No Amount Of Calumny Or Intimidation Will Make Us Change Our Stand – Nigerian Bishops' Conference Takes A Swipe At Media Misrepresentations On Their Position On Homos
An extract from an article on the Vatican Radio by the Nigerian Bishops;
Here is the article in parts;......
We are aware of hateful campaigns of calumny against the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria(CBCN) because of their position that ‘same-sex unions’ are alien to Nigerian culture.
Since the increasing activism about homosexuality, lesbianism as well as bisexual and transgender rights in many parts of the world culminating in the signing into law by some countries of the West a bill which allows same-sex union, there has been also a deliberate attempt by some lobbyists and gay movements to denigrate and malign those countries, groups and individuals especially in Africa, who hold a contrary view. Those who oppose the same-sex union are now being perceived as ‘enemies’, because they do not support such a cause.
“There is certainly an obsession by some journalists about ‘severe punishment of gays or lesbians’ and they try to twist the Bishops’ statements to articulate their views. Nigerian Catholic bishops are very responsible pastors who do not seek the punishment or jailing of persons who err, but to help them unto salvation. In wrongly reading the letter of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) in January 2015 to President Goodluck Jonathan, some international organizations mischievously reduced the CBCN position to advocating severe punishment of gays or lesbians with long prison terms.
What the CBCN supported, blessed and commended in their letter of 21st January, 2015 to former President Goodluck Jonathan was because the Nigerian government upheld the dignity and sanctity of marriage even in the face of all sorts of pressure. When, therefore, the federal government resisted the attempt to impose this culture on Nigerians by legislating against ‘same-sex union’, the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria felt a sense of great relief and issued a statement to affirm government’s decision.
The Archbishop Kaigama we know is a careful and pastorally-minded prelate who would not have used such words as: ‘shameful’, ‘barbaric’, ‘madness’, etc. to refer to anyone. Our stand was and is ‘no to same sex union’ and ‘no to spreading of the homosexual culture’ which can only complicate our struggle to uphold traditional/ religious/moral values in our country,” he said
By Fr Chris N Anyanwu,
Director of Social Communications, Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Abuja
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