Bishop Martin Mtumbuka of Karonga Diocese in Malawi says that he will “reject” and ignore the Fiducia Supplicans, the declaration of the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith (DDF) permitting the blessing of same-sex couples.
In a Christmas Eve address to his flock, Bishop Mtumbuka urged Christ’s followers to “forget and ignore this controversial and apparently blasphemous declaration in its entirety.”
Bishop Mtumbuka used his address, given at the Christmas Vigil Mass at St. Anne’s Parish of Karonga Diocese, to walk the faithful through his “honest reflection” of what the Fiducia Supplicans meant and why he had chosen to reject it.
“I’m reflecting publicly on a document signed by the Holy Father,” Mtumbuka explained.
“But, I have to, because it is important that you faithful of this Diocese, entrusted to my pastoral care by the same Holy Father are guided, are supported, and are strengthened at this moment.”
Bishop Mtumbuka asked, “Was this letter written to please homosexuals and their promoters? We don’t know. Can the Church depart from its rightful path simply to please a certain people who live in immoral unions? If yes, why could this be done?”
“Do pastors do things like this in good faith? Or was this document written mainly to gain cheap popularity?” he further posed, adding, “It would seem in many parts of the world, certainly many people have celebrated this document as a sign of progress in the church, and the popularity of its drafters has certainly increased.”
The Malawi Bishop then delved into the particulars of the Fiducia Supplicans and highlighted his “major concerns.” He stressed that the document “looks to us like a heresy; it reads like a heresy; and its effects a heresy.”
Bishop Mtumbuka explained, “The document asks us to bless two people of same sex as individuals, but not as a couple. So, these two people of same sex who the previous night slept together like a couple, and present themselves to us as a couple are blessed as individuals, but they leave our presence as a couple; they go to their homes as a couple; they sleep in the same bed as a couple; but the document says they’re not blessed as a couple, although they appear to have been blessed like a couple. How could this be not changing the authentic teaching of the Church?”
The African bishop added, “It’s very hard for me to give you, the faithful of this Diocese, why the Holy Father signed this document.”
Pope Francis, flanked by Msgr. Paolo Braida delivers his Sunday Angelus blessing from his residence at the Casa Santa Marta on November 26, 2023 in Vatican City, Vatican. (Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images)
It will be hard for most Christians to understand why the Pope signed the Fiducia Supplicans given what the Bible has to say about homosexuality and homosexual marriage.
In 1 Corinthians 6: 9-10 (NIV), the Bible says, “Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
With regard to homosexual marriage, Mark 10: 6-9 states, “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’[a] 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,[b] 8 and the two will become one flesh.’[c] So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
Bishop Mtumbuka went on to highlight his suspicions about Pope Francis.
“Some have said that his advisors did not want to stop him because they were afraid of him; but what would they be afraid of? What would they lose by defending the truth? Some have said that they wanted to please him so that he can please them. How, I don’t know.”
Bishop Mtumbuka then cited the dissent and rejection of the Fiducia Supplicans by his fellow bishops at the Episcopal Conference of Malawi on December 19th and lamented the “sad” state of the Catholic church.
Archbishop George Desmond Tambala of the Lilongwe Catholic Archdiocese (C) flanked by a Muslim Sheikh (L) and other religious leaders, carries an anti LGBTQ placard during national wide marches organized by churches in Malawi against same sex marriages in Lilongwe on July 13, 2023. (AMOS GUMULIRA/AFP via Getty Images)
“We in this Diocese … are not going to allow the recommended blessings of same sex unions in our Diocese,” he asserted. “It’s very sad for me that for the first time in history of the church, a document released from the Holy See, signed by the Holy Father is rejected by his fellow Bishops and publicly rejected.
“It’s sad; the Catholic Church is old, as old as Christianity itself; this has never happened before. But we have no choice; we cannot allow such an offensive and apparently blasphemous declaration to be implemented in our Dioceses.”
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect for the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) and author of the Fiducia Supplicans, told a Spanish language ABC outlet that bishops were granted the “discernment” to decide for themselves whether or not to implement the Vatican-sanctioned blessing of same-sex couples.