By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
After describing the invasion of pro-abortion western aid groups as a “ferocious onslaught on the family,” prelates attending the African Bishops Synod in Rome pledged to “witness especially to the rights of women in their God-given dignity.”
According to a report by LifeSiteNews.com, African bishops have been meeting in a Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops since October 4.
The bishops are addressing a long list of serious problems facing their nations, including, the epidemics of malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS; the threat of violence from fundamentalist Islam; political, tribal and ethnic violence; the problems of women and children trapped in polygamous “marriages”; the slave trade in children and women for prostitution; the abduction of children and youth for use as child-soldiers; the rise of violent occult practices including murder and assault; and the rapacious “resource extraction” practices of transnational corporations that leave vast environmental destruction in their wake.
However, chief among their concerns is the attack on women by foreign ideologies that undermine the monogamous family and attempt to equate abortion with women’s rights.
Cardinal Peter Turkson, Archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana, said the Synod had identified “the destruction of an authentic idea of marriage and the notion of a sound family” as an area of major concern for the Synod. He said participants in the Synod have “described in various ways a ferocious onslaught on the family and the related fundamental institution of marriage from outside Africa and attributed it to diverse sources.”
The bishops have “vigorously denounced the ideology and international programs which are imposed on African countries under false pretexts or as conditions for development assistance,” he said.
Cardinal Turkson listed the ideological threats against the family, including “gender ideology, a new global sexual ethic, genetic engineering” as well as contraception and sterilization pushed by International Planned Parenthood Federation and “reproductive health education” in general. He said the Synod had also pointed to the danger of emerging “alternative” life styles, same-sex “marriages” and sexual unions.
Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Uganda denounced the “shocking rates of abortion that take away the lives of innocents even before birth.”
“A culture of abortion, a dynamic of lack of respect for the unborn, a promotion of ‘rights’ that even allows for this denial of the right to life, is but another sign of violence against life,” he said.
He went on to call upon the bishops of Africa to “pledge ourselves as Church in Africa to stand up for the ‘consistent ethic’ for the respect for life,” and called for a “vigorous endorsement” of the “conditions necessary for life – family love, food, education, health care, jobs, housing etc.” But among these, he said, must be included the “witness especially to the rights of women in their God-given dignity.”
“I say this because there are around us now many who speak of the rights of women in ways that would violate the rights of others – especially the rights of unborn children. We as Catholic Church must be known as strong defenders of the rights of women.”
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