Africa
Catholic bishops in Africa oppose blessings of same-sex couples
Pope Francis pronouncement has sparked criticism among clergy
The Vatican on Thursday moved to quell opposition to Pope Francis’ approval for Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples in response strong resistance from some bishops’ conferences, mostly in Africa.
The Vatican’s statement clarifying the pope’s controversial declaration last month acknowledged the dissenting bishops’ concerns by assuring them that the move was not “heretical” or “blasphemous” to the Catholic Church’s doctrines on marriage and sexuality.
The statement from the Vatican’s doctrinal office, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, also holds that the blessings for same-sex couples should not be perceived as “a justification of all their actions and they are not an endorsement of the life that they lead.”
The five-page statement that Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, who is an advisor to Francis, signed further notes “if there are laws that condemn the mere act of declaring oneself as homosexual with prison and in some cases with torture and even death, it goes without saying that a blessing would be imprudent.”
The Vatican observed that Catholic bishops from such homophobic environments “do not wish to expose homosexual persons to violence” and urged “pastoral prudence” to navigate punitive local laws and situations in administering simple, short blessings to same-sex partners, but not as church rituals or resemble a wedding.
Despite this clarification on Catholic priests blessing people in same-sex relationships, the dissenting African bishops’ conferences have vowed to stick to the church’s old, Biblical order that recognizes marriage between a man and a woman, and homosexuality as a sin.
The Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops through a statement maintains that they do not bless people for what it asserts are immoral actions in which they engage. The KCCB said it hopes the blessings and prayers offered to them as human beings would provoke them to return to God’s ways.
“The work of the church is to gather the scattered, recover the lost and redirect all sinners back to the fount of salvation and eternal life and that is Jesus Christ our savior,” said Rev. Martin Kiviva, who chairs the KCCB. “No blessing can be understood outside the context of God’s will and the salvation and invitation to Communion with God.”
The Nairobi Archbishop Philip Anyolo concurred with Kivuva and prohibited priests in Kenya’s capital from blessing “irregular relationships, unions or same-sex couples.”
“Any form of blessing of same-sex unions and activities would go against God’s word, the teachings of the church, the African cultural traditions, the laws of our nations and would be scandalous to the faithful,” Anyolo stated.
Catholic Bishops in Tanzania, where homosexuality is prohibited under the law with prison terms just like in Kenya, have also opposed the blessing of same-sex partners.
Bishop Flavian Kassala, vice chair of the Tanzania Episcopal Conference, on Dec. 25 dismissed the existence of same-sex unions which he termed as “dirty” and contravenes God’s covenant on marriage and procreation. He vowed that he would rather bless a “stone” for his faithful to construct a house with than blessing same-sex couples.
Uganda’s Episcopal Conference, which Bishop Anthony Zziwa chairs, on Dec. 25 weighed in Vatican’s declaration by stating that his country criminalizes homosexuality and affirmed that blessing same-sex couples would be breaking the law.
“Culturally, same-sex marriage has no room in Uganda and Africa,” Zziwa said at a press briefing. “The purpose of marriage is to have children. People of the same sex can’t get married and fulfill this purpose as stated in the book of Genesis.”
The East African clerics’ position on Francis’ pronouncement also received Burundian President Évariste Ndayishimiye’s backing. The staunch Catholic on Dec. 30 criticized same-sex unions as “abominable practice” and that gay couples should be publicly stoned.
Other Catholic bishops’ conferences in Africa that have opposed the Vatican’s declaration for priests to bless same-sex couples include those in Rwanda, Zambia, Nigeria, Malawi, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo and Angola.
The Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops noted that same-sex unions and activities are illegal in the country and that the blessing of gay couples cannot be implemented there.
“The conference would like to earnestly invite all those involved in same-sex unions to embark on the path of conversion with greater trust in God’s mercy and love; God whose ‘eyes are drawn to the person of humbled and contrite spirit,’” Archbishop Ignatius Chama, who is the ZCCB’s president, said in a statement that other clerics signed.
Archbishop Lucius Ugorji, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, meanwhile, also held that it is impossible to bless same-sex unions and acts as it goes against God’s law, the church’s teachings, Nigeria’s laws and the cultural sensibilities of citizens.
Egypt
Egyptian authorities refuse to allow gay cruise to dock in country
Scarlet Lady earlier this week blocked from visiting Turkey
Egyptian authorities have refused to allow a gay cruise to dock in the country.
The Scarlet Lady, a Virgin Voyages ship that Atlantis Events chartered, was to have docked in Alexandria, a port city on the Mediterranean Sea. The Washington Blade obtained a letter that Atlantis Events President Rich Campbell sent to passengers on Thursday, hours before the cruise was to have arrived.
“Early this morning, we were informed that Scarlet Lady has been denied entry into Egyptian waters and, as a result, will no longer be able to call in Alexandria today,” he wrote.
“I know how much this visit meant to so many of you,” added Campbell. “We successfully sailed a similar itinerary last year, so we were surprised by this unfortunate decision.”
Campbell noted “both the Atlantis and Virgin Voyages teams worked tirelessly to make this call in Alexandria a possibility.”
“This news came as a surprise to all of us, and we’re just as disappointed as you are,” he said.
The 10-day cruise left Athens on July 5. It is scheduled to end in Trieste, Italy, on July 15.
The ship had been scheduled to dock in Kusadasi, a Turkish resort town on the Aegean Sea, and Istanbul earlier this week. Turkish authorities refused to allow it in the country.
Former Tempe, Ariz., Mayor Neil Giuliano, who is an LGBTQ+ Victory Institute board member, is among those on the cruise.
“Just a few hours before arriving in Alexandria, Egypt — a city founded by and named for one of the ancient world’s best-known homosexuals — government authorities rescinded permission for our ship of 2,000 gay men to enter Egypt,” wrote Steve May, who is also on the ship, on Thursday in a Facebook post.
Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 331 B.C.
“As with Turkey, we have been sent away not because of what we did, but because of who we said we are,” said May. “‘I am what I am’ is too much liberty for some to bear. So it was in the United States as well not long ago, where even I ended up as a convicted homosexual after a military trial in 2001 for saying ‘I am gay.’ This is just a reminder that for all the progress we have made, our freedom is never secure — for any of us, regardless of who or how we love. Back to Europe!”
Discrimination and persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity is commonplace in Egypt. The Egyptian Football Association, along with the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran, objected to playing in the World Cup’s “Pride Match” that took place in Seattle on June 26.
Iran and Egypt on Friday faced off during the World Cup’s “Pride Match” in Seattle.
Iran is among the handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death. Discrimination and persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity is commonplace in Egypt.
Friday’s match coincided with Pride weekend in Seattle. The Egyptian Football Association and the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran both objected to playing in the “Pride Match.”
Egypt and Iran tied 1-1.
FIFA, for its part, allowed Pride flags inside the stadium during the match.
“The FIFA World Cup 2026 is an inclusive event that welcomes people from all backgrounds,” a FIFA spokesperson told the Washington Blade in a statement. “Fans of all sexual orientations and gender identities are welcome at matches and events. General statements of human rights, including rainbow flags and other flags representing sexual orientation and gender identity, are permitted under the FIFA World Cup 2026™ Stadium Code of Conduct and may be displayed inside stadiums provided they are used in a manner consistent with the code.”
Human Rights Watch welcomed FIFA’s decision to allow Pride flags inside the stadium. Outright International, a global LGBTQ and intersex rights group, distributed Pride flags in Seattle on Friday, which was Pride Match Day.
“Visibility matters,” said Outright International Executive Director Maria Sjödin. “Pride is now being celebrated in more than 100 countries, including this weekend in Seattle. For many LGBTIQ people, seeing a Pride flag in public is a reminder that they are not alone, and that their rights and dignity are recognized.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino earlier this year told Die Weltwoche, a Swiss magazine, that “there will be no ‘Pride Match’ at the (FIFA) World Cup.”
“There will be a FIFA World Cup match in Seattle, and on the same day, events organized by external organizations will be taking place in the city,” said Infantino. “But that has nothing to do with the match itself.”
Peter Tatchell, a long-time LGBTQ activist from the U.K. who is director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, was among those who traveled to Seattle for Friday’s match. Tatchell accused FIFA of not vetting World Cup teams — specifically Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Senegal, Qatar, Tunisia, Morocco, Iraq, Uzbekistan, and Algeria — over whether they would allow gay players.
“FIFA is protecting LGBT+ visibility in the stands while failing to protect LGBT+ players on the pitch,” said Tatchell.
South Africa
White House to end PEPFAR funding for South Africa
State Department says country failed to respond to 2025 executive order demands
The Trump-Vance administration will end PEPFAR funding for South Africa.
A State Department spokesperson on Wednesday told the Washington Blade the State Department “will begin a phased drawdown of PEPFAR programming in South Africa, with most programs ending by Sept. 30, 2026, and critical personnel support continuing through March 31, 2027.”
Semafor last week reported South Africa has received more than $8 billion in PEPFAR funding since President George W. Bush created the program to combat the global HIV/AIDS pandemic in 2003.
President Donald Trump on Feb. 7, 2025, issued an executive order that addressed what it described as “egregious actions of the Republic of South Africa.” The State Department spokesperson with whom the Blade spoke noted the directive included five specific requests:
• South African government provides exemptions or alternatives for U.S. companies to Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment laws and other race-based mandates.
• Senior government officials (e.g., president, deputy president, or minister of justice) unequivocally condemn all race-based incitement to violence, including the “Kill the Boer” song, more frequently.
• The South African government prevents the implementation of measures that would allow expropriation without fair compensation and due process under the Expropriation Act of 2024.
• South African Police Service designates rural crime a “priority crime” and increases resources dedicated to high-crime rural areas.
• South Africa refrains from actions that would significantly interfere with the implementation of the refugee program, within the confines of South African law.
“The United States communicated to the government of the Republic of South Africa multiple times at many levels that PEPFAR funding was likely to be terminated in the absence of progress on the five asks,” said the State Department spokesperson.
The State Department spokesperson further noted South Africa is “one of the largest economies in sub-Saharan Africa” and “has funded the vast majority of its own HIV response, estimated at 76 percent of the total, including procurement of all treatment commodities.”
“South Africa will continue to be supported by the Global Fund, including for the introduction and scale up of lenacapavir through Global Fund Resources,” the spokesperson told the Blade.
Lenacapavir is groundbreaking HIV prevention drug that users inject twice a year. Eswatini, which borders South Africa, is among the African countries that have received doses of the drug through PEPFAR.
HIV/AIDS service organizations in the U.S. and around the world have sharply criticized the Trump-Vance administration over plans to not fully fund PEPFAR and to cut domestic HIV/AIDS funding.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio shortly after the current White House took office issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during a freeze on nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending. HIV/AIDS service providers around the world with whom the Blade has spoken say PEPFAR cuts and the loss of funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which officially closed on July 1, 2025, has severely impacted their work.
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