Weeks after bravely supporting the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, 2013, signed into law by his nation's president, the President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), Abp. Ignatius Kaigama, of Jos, once again shows himself to be one of the most assertive bishops alive, merely by defending what the Church has always defended:
The criticism of the position of the Catholic Church on abortion and other related immoral acts has been attributed to inherited prejudices of the critics and their ignorance of the beliefs and traditions of the Church....According to the Archbishop: “The Catholic Church has been criticized over her stance on such issues as abortion, condom, homosexuality, cloning, stem cell research, etc.” He however maintained that the Church’s principled views on key moral issues cannot be compromised.The local ordinary of Jos further remarked: “The Catholic Church is often judged by people who do not care to know what we really believe. Prejudices inherited from one generation to another have blinded critics of the Catholic Church so much that they cannot be objective about Catholic beliefs and traditions.”Archbishop Kaigama warned against submitting to the wishes of some governments and international organizations who wanted to force their debased moral and cultural values on the continent of Africa and especially Nigeria. His words: “We must not be swallowed up by the tyrannical imposition of some governments or international non-governmental organizations who wish to dictate the moral trend of the world based on their secular values.”He continued: “In Africa, whether it is about population control, use of condoms, homosexuality, etc sometimes, the views of the West are forced down the throats of Africans through financial inducement. Africans must not be copycats, believing that whatever comes from the West is ideal.”The CBCN president stressed the need for “cultural or intellectual discernment” on the part of Africans and Nigerians adding: “or else we run the risk of losing our values and becoming neither Africans nor Westerners.” He added: “We must be faithful to our religious heritage even at a time when some of the people who introduced Christianity to us have become its ardent critics and some of them nurture a pathological hatred for Church directives or moral judgments.”
