Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu has revisited the fracas around the 2023 Vatican declaration permitting blessings for same-sex couples, saying the issue felt like something that was “imposed” on Africa due to a Western preoccupation with the issue.
At the same time, the Congolese cardinal pushed back against the narrative that is it was only Africans who objected to <em>Fiducia Supplicans</em>, <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/265109/cardinal-fridolin-ambongo-opposition-to-same-sex-blessings-not-an-african-exception"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">reports</mark></a> the <em>Catholic News Agency (CNA)</em>.
Ambongo, who is the archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo and who heads the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), spoke to <em>EWTN News</em> about the controversial 2023 declaration following a Vatican press conference on 1 July about a document on climate justice and ecological conversion.
The leader of Africa’s Catholic bishops said that the continent “experienced [<em>Fiducia Supplicans</em>] as something that was being imposed from outside on a people that has other priorities".
He explained: “The pastoral priority for us is not a problem of gay people, it’s not a problem of homosexuality. For us, the pastoral priority is life: how to live, how to survive,” adding that issues such as homosexuality “are for you here in Europe, not for us in Africa”.
He also highlighted: "The position taken by Africa [on <em>Fiducia Supplicans</em>] was also the position of so many bishops here in Europe. It’s not just an African exception,” the cardinal told <em>EWTN News</em> in the interview.
The 65-year-old cardinal went on to say that homosexuality is fundamentally a “doctrinal, theological problem”, while noting that Church moral teaching on the subject has not changed, <em>CNA</em> reports.
The US-based Catholic news agency notes that after the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) published <em>Fiducia Supplicans </em>on 18 December 2023, Ambongo flew to Rome, where he met with Pope Francis in order to convey the concerns of Africa's bishops about the declaration, which permitted nonliturgical blessings of same-sex couples.
According to Ambongo, he worked with the head of the DDF, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, and with Pope Francis to produce a statement about how the permission for same-sex blessings did not apply in Africa.
On 4 January 2024, the DDF issued a statement acknowledging that pastoral contexts in different countries could affect the reception of the declaration. A subsequent statement from SECAM on 11 January 2024 quoted the Bible’s prohibitions of homosexual acts and called same-sex unions “intrinsically corrupt”.
Later in January, Pope Francis defended the declaration and called the Church in Africa “a separate case", <em>CNA</em> notes. In an interview with Italian newspaper <em>La Stampa</em>, Francis said: “For [Africans], homosexuality is something ‘ugly’ from a cultural point of view; they do not tolerate it.”
Cardinal Ambongo was a member of Pope Francis’s advisory Council of Cardinals, which has typically numbered nine cardinals. The African cardinal said he does not know if Pope Leo XIV will form a similar group to advise the new pontiff.
Ambongo said that during pre-conclave meetings, cardinals expressed a desire for the Pope to value the input of the entire College of Cardinals, possibly even holding annual meetings. Though Ambongo also noted that the smaller council group “could also help the Pope”.
Before the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV to lead the Catholic Church, Cardinal Ambongo was considered a <em>papabile</em> contender for the role.
<a href="https://thecatholicherald.com/papabile-of-the-day-cardinal-ambongos-blend-of-tradition-and-reform/"><strong><em><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">RELATED: Papabile of the day: Cardinal Ambongo offers blend of tradition and reform</mark></em></strong></a>
<em>Photo: Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu arrives for the seventh congregation meeting before the conclave to elect a new pope, Vatican, 30 April 2025. (Photo by DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images.)</em>
