By Dons Eze
The Pope’s word is like a decree, a law, unalterable. In the Catholic Church, they say that the “Pope is infallible”. In other words, that the Pope, while sitting on his Chair, cannot make a mistake. As Vicar, or representative of Christ on earth, the Second Person of the Trinitarian God, the Pope would thus be speaking the word of God.
For long, there was anxiety over what is the stand of Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, on same sex marriage that is gaining currency across the Western World, particularly in the United States of America, since the assumption of office of President Joseph Biden, who claims to be a Catholic, but who is said to in love with gay marriage, just like most other top echelons of the American Democratic Party.
The United States of America knows how to impose her culture on other people and to intimidate them into accepting their way of life. We call it “Macdonalization” or “Cocoalization” of the world, where American culture, American way of life, is presented as superior, that must be imposed on the rest of the world. Whoever is opposed to this way of life would have offended their sensibility and would be branded their enemy. It is called “cultural imperialism”, the cultural domination of the world by the countries of Western Europe and the United States of America.
In the midst of uncertainty in most parts of the world over same sex marriage, which is being marketed by the United States of America, the Catholic Church and Pope Francis, have now come out boldly to denounce it, by declaring that priests and other Catholic ministers would not be allowed to bless same-sex marriages.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in the Vatican, in a statement, warned that “it is not licit to bless same-sex marriage as marriages between men and women was a sacrament that cannot be extended to same sex couples.
“For this reason, it is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage (i.e., outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open in itself to the transmission of life), as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex.
“God does not and cannot bless sin: He blesses sinful man, so that he may recognize that he is part of his plan of love and allow himself to be changed by him, ” the statement said.
Approved by Pope Francis, the ruling of the doctrinal office was issued to address questions about whether Catholic clergy can bless same-sex union.
We did not expect less from the Catholic Church. She could not have said otherwise. We knew that the Catholic Church must oppose same sex marriage, and that there was no way she would have endorsed it. Same sex marriage is evil. It is sinful. It is abnorminable. It is unnatural. It is repugnant to common sense and human thinking.
It is difficult to comprehend how any normal human being would get attracted to a person of his own kind, of his own sex, for mating. It is therefore possible that those who are attracted to their own sex, are terribly sick and need to be taken to a psychiatric hospital for examination. Even the lower animals do not descend to that level of bestiality.
Our thinking is that if God could destroy Sodom and Gomorrah of the ancient world, because the people who lived there practised same sex marriage or homosexuality, He would not be partial in dealing with those who commit the same offence in our present day and age, unless we take that part of the biblical story to be a fable.
If those, on the basis of protection and guarantee of human rights, believe that gays should be given unfettered freedom, they should also in the same token, believe that mad men with cutlasses, should be allowed to roam the streets unhindered, unrestricted. There should be no more taking anybody into asylum or prison yard, no matter the level of his insanity or the degree of crime committed.
Even though Pope Francis was reported to have sometime in the past, expressed sympathy for homosexuals, and said that they should not be cast out of society, it is in the same way that Jesus Christ hated sin, but loved sinners: Matthew, Zacheous, Mary Magdalene, etc.
Pope Francis’ reported statement did not therefore, in any way, suggest that he endorsed homosexuality or same sex marriage. He merely expressed sympathy for those who practice it, believing that they are sick and need to be taken care of.
Now that the Pope has come out openly to speak against same-sex marriage, that the Catholic Church is against it, we take it to mean that he has spoken the word of God, which must be obeyed and respected. Let those who practice it, examine themselves and their conscience.
*Dr. Eze, KSJI, veteran journalist, wrote in from Enugu
