(LifeSiteNews) — African Archbishop John Bonaventure Kwofie has warned about the negative influence of homosexuality and “gay culture” in seminaries and called on leaders to “weed out” candidates with homosexual tendencies.
Kwofie, the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Accra, Ghana, gave a speech on January 14 at the opening of the 12th Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa (RECOWA) Rectors’ Conference in Sowutoum, Accra. According to ACI Africa, he told seminary leaders responsible for the formation of seminarians to adequately nurture priestly formation and “weed out” those who are unfit to become priests, especially if they have same-sex inclinations.
“I am going to talk about one thing that is growing up like a monster in the seminaries. Please do your best to weed out people of such orientation from our seminaries because it is not only an abomination to priestly attitude but also does not make the gifts of celibacy worth living. It is homosexuality and gay culture,” the African archbishop said.
“We are men; going for women doesn’t go well for us. But men going for men!”
He stressed that acceptance and promotion of “gay culture” contradicts the demands of priestly life as well as Church teaching, noting that Catholic doctrine on the matter has not changed and has been reaffirmed in recent times.
Citing the Dicastery for Culture and Education’s November 2005 instruction, “Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders,” Kwofie said that “those who practice homosexuality” and therefore “present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture’ … find themselves in a situation that gravely hinders them from relating correctly to men and women.”
READ: Catholic seminarians trained by pro-LGBT group in Archdiocese of Madrid
Citing the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Dicastery for Culture and Education stated in its instruction that the Catholic Church “cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture.’”
“One must in no way overlook the negative consequences that can derive from the ordination of persons with deep-seated homosexual tendencies,” the Vatican document reads. “This excerpt shows that the norms regarding sexuality and the gay culture in the seminaries have not changed,” Kwofie declared.
The 2005 instruction was reaffirmed in 2016 by the Congregation for the Clergy in its document, Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis (The Gift of the Priestly Vocation).