(LifeSiteNews) — Catholic bishops and priests throughout Uganda have urged the faithful to use the Lenten season to repent from grave sins like homosexuality and fight the Western-backed spread of pro-LGBT propaganda.
Per the Ugandan news outlet Daily Monitor, clergy in several dioceses have marked the beginning of Lent with calls to repentance and fasting, especially given the threat of LGBT ideology and its corruption of society.
Reverend Sanctus Lino Wanok, bishop of the Diocese of Lira, told his flock not to “lure anybody into the sin of homosexuality as it is not human; it is death, which humanity must repent against.”
“God wants salvation for that person and that person can be saved if we relieve him from that,” he added.
EXCLUSIVE: African archbishop describes efforts to ‘resist’ spread of LGBT ideology
Father Agabito Arinaitwe, pastor of Uganda Martyrs Catholic Parish, lamented increasing cases of men and women identifying as LGBT and acting as if homosexuality were a “human right.”
“Some people are now not aware of the Gospel. It’s time we turn away from our evil deeds and turn back to the Lord,” he said.
LifeSiteNews has been reporting on the courageous Catholics in Africa opposing Western-led attempts to normalize homosexuality, abortion, and contraception among their people. Bishop Joseph Mwongela, Diocese of Kitui, Kenya, told LifeSiteNews that faithful Catholics should be willing to be martyred for fundamental truths about life, marriage, and family.
“The voice of God should reverberate through us to be able to speak about the truth, about values, and doing that which is right. And attracting people like the light of the world, salt of the earth,” he said. “If we are tasteless as a Church, where do we go? We must have the taste, attract people, and even if that means martyrdom, to be ready and firm to stand for [the truth].”
READ: Uganda Martyrs are inspiring the faithful in their resistance to the LGBT agenda
The Uganda Martyrs serve as particular inspiration to the bishops and laity standing up against LGBT propaganda. Two Catholic priests told LifeSiteNews that most of them, martyred in the late 1800s, were killed because they resisted inappropriate homosexual acts with the king and refused to “abandon the Christian faith” itself.
“Above all … it was the work of the Holy Spirit,” said Father Joseph Mukasa Muwonge. “If it was not the Holy Spirit, I wonder whether they would have proved themselves so much to that extent.”
Even Anglican bishops in Uganda have also used the beginning of Lent to speak out against the proliferation of LGBT propaganda and homosexuality.
Reverend Doctor Hannington Mutebi, an assistant bishop in Kampala, told reporters on Ash Wednesday that LGBT ideology is a particular threat because “it is a global agenda to destroy the young generation,” as paraphrased by Daily Monitor, and because parents, teachers, and government officials have failed to adequately check its spread.
READ: African bishop: We will stand for God’s truth ‘even if it means martyrdom’
In the Diocese of Ruwenzori, Bishop Reuben Kisembo proclaimed an Ash Wednesday message imploring the faithful to fast not just from food, but from all forms of “evil.”
“As [a] Church, we condemn the act of homosexuality, corruption, greed, selfishness, violation of human rights; let us do good to the needy, orphans, widows, elderly, disabled. Let us overcome evil with good,” he said.
George Turyasingura, an Anglican bishop in East Ruwenzori, also proclaimed that homosexual behavior has no place in Uganda.
“God created a man and woman to multiply, now can a man, after marrying [a] fellow man, produce? We condemn such evil,” he said.