Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria has expressed support for Nairobi Archbishop Philip Anyolo’s decision to refrain from blessing same-sex couples, aligning with Pope Francis’s directive.
Kuria, emphasizing the collective stance of the Roman Catholic Church in Kenya, conveyed that same-sex marriages are unwelcome within the country’s religious framework.
According to Kuria, “The decision by Archbishop Anyolo on the blessing of same-sex couples is the position of all of us from the Roman Catholic Church in Kenya.
We will never accept same-sex couples in the Kenyan Church, with utmost and profound respect and reverence to the Pope.”
The Archbishop’s stance, shared on social media, counters Pope Francis’s directive, citing inconsistency with the teachings of the Catholic Church and African values.
Anyolo argued that the Fiducia Supplicans declaration emphasizes marriage as an exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, rejecting unions of persons of the same sex.
In his statement, Anyolo quoted the declaration, stating, “This Declaration confirms and reiterates the perennial teaching of the Church that marriage is to be affirmed as an ‘exclusive, stable and indissoluble union of a man and a woman, naturally open to the generation of children’ (n. 4), and that the ‘Church does not have the power to impart blessings on unions of persons of the same sex’ (n. 5).”
Drawing from biblical teachings, Anyolo emphasized the church’s strong condemnation of such unions and highlighted their discordance with African cultural traditions, which oppose the transmission of life.
“The word of God also strongly condemns such unions (Rom 1:24-27; 1 Cor 6:10; 1 Tim 1:10).
The African cultural traditions equally detest it as it is dearly against the transmission of life,” he remarked.
“It is for this reason that the Church excludes those living in irregular situations of marriage from full sacramental participation in the life of the Church.”
