The Catholic
Bishops Conference of Nigeria would like to once again reiterate the
perspective of the Church on more recent developments concerning the sanctity
and dignity of human life and the institutions of marriage and the family all
across the world.
The recent rise
in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender activism, the popular vote in the
Republic of Ireland and the Supreme Court decision in the United States of
America will tend to provoke a notable and rapid shift in public opinion about
the nature and meaning of marriage and family as it has been known for
millennia. This, in many countries, has
inevitably led to powerful legislative and judicial manoeuvres to redefine
marriage in order o include “same-sex marriage”. We wish to state that this is a
sad, unjust and lamentable situation based largely upon a distorted perception
of natural law, the will of God and human nature.
Canada, Spain,
France, United Kingdom, Ireland and most recently United States of America are
some of the countries that have gone down this path. They are nations who undeniable have
cultural, social and economic influence upon many African nations including
Nigeria. Mozambique has not yet accepted same-sex marriage instead they have struck
down their legal ban on sodomy, thereby opening the door to the festering of
the homosexual culture/subculture within their society. Our people daily
interact with the Western nations mentioned above at different levels. These countries also generate a lot of the
media content consumed in our country and continent as well as much of the
educational materials used in our schools.
They also give generous humanitarian aid to various establishments and
projects in our country and continent.
In these ways, their views, thoughts and trends are easily embedded into
the heart of our society and influence many people especially the
impressionable young ones.
As Catholic
Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, we are grateful for these interactions and
support. We are however also concerned for the influence which some of these
trends could have on morality and values. We therefore hereby express our
concern with regard to the persistent and continuous propagation and
globalization of homosexual lifestyle and the effort to redefine marriage which
is a distorted view of human sexuality, coming especially from the Western
world.
We call on our
leaders to be circumspect. Accepting this western trend by officially endorsing
homosexual unions or “same-sex marriage” will be devastating and detrimental to
our nation, Nigeria as it will lead to the inevitable deconstruction of the
family and the society at large with other serious but negative implications.
On our part we
hereby re-emphasize that marriage is the sacred union of one man and one woman
for the begetting and care of children. It forms the core of the family which
is the bedrock and foundational cell of our civilization and as such it is
sanctioned by God, upheld by our culture, celebrated in our society and
protected by our government. The family deserves the protection from all
civilized institutions as it predates society and is not subject to it. So our
role is to promote it, protect it and preserve it at a time like this when many
countries have unfortunately chosen a different path.
We call upon
President Muhammadu Buhari and all our esteemed leaders, legislators and judges
to shun all pressures and protect all Nigerians from the growing but dangerous
influence of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender propaganda. We appeal to
professionals in the domains of media, music, entertainment, education,
medicine, marketing and business to become faithful gatekeepers by protecting
the public from the infiltration of this propaganda which is often spread
through various media and fora. We encourage parents to teach their children
the immutable meaning of marriage so as to strengthen them to stand fearless by
the indelible truth in a rapidly changing world. We urge young people to learn
and hold firmly unto sound religious and cultural values that celebrate the
beauty and blessings of marriage as the lifelong union between one man and one
woman.
Finally we pray
that God will grant us all the courage, integrity and perseverance needed at
this time to uphold the unchangeable truth about the dignity of human sexuality
and the sanctity of the institution of marriage.
Most Rev.
Ignatius A. Kaigama
Most Rev. William Avenya
President,
CBCN
Secretary, CBCN
