HOMOPHOBES within the Catholic Church—expecially those in Uganda who enthusiastically support the country’s draconian Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023—are spitting tacks after it was revealed last week that Francis had met with activist Clare Byarugaba, above, and urged her to continue fighting discrimination.
Byarugaba, above, representing the Ugandan civil liberties group Chapter Four, which includes sexual orientation and gender in its mission, referenced the Uganda’s lastest law on X:
While homosexuality had already been criminalised in Uganda the new law intensified punishments, such as imposing the death penalty for so-called “aggravated homosexuality,” life imprisonment for any same-gender sexual activity, and possible forced conversion therapy.
It also targeted people simply for “promoting” homosexuality, possibly impacting not only LGBTQ+ rights work, but HIV/AIDS advocacy.
Image via YouTube
Another activist, Dr. Frank Mugisha, above, a Ugandan LGBTQ+ advocate with a Catholic background, added his own comments on X saying the Pope’s audience with Byarugaba sends “a strong message to anti-rights and anti-gay Ugandans.”
Among those horrified by the meeting was pastor Martin Ssempa, above, who had exhorted Ugandan politicians to introduce the death penalty for homosexuality.
He said in response to Mugisha’s post:
It’s called the Judas Kiss. We warned this way back. Blasphemy and Apostasy.
A number of Ugandan Catholic leaders eventually applauded the Anti-Homosexuality Act after years of back and forth over whether the bishops should support such legislation.
The chancellor of the Archdiocese of Kampala, Fr. Pius Male, thanked Ugandan President Yoweri Musavani for signing the legislation, noting that it allegedly aligned Ugandan law with the Bible. Catholic politicians, including the Speaker of Parliament, Anita Annet Among and key legislator Charles Onen, were instrumental to the law’s passage.
Some 40 percent of Uganda’s population is Catholic, the second largest Catholic population in Africa.
But credit where credit is due. Many other Catholics inside the country and abroad have challenged the law since it was first proposed a decade ago. One of those Catholics, Juan Carlos Cruz, a gay friend of the Pope and a survivor of clergy sexual abuse is shown in an accompanying video introducing Byarugaba to Francis. After the Anti-Homosexuality Act was passed last year, Cruz contrasted how Ugandan prelates responded with Pope Francis’ repeated objections to anti-LGBTQ+ criminalization laws. He wrote, in part:
Yet, despite the Pope’s words, Uganda’s Catholic bishops remain noticeably silent on this issue. Also silent is the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization that oversees the dioceses and bishops in Uganda. Their silence creates a void, one filled by fear, discrimination and dehumanization. As moral and spiritual leaders, their words — or lack thereof — can shape public opinion, either legitimizing these inhumane laws or challenging them.
In 2023, around an apostolic visit to South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo, Pope Francis twice explicitly stated that “being homosexual is not a crime” and “I would tell whoever wants to criminaliSe homosexuality that they are wrong.” Francis explained, the real sin in the debate over homosexuality is when someone faces discrimination because of their identity.
In a statement released by Chapter Four Uganda, Byarugaba explained that during their audience the Pope not only condemned discrimination but encouraged LGBTQ+ advocacy to oppose human rights violations.
Robert Shine, Managing Editor of News Ways Ministry, said:
Until now, Pope Francis declined to specifically condemn the Ugandan law, or any nation’s specific actions when it comes to criminalisation. But with a Pope for whom meetings and gestures often are more telling than his words, this latest audience is a clear sign that he rejects the Anti-Homosexuality Act and, perhaps more so, the way Catholics have been complicit in its passage. Catholic LGBTQ+ advocates worldwide should follow his encouragement to keep working against discrimination and for the protection of LGBTQ+ people’s rights.
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What an interesting article. I suppose the Ugandan regime’s anti-gay laws are so draconian, that even the Vatican must blanche at their savagery. They must also have one eye on Catholic countries elsewhere which have enacted progressive legislation to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ people in recent years, knowing that the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition doesn’t sit well with increasing numbers of their flock. What this also shows, is that those who like to lay the blame for African countries’ anti-gay stance on colonial legacies are being disingenuous. Such countries, like Uganda, have had a whole lifetime to scrap the anti-gay laws of the colonial era, but have chosen not to, or, as in the case of Uganda, augmented those laws to make them even worse. British Humanists must side with brave reformers like Clare Byarugaba and Dr Mugisha, as while they may subscribe to the elaborate nonsense of religion, they are nonetheless best-placed to mitigate the dire situation for gay people inside those countries.
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