(LifeSiteNews) — Sister Josée Ngalula, a Congolese theologian and the only African representative of Synod Study Group 9, has revealed that she did not contribute to the part of the group’s final report which falsely suggested that homosexual relationships may not be sinful.
Sister Josée, the first African woman to serve as a member of the International Theological Commission and who has previously spoken out against LGBT ideology, told the National Catholic Register that she was not involved in drafting the report’s sections on homosexual persons because it is “not a major pastoral issue” in her community. Instead, she contributed to the text’s sections on active nonviolence.
The Synod report, published earlier this month, scandalously endorsed testimony, without qualification, claiming that “sin, at its root, does not consist in the (same-sex) couple relationship” but in “a lack of faith in a God who desires our fulfillment.”
Sister Josée emphasized to the Register by email that she “refuses to enter into the debate regarding homosexual persons” because “this is not a major pastoral issue in my community,” and thus chose not to participate in the drafting of the report’s controversial text.
READ: Cardinal Müller condemns pro-homosexual synod report, ‘heretical’ LGBT ideology
“I leave it to those for whom this is a ‘major’ issue to discuss it among themselves,” she added.
The nun further stressed that she focused “solely” on the text’s separate sections on active nonviolence because this issue is more relevant in her “African context, shaped by wars and various other circumstances that inflict human suffering and challenge the conscience.”
Sister Josée’s lack of participation in the Synod report’s text on homosexuality is notable because she has a history of denouncing LGBT ideology.
Back in 2024, during the Synod on Synodality, Sister Josée, who was a voting member on the Synod, sent a video message to the heterodox “Spirit Unbounded” “counter-synod,” which pushed for same-sex “marriage,” “women’s ordination,” and other ideas that contradict Catholic teaching. However, the nun claimed afterward that she was misled by the “counter-synod” who did not inform her of their heretical views when they asked her to speak, and she slammed their promotion of homosexual “marriage.”
“I absolutely do not share at all these options of ‘Spirit Unbounded’ you are talking about,” she said. “It is against my African culture and against the Bible.”
Since the release of the Synod report, it has also been revealed that both testimonies from homosexual men that the report relied on have connections to the radically pro-LGBT Father James Martin.
Last week, Diane Montagna reported that the other anonymous individual whose testimony was relied on for the Synod report was Jason Steidl, an American man featured in a 2023 New York Times article who was photographed receiving a “blessing” from Martin with his male “partner.”
READ: Vatican Synod report uses Fr. James Martin’s homosexual activist friend as testimony
His testimony, the second listed in the report, begins: “My sexuality isn’t a perversion, disorder, or cross; it’s a gift from God. I have a happy, healthy marriage and am flourishing as an openly gay Catholic.”
The man recounts how he was unhappy with the Catholic apostolate Courage, which helps to support those suffering from homosexual inclinations who wish to live chastely. When he began his PhD in theology at Fordham University, he “learned new forms of theology” that claimed to reconcile Catholicism with acceptance of homosexual relationships, which he referred to as “life-giving.”
As noted by Montagna, his identity became clear when he mentioned authoring his first book, LGBTQ Catholic Ministry, Past and Present, which includes a foreword written by Martin.
This week, the author of the first testimony was reported in a blog post on Pangina Catolica, and translated into English by Vatican journalist Diane Montagna, to be a Portuguese man named Lourenço, a “leader” of a Christian life community in Lisbon who is “married” to another man, João, who works as a sign language interpreter in Fatima. This “couple” had spent a day with Martin when the Jesuit visited Fatima in 2023, serving as inspiration for his 2024 article for his pro-LGBT website Outreach “How Same Sex Couples Have Blessed Me.”
READ: Vatican’s pro-LGBT Synod report used another friend of Fr. James Martin for testimony: report
In his testimony, the Portuguese layman wrote about his “husband,” who works as a sign interpreter at Masses in Fatima, and his devotion to Ignatian, or Jesuit, spirituality, leaving little doubt that he authored the testimony.
It was this man’s testimony that included the scandalous line that “sin, at its root, does not consist in the (same-sex) couple relationship” but in “a lack of faith in a God who desires our fulfillment.”