Catholic Bishops In Various Countries At Odds Over Anti-Gay Laws

Religion News Service reported yesterday on "unusually stark and public fissures" among Catholic bishops in various countries over whether to support or oppose harsh anti-gay laws being enacted or revived in some countries of Africa, Asia and elsewhere. For example, after Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan recently signed new anti-gay legislation, the Nigerian Catholic hierarchy  praised the president's "courageous and wise decision."  However, a few days later an editorial in a newspaper run jointly by the bishops of South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland, took a very different view, calling on the Catholic Church in Africa "to stand with the powerless" and "sound the alarm at the advance throughout Africa of draconian legislation aimed at criminalizing homosexuals." Similar disagreements can be seen among bishops in Europe and Asia.