NAIROBI, Kenya (LifeSiteNews) — A bishop from Kenya has spoken out against same-sex relations in response to Pope Francis’ suggestion that priests may decide to “bless” homosexual partners.
During his homily at the ordination Mass of Consolata Missionaries in Nairobi on October 6, Bishop Hieronymus Joya said “The issue that very many people are propagating today is that men should marry men, that women should marry women and they are asking the Church to validate it.”
“Dear brothers and sisters, the stand of the Catholic Church and your shepherds is this is a no-go zone,” Joya said, according to a report by the Catholic Information Service for Africa (CISA).
“It is something incomprehensible that you and I were born in a family and some people with perverse ideologies want us to do and live contrary to what God gifted us, which is the sacredness of life through our parents and which is the source of all vocations in our religious and secular society,” the bishop continued.
READ: Pope Francis to clergy: Decide for yourselves whether to ‘bless’ homosexual unions
Bishop Joya, who is the bishop of the Diocese of Maralal, asked the newly ordained priests and deacons to “nurture the family; appreciate the vocation of marriage” and “to encourage young people to see the value of choosing a vocation, either of marriage or consecrated life.”
“And I think that is the will of God when he created man and woman and that is a challenge that we are currently facing that I appeal to you dear brothers to be ordained to take note and be vigilant against this pervasive ideology,” the African bishop said in his sermon.
According to CISA, Joya’s statements came in response to Pope Francis effectively authorizing clergy to decide for themselves whether to “bless” homosexual unions and the Synod on Synodality’s pro-LGBT agenda.
The promotion of “blessings” for homosexual unions “alongside the ordination of women and the challenge of ideologies risks altering the tradition of the Catholic Church according to Bishop Joya,” the outlet reported.
Responding to a dubia question submitted by five cardinals, as to whether or not the Church can ever accept as a “possible good” objectively sinful situations, including same-sex unions, Pope Francis stated that “pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of blessing, requested by one or more persons, that do not transmit a mistaken conception of marriage.”
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