Will Vatican lure Africa's Anglican anti-gay bishops to Catholic church?

Why African bishops oppose gay clerics

Most church leaders repudiate hatred or cruelty toward homosexuals. But while they say that gay Africans deserve God's love as much as any one else, they draw the line at allowing gay people to become priests.

"This is a problem that we have been fighting, even within the Anglican church itself," says Bishop Julius Kalu, a conservative Anglican church leader in Mombasa, Kenya. "We say that homosexuality is unacceptable, and the ordination of homosexuals as priests is against Biblical beliefs. But it is a personal problem, a vice. As a church we have a duty to reach out to those whose lifestyle is homosexual, but at the same time, we feel it is a vice that the church needs to address."

Despite frustration over the Anglican church's move to allow gay priests, Bishop Kalu agrees with Ntagali that few Anglicans will now choose to become Catholic over the issue.

Autonomy to deviate from Canterbury

Bishops Ntagali and Kalu say that local church leaders need to reserve the right to interpret the Bible in a local context, because social practices that might be acceptable in a European or American parish may not be acceptable in an African parish.

"The Bible says that a husband must have one wife," says Bishop Ntagali. "It does not say that a husband must have one man." Homosexuals, he adds, "are all capable, all eligible of God's saving grace, but we only disagree that they cannot be church leaders."

The fact that they are allowed to disagree with Canterbury, he says, is why there will be little demand to convert to Catholicism.

Not all African clerics are against gays

Defining just what is "African" about local values in Africa – a continent with 53 countries, hundreds of languages, and thousands of tribes and clans – is not always easy.

The Rev. Cynthia Botha, an Anglican priest at the St. Francis Anglican Church in the Parkview suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, says that her parish has always been "very liberal and open" with a church-based outreach group for Anglicans who are gay and lesbian.

"We do have members who are conservative, but I think we need to have a dialog, to listen, we need to find ways to work together," says Rev. Botha. "The gospel tells us that Jesus was open, he was talking to people no matter who they were. We've got to be as open as he was."

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The divide within the Anglican church

Read how one Anglican Archbishop from Nigeria has found common ground in Virginia over the issue of gay priests.

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