Cardinal Explains How African Rejection of ‘Fiducia Supplicans’ Was Handled
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), recently recounted step by step how the rejection of the blessing of homosexual couples was handled on the African continent and at the Vatican.
In a recording of an interview posted on the French lay Catholic blog “Le Salon Beige,” the cardinal explained what happened in Africa after the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), headed by Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, published the declaration Fiducia Supplicans, which allows the blessing of same-sex couples and couples in irregular situations.
“When on Dec. 18, we received the document Fiducia Supplicans, signed by the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and co-signed by His Holiness Pope Francis, it caused a shockwave in Africa. We didn’t understand what was happening at the Church level. Furthermore, other churches that called us said: ‘We count on the Catholic Church to oppose this ideology. Now, you are the first to authorize the blessing of homosexual couples.’”
“All of you, all of you, have suffered for this. A lot. Everyone has suffered for this,” the African cardinal lamented.
“The reactions began. And with all responsibility, I wrote to all the episcopal conferences of Africa and Madagascar,” continued the cardinal, who is also the archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“The episcopal conferences wrote. I printed all the reactions from all the episcopal conferences. I made a synthesis in a document,” he said.
The cardinal said he then wrote a seven-page letter to Pope Francis not only as president of SECAM but also as “his adviser, member of the council of the nine cardinals who accompany the pope for the reform of the Church.”
He then traveled to Rome to meet with the Pontiff, telling one of his private secretaries why he came and giving him all the documentation he had gathered: the reactions of the episcopal conferences, the synthesis and his personal letter.
That same day, the Holy Father received him.
“The Pope was very sad,” the cardinal said. “I must say that he was the first to suffer from all the reactions that came from all over the world. He suffers for it because he is a human being. This doesn’t make him happy.”
