By David Maillu
Published January 27, 2024
The present radical Catholic Pope is creating a nightmare in Africa by
not only saying the Catholic Church should accept blessing homosexual
marriage but also the Church should accept surrogacy. Surrogacy is an
arrangement whereby an independent woman agrees to bear a child on
behalf of another couple. That happens when a wife doesn’t want to carry
the pregnancy, or she is barren. In this case, the ovulating surrogate
mother accepts a paid contract of being injected with the sperm of the
couple’s husband. Thereby when she delivers the baby, that baby is taken
to belong and be brought up by the couple. That move goes against the
grains of the Bible that clearly says marriage must be between man and
woman and anything outside that is adultery.
African Catholic priests are going against their Spiritual King by
rejecting the Pope’s new order. What does that say and predict for the
Catholic Church in Africa? The African priest comes from a tradition
that sees no sense whatsoever in homosexuality. Surrogacy may be quietly
acceptable because it has a chapter in African tradition through the
adoption of mothers by a couple or family to bear children for the
family.
The Catholic Church which had gone full blast condemning polygamy is a
strong pillar in African marriage, hasn’t accepted polygamy. Yet now it
accepts the blessing of homosexual marriage! Before even thinking about
homosexuality, the Church should have addressed polygamy. Are we,
therefore, seeing the beginning of the end of the Catholic Church’s
strong hold or collapse in Africa?
The one-million-dollar question that should asked in the African
Catholic faith is, “Is the Pope going against the Bible that is the
foundation of the Christian faith? And if so, why at this age and
space?” To the African Christian faith, the Pope is abdicating the
Christian faith and bowing down to turning the Church into a commercial
outfit that must move with international commercial current. Or the
Pope, it appears after all, wants to turn the Catholic Church into a
modern social club because, behind the scenes, that is what the Catholic
Church has always been under cover but finally the honest Pope has
decided to be the whistleblower. Is the African going to embark from
that ship? At what spiritual cost if he doesn’t step down? Is the
Catholic Church going to survive in Africa?
If we go by the total number of 1.4 billion Catholics in the world
against Africa’s nearly 160 million followers as records put it, 12% of
the Catholic Spiritual Empire is in Africa. If anything has to strike
against the Catholic Church in Africa, the Pope has something serious to
worry about; especially going by the projection that Africa is fast
getting Christianized.
The shocking Catholic Church’s announcement comes in the backdrop of
unprecedented corrupt scandals erupting in the Christian industry not
only in Kenya but in Africa where publicly Christian Churches have
revealed lust for money and exploitation of the poor during organized
functions and crusades. It wasn’t a long time ago when Crusades
attracted huge crowds. The crowds have vanished, and the volume of
churchgoers has taken a trend of going down. Pastors hungry for money
have become a commonplace issue to exploit the poor. The Church has
become part and parcel of politics and churches are political rally
venues where politicians and clerics go to be with each other. The big
question now is how long Christianity in Africa will survive.