Napier was also forced to apologise when he told the BBC that paedophiles should not be prosecuted because they suffer from a medical condition.
While Pope Francis has hinted at a willingness to be more accepting of gay people, the Catholic Church remains vehemently opposed to same-sex relationships and marriage.
According to official Catholic dogma, while gay people are accepted, their sexuality is not. This is described as “acts of grave depravity” and as “intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to the natural law”.
This church and its homophobic, ignorant clergy is becoming more and more irrelevant in people’s lives, and I am sure that God is relived that this is happening. I left christianity many years ago because of this homophobia, and I am glad that I am free to make my own decisions based on the values my parents taught me. I have seen catholic priests in gay bars and clubs. I have seen two of them at a well known gay steam bath in Johannesburg. Their hypocrisy turns my stomach. They have no balls to stand up for those gay church-goers who still suffer under their hate-speech, so I have no respect for them. Card. Napier is also lying when he says he doesn’t know any homosexuals. He has some of them, well known to the old gay “Roman Lounge” in Morningside, Durban, working for him.
This thing is a disgrace to the church , Typical of the rubbish the pervades this country
Such incidents put our hard work as human rights activists at the edge. Recently Cardinal Wilfred Napier was with some of the staff members of the Gay & Lesbian Network at a dialogue in Durban. What happens is people do not open up to what they feel or think is right. When one is at an event, they agree to the status qou. Thereafter cant support their agreements when they are in their respective organizations.
The cardinal may have realized the gifts of LGBTI people and the potential positive contribution they could bring to the church. When he returned to his colleagues, he could not further support his statement to his fellow cardinals at the synod. The churches have set their laws and thus does not allow any alterations or accommodations of other people within the church.
With the ever changing times and contexts that we live in. Churches should be more open-minded in order to bring people to the Lord. Instead they drive people away with the same set of bylaws they have set out. If homosexuality was some sort of demon, surely the church should be able to destroy that demon with prayer and exorcism. It is sad that the people who live different lives are not catered for in these churches no matter how much they try to come to God.