{"id":28787,"date":"2020-11-13T12:47:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T11:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/?p=28787"},"modified":"2020-11-13T12:47:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T11:47:00","slug":"the-pope-defends-gay-unions-and-makes-the-church-falter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/en\/the-pope-defends-gay-unions-and-makes-the-church-falter\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;The Pope Defends Gay Unions and Makes the Church Falter&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pope Francis\u2019 words in favor of same-sex civil unions could <strong>undermine his credibility<\/strong> in the eyes of the Catholics of the African continent, according to what Chadian anthropologist Hoinathy Remadji\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.chretiens.info\/monde\/afrique\/lhomosexualite-est-percue-comme-contre-nature-en-afrique-et-leglise-est-restee-comme-un-rempart-2\/2020\/10\/28\/23\/12\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wrote<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0the French Christian website Journal Chr\u00e9tien. In his opinion, the views expressed by the pope in &#8220;Francesco,&#8221; a documentary film by director Evgeny Afineevsky, would seriously risk demolishing his authority and even alienating many believers.<\/p>\n<h3>Lost faithful<\/h3>\n<p>\u201c<em>The Pope\u2019s speech didn\u2019t leave indifferent on the African continent<\/em> &#8211; said the anthropologist &#8211; <em>The very few people I had the opportunity to chat with are all upset. <strong>People are lost<\/strong>. If you want the truth, the faithful African Catholics are lost<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Remadji, the unease of the African faithful is concrete and palpable and arises precisely from the words of the pope, which have cracked many beliefs of Catholics. It could not be otherwise, given that, as the scholar points out, the Catholic Church has for years been a bulwark of <strong>defense against homosexuality<\/strong>, a practice that, as Remadji points out, many Africans still consider unnatural. So the pontiff\u2019s opening to same-sex civil unions would be a novelty that undermines the very foundations of the Church and, consequently, also the convictions of its faithful.<\/p>\n<h3><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-23334\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/angelo-spada-chiesa-etiopia.jpg\" alt=\"angelo spada chiesa etiopia\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/angelo-spada-chiesa-etiopia.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/angelo-spada-chiesa-etiopia-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/angelo-spada-chiesa-etiopia-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/angelo-spada-chiesa-etiopia-370x247.jpg 370w, https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/angelo-spada-chiesa-etiopia-270x180.jpg 270w, https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/angelo-spada-chiesa-etiopia-570x380.jpg 570w, https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/angelo-spada-chiesa-etiopia-770x513.jpg 770w, https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/angelo-spada-chiesa-etiopia-870x580.jpg 870w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/>Doubts about the pope<\/h3>\n<p>\u201c<em>I don\u2019t know where this position of the pope comes from<\/em>,\u201d wrote Remadji, unable to hide his own bewilderment: the Church, precisely through the words of its highest representative, is preparing to <strong>give in to pressure from the West<\/strong>, pushing for recognizing LGBT rights in Africa? The anthropologist says he doesn\u2019t know, but the tones of his examination show how unwilling he is to accept a possible change that is still very smoky.<\/p>\n<p>The scholar demands <strong>prompt clarifications<\/strong>. According to him, the pontiff can and must give explanations to those who for so long placed hope and trust in the Church: the faithful and Remadji himself, argues the anthropologist, need answers to have at least a little confidence again in the Church.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>Nicole Zaramella<\/strong><br \/>\ntranslation by <strong>Pier Cesare Notaro<\/strong><br \/>\n\u00a92020 Il Grande Colibr\u00ec<br \/>\nimages: elaborations from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pxhere.com\/en\/photo\/1577173\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">gasolina61<\/a> (CC0) \/ from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/adavey\/2380579829\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A.Davey<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CC BY 2.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read also:<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/en\/lgbt-in-africa-gabon-has-just-decriminalized-homosexuality\/\">LGBT in Africa: Gabon Has Just Decriminalized Homosexuality<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/en\/same-sex-marriage-in-switzerland-christian-churches-say-yes\/\">Same-Sex Marriage in Switzerland: Christian Churches Say Yes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pope Francis\u2019 words in favor of same-sex civil unions could undermine his credibility in the eyes of the Catholics of the African continent, according to what Chadian anthropologist Hoinathy Remadji\u00a0wrote\u00a0for\u00a0the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":28555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[415,564,565,557],"tags":[6128,4239,6131,6132,3470,6129,6130],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28787"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28787"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28789,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28787\/revisions\/28789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}