Roman Catholic Bishops in Cameroon have surprisingly gone mute since the country’s first daughter, Brenda Biya, whose father President Paul Biya is from a Catholic background, publicly identified as a lesbian.
The Bishops’ public silence downplays on their firm stance against gay relations, propagated last year after Pope Francis permitted Priests to bless same-sex couples.
In December 2023, the Pontiff urged the priests to bless same-sex couples, even though the Bible forbids gay relationships.
The practice that is also illegal in most African countries, including Cameroon.
“It is possible to bless couples in an irregular situation and couples of the same sex in a form that must not be fixed ritually by the ecclesial authorities, so as not to create confusion with the blessing specific to the sacrament of marriage,” a statement from The Vatican said.
“The marriage will never be performed at the same time as the civil rites of union, nor even in connection with them.”
It did not take long, and Roman Catholic Bishops in Cameroon responded with a backlash.
The Archbishop of Bamenda, His Grace Andrew Nkea, denounced the call from the papacy.
“In Africa, we understand marriage as the union between a man and a woman, and anything outside of that is witchcraft,” he said.
The National Episcopal Conference of Bishops, on December 22, 2023, made a declaration objecting to the Vatican statement.
“Homosexuality is not a human right. It is an alienation that seriously harms humanity because it is not based on any value proper to the human being; it is the dehumanization of love, ‘an abomination.’ (Lev, 18, 22). Rejecting it is in no way discriminatory; it is a legitimate protection of the constant values of humanity in the face of a vice that has become the subject of a claim to legal recognition and, today, the subject of a blessing,” the Bishops’ declaration read.
“Homosexuality falsifies and corrupts human anthropology and trivializes sexuality, marriage, and the family, the foundations of society. In African culture, this practice is not part of family or social values. It is a flagrant violation of the heritage bequeathed to us by our ancestors. In the history of people, the practice of homosexuality has never led to societal evolution but is a clear sign of the imploding decadence of civilizations. Homosexuality sets humanity against itself and destroys it,” it added.
Bishops Mute After President’s Daughter Outburst
In one of the declarations, the Bishop said homosexuality is not a human right and that it is against African norms.
But it has been almost two weeks now since Brenda Biya, the daughter of President Paul Biya, revealed her gay status.
Brenda said that her outburst was also meant to encourage those who practice lesbianism in silence.
However, Roman Catholic Bishops have not commented publicly on the issue, despite earlier stating that it is not “our way of life.”
When the Bishops vehemently condemned gay relations, there wasn’t a publicly swon gay case in the country.
But now that there is a “siner” that they know, they have gone silent.
