In the greatest rebuke yet to Pope Francis, the Catholic bishops of Africa and Madagascar issued a unified statement Thursday refusing to follow his declaration allowing priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples and asserting that such unions are “contrary to the will of God.”

The statement, signed by Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo on behalf of the symposium of African national bishops conferences, marked the closest thing to a continent-wide dissent from the declaration Francis approved Dec. 18 allowing priests to offer such blessings.

That declaration from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has sent shock waves through the Catholic Church, thrilling LGBTQ+ Catholics as a concrete sign of Francis’ message of welcome but alarming conservatives who fear core doctrines of the church are being ignored or violated.

        • teft@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          When popes and antipopes collide, the popes destroy each other, with a huge energy release. Depending on the colliding popes, not only is there a great energy release, but new, different popes may also be produced (such as neutrinopes and various flavours of quarkpopes – see figure below). These new popes will have a lower mass than those in the original collision, due to the law of conservation of ecclesiastical energy and Einstein’s very famous equation E=mc2 – some of the energy goes into heat and light, some into forming the new popes.

              • teft@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                We actually can’t tell if the funny hats are conserved. We call this the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

                This guy Heisenberg came up with it:

              • FaceDeer@kbin.social
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                In my experience funny hats can be created out of non-funny hats pretty easily. I don’t think that conservation law holds.

                • twack@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  That is because all non-funny hats are also funny hats at the same time. It is only at the moment of observation that a hat decides whether it is funny or not funny.

                  We refer to this phenomenon as Schrödinger’s hat.

                • hydroptic@sopuli.xyz
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                  1 year ago

                  Ah but the total funniness of the hats is still conserved; you may be creating a funny hat from non-funny hats, but the total funniness is the same as the sum of the earlier hats.

  • tacosanonymous@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Defying the choice of God seems like a bold choice. Almost like there are no actual rules or punishments. Weird.

  • Mister Neon@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    What are they gonna do about it? It’s not like they can write down their grievances on a piece of paper and nail it to a cathedral door.

  • VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf
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    1 year ago

    You know what else would be contrary to the will of a loving God if one existed?

    Being the main driver of the African AIDS epidemic that’s claimed tens if not hundreds of millions of lives.

    Fuck the catholic church and ESPECIALLY fuck THESE catholic church monsters! 🖕🖕🖕

  • ArgentRaven@lemmy.world
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    The Catholic Church thought they could pour their brand of religion into the entire continent for hundreds of years, gaining loyal support and broadening their power. Looks like they just found out they exported the bigotry, but couldn’t force loyalty when they change the message.

    This is the danger we keep seeing when people use a religion as a power vehicle, and wrap it in “fear of the other”. Doesn’t matter if it’s Catholicism or something else. We’ll continue to repeat history over and over because clearly it’ll work THIS time and that leader will be able to control it.

  • DonkeyShot@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Well, the catholic church is basically a faschist organization by it’s organigram. Obey to the leader you fucks or go to hell (literally).

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    VATICAN CITY (AP) — In the greatest rebuke yet to Pope Francis, the Catholic bishops of Africa and Madagascar issued a unified statement Thursday refusing to follow his declaration allowing priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples and asserting that such unions are “contrary to the will of God.”

    The statement, signed by Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo on behalf of the symposium of African national bishops conferences, marked the closest thing to a continent-wide dissent from the declaration Francis approved Dec. 18 allowing priests to offer such blessings.

    “Within the church family of God in Africa, this declaration has caused a shockwave, it has sown misconceptions and unrest in the minds of many lay faithful, consecrated persons and even pastors, and has aroused strong reactions,” he wrote.

    A few weeks ago, Burundi’s President Evariste Ndayishimiye said “people of the same sex who marry in this country should be taken to a stadium to be pelted with stones, once discovered.” In a radio broadcast Dec. 29, he asked Burundians living abroad who practice homosexuality “not to return home.”

    Ambongo said the symposium statement was a “consolidated summary” of the positions adopted by individual national bishops conferences, and said it had received the “agreement” of Francis and the doctrine office’s new prefect, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández.

    No such extra documentation or preparation accompanied Fiducia Supplicans, as the text is known, and its rollout was marked by individual bishops and entire national conferences voicing confusion and opposition.


    The original article contains 693 words, the summary contains 244 words. Saved 65%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!