African bishops’ denouncing of the West’s anti-family agenda as a ‘new slavery’…reservations

The United Nations Headquarters in New York City

By Jonathan Ekene Ifeanyi

48 African bishops and ten cardinals have released a letter demanding that western powers stop pushing their “filthy campaigns that promote a civilization of death on our continent” under the guise of humanitarian aid.

The declaration was written in June but has just been released for publication in anticipation of both the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit 2015 and October’s Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Family. It is addressed to The Secretary General of the United Nations, the heads of states and governments with whom African countries have agreements, the "officials of pan-African institutions," the "officials of International Organizations," to "partners in global governance and development donors," and "to the sons and daughters of our beloved African continent."

           

The "Common Declaration of the Bishops of Africa and Madagascar" warns of a “terrifying resurgence of a colonialist spirit” disguised as liberty. The pastors highlight the attempt to import contraception, abortion and new theories about gender to Africa by groups working as humanitarian organizations.

The bishops specifically name the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (better known as the Maputo Protocol), adopted by the African Union in 2003 and implemented in 2005, the Addis-Ababa Declaration on Population and Development in Africa beyond 2014, and the about-to-be-adopted Sustainable Development Goals — that they say only destroy the African family unit through their promotion of contraception, abortion, and sex-ed bereft of morals. The Maputo Protocol calls for, among other things, women's right to contraception and abortion. "What right do western NGOs [non-governmental organizations], who only represent their own ideological interests, claim to legally bind African states to their world vision?" the bishops ask. "Why such a programming and will to pollute and pervert, extending through the African continent?" 

“These documents, even though they appear, in their external presentation and formulation, to procure elements of well-being and prosperity for all, are in reality real programmes of destruction of the poor and humanity’s values, and not of a development that would respect the dignity and sacredness of the human person and the well-being of the family, when they integrate, often in hidden ways, the agenda of the western sexual revolution.”

"This is a new type of slavery!" the declaration goes on. "We want the dignity of our people to be respected. No! Africa is not a great potential market for the pharmaceutical industry of contraceptives and condoms. Yes! Africa is populated by men, women and children endowed with a transcendent dignity and eternal vocation."

Signed by the 45 African bishops and representing 40 countries, ten cardinals and three African bishops inside the Vatican, the statement is strong in its language of warning to Western organizations who do work for and in Africa. “It can no longer be denied that under the euphemism of ‘sexual and reproductive health and rights,’ such programmes are plainly imposed as a condition for development assistance,” it reads.

The declaration also reads in part:

“We are all wounded in the depths of our hearts as Pastors by the attacks against life, the family, all that is sacred, the healthy human development of our youth who are the future of Africa, the full blossoming of women and respect for our elderly – realities of which our African cultures have such a keen sense. Selfish and perverse interests are imposing themselves on our continent with a speed that keeps on accelerating, with unabated aggressiveness, in an ever more organized and powerfully financed manner, introducing individualism and hedonism, both of which are so foreign to what we are and want to be, into our societies.

“We therefore implore you to end the filthy campaigns that promote a civilization of death on our continent. This has to do with a terrifying resurgence of a colonialist spirit under the guise of the appealing names of liberty, equality, rights, autonomy, democratization and development. Condoms, contraceptives, sex education programmes fabricated elsewhere, purely technical and deprived of moral content, so-called “safe abortions”, have become commodities that are more accessible to Africans than the way of delivering integral development, of which we have such a vital need.

“It can no longer be denied that under the euphemism of “sexual and reproductive health and rights”, such programmes are plainly imposed as a condition for development assistance. Such is also the case of the so-called “gender perspective,” according to which motherhood, the filial and nuptial identity of the human being and the family based on marriage between a man and a woman would be “discriminatory stereotypes.” No! Women and men in Africa are not mere individuals, autonomous from their parents, spouses, children: women, men, children, we are all persons, created out of love and for love, and we all belong to a family and a community, vitally, ontologically and emotionally united!

“Africans are becoming aware of the ongoing manipulation. Africa is not developing in harmony with her soul. The agents of the civilization of death are using ambivalent language, seducing decision-makers and entire populations, in order to make them partners in the pursuit of their ideological objectives. They are co-opting a great many in partnerships of which they are, in reality, the masters. They take advantage of poverty, weakness and ignorance in order to subject peoples and governments to their blackmail.

“The State and international organizations are bound to respect that which all men and women can recognize as real, true, and good in their conscience and in their heart. They are bound to honour the transcendence, centrality and superiority in value of the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman, of maternity and life, and of religion. They are bound to serve the people as they are and want to be, rooted in a rich diversity of cultures. May development policies radically change direction in this sense!”

The prelates beg all Africans, including heads of states and governments, to make a strong stand for the good of their continent.

“Wake up your conscience! Remember that every human person will have to render an account of their actions before God.”

“Our wishes, our desire, our prayer, our pastoral labours are that in this era of globalization, Africa will today offer humanity its unique and irreplaceable contribution, according to the gifts she has received from God and are properly hers,” the letter concludes.

While we commend these bishops at least for their courage to say NO to the evil agenda of the United Nations, we must not, however, be deceived by this so-called “condemnation” which has nothing to do with what the church is really saying on the matter. These bishops, it must be noted, are not condemning the vices from the perspective of what the Catholic Church teaches but rather from the perspective of what their African culture “abhors”! Carefully notice their primary concern, which is not in any way to condemn all the vices mentioned as simply anti-Catholic, or anti-Christian, but only as anti-African!—you know, a “terrifying resurgence of a colonialist spirit”! The majority of African intellectuals—the clergy among them—include early Christian missionaries among these “colonialists”! So we ask: What is actually wrong with “colonialism”? Without colonialism, would Africa have seen the light in the first place? At a point the bishops even appeal to “pope” Francis! “We Africans must categorically say ‘No’ to this plan, which is killing our continent. Pope Francis exhorts us to ‘be on guard against colonization by new ideologies. There are forms of ideological colonization which are out to destroy the family,” the letter states.

Of course, they are speaking from the perspective of the evil Vatican II Council, for which Catholic Christianity is simply nothing else than a cultural phenomenon of the past—not a vital repository of public values—and for which every so-called human “value”, or human culture, pagan or not, is simply good! The Council states: "Common human values not infrequently call for cooperation between Christians pursuing apostolic aims and those who do not profess Christ's name but acknowledge these values" (AA §27). Thus: "By this dynamic and prudent cooperation..., which is of special importance in temporal activities, the laity bear witness to Christ, the Saviour of the world, as well as to the unity of the human family"(ibid).

So, authentic Catholic Christian values are now viewed as a function of “human values”, which are therefore superior to them: in fact, these are the human values which permit the unity of the "human family" so dear to the Council! It is from this angle that the bishops are speaking! They are merely defending their “African values”—and never the authentic Catholic Christian values!

The very first “magisterial” document to make mention of the religious traditions of African peoples, and in a positive light for that matter, is Africae Terrarum of Paul VI, issued on October 29, 1967. In this document Paul VI made the following unprecedented statement:

“Many customs and rites, once considered to be strange are seen today, in the light of ethnological science, as integral parts of various social systems, worthy of study and commanding respect. In this regard, we think it profitable to dwell on some general ideas which typify ancient African religious cultures because we think their moral and religious values deserving of attentive consideration.”  And he is here referring to pure African paganism!

Again, Vatican II:

“Religious institutes, working to plant the Church, thoroughly imbued with mystic treasures with which the Church's religious tradition is adorned, should strive to give expression to them and to hand them on, according to the nature and the genius of each nation. Let them reflect attentively on how Christian religious life might be able to assimilate the ascetic and contemplative traditions, whose seeds were sometimes planted by God in ancient cultures already prior to the preaching of the Gospel.” (AG §18).

One would like to know what these "ascetic and contemplative traditions" "whose seeds were sometimes planted by God in ancient [pagan] cultures" are. This is the same error contained in Lumen Gentium §8, which speaks of "elements of salvation" outside the Church, not only those within the "separated brethren" but also in the pagan religions.

And why speaking as African bishops rather than simply as Roman Catholic bishops? Or at least as African Roman Catholic bishops? Again, the anti-Catholic Vatican II has the answer:  “But in order that the missionary activity of the bishops may be exercised more effectively for the good of the whole Church, it would be expedient for the episcopal conferences to take charge of those affairs which concern the orderly cooperation of their own region. In their own conference, the bishops should deliberate about..." (AG §38)

Following this passage is a rather long list of matters reserved to the bishops' competence, carried out without any control on the part of the Holy See! This is the perspective from which the present “condemnation” is coming! Far from really trying to uphold the Church’s teachings, the bishops are merely displaying their cultural pride; they are demonstrating to the world how “rich” their culture is—you know, a very rich culture which, unlike that of the west, forbids abortion, homosexuality, and other similar vices; they are merely reacting to men like German impostor and apostate, Cardinal Walter Kasper, who said last year that African bishops “should not tell us too much what we have to do” and admitted that they are not being listened to at the Vatican’s evil Synod as it takes up matters including homosexuality, divorce, remarriage, and family life. The false impression they give in the process is that these vices—homosexuality, divorce, remarriage, etc.—are  now parts of Western culture that shouldn’t be imported into Africa. This is not true. On the contrary, Western culture, which is originally Christian, is simply anti-homosexuality, anti-divorce,  and other similar vices—the problem in the West being that while Christians have for long been deeply asleep, a few evil men inspired by the devil have taken over their governments and other institutions and hence imposed this culture of death on the rest of the people. The truth is that in Africa there are also so many who indulge in the vices of homosexuality, divorce and the rest—just like the Westerners themselves—while at the same time there are also many Westerners (still retaining their Christian consciences) who simply abhor and anathematize the vices. What “values” do these bishops really think that Africa has that weren’t inherited from the West—that is to say, from Catholic religion? On the contrary, African culture, divorced from the penetrating light of the gospel, of Catholic religion, is simply evil—an evil which the early European Catholic missionaries—the same Westerners—dispelled from the African land long ago but which—unfortunately—the New Church is now importing back into the continent once again.

Saint Augustine, the great philosopher and theologian, teaches in his spiritual insight that Catholic religion is simply the whole earth—a religion which traces its root back to Abel. In the same vein, late Jesuit priest, Father John Hardon, writes (in his book The Catholic Catechism, London: Geoffrey Chapman, n. d, p. 218): “…catholicity also means unity amidst diversity, on several counts. The Church has never been a respecter of persons. Poor and rich alike, the learned and unlearned are equally welcome. All cultures and every stratum of society belongs to the Church, and where this is not verified, the fault lies with those who have failed to combine “both the universality of the Church and the diversity of the world’s nations” in their preaching of the gospel”.

See also: http://traditionalcatholicisminnigeria.blogspot.com.ng/2015/08/the-vatican-devil-and-united-nations.html