By Cathy Maulidi:
The Catholic Church has announced plans to hold demonstrations against same sex marriages on Thursday next week.
In a Statement signed by the secretary general for episcopal conference of Malawi, Father Alfred Chaima, the demonstrations are for the faithfuls to show that they believe in a marriage that is between a man and a woman.
“The Catholic Church teaches that ‘authority, stability, and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society’… and by family, the Catholic Church understands it to be “a community of persons: husband and wife, of parents and children, of relatives.
“The Catholic Church also teaches that sexuality is a gift, but sexual acts are only permissible between (man and woman) married partners, and that each sexual act must be expressing both love and openness to procreation,” reads the statement in part.
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The statement says this this belief has forced the church to make its stance known and clear.
The bishops invited leaders of other mother bodies and faith groups and all people of goodwill to join the peaceful march on Thursday, July 13.
“We also call upon Young Christian Workers (YCW), members of the Catholic Men Organisation (CMO), and members of the Catholic Women Organisation (CWO) to be fully aware that in the face of the well-funded widespread confusion about what love means, along with the rise of ways of thinking which trivialize the human body and sexual differentiation, the Church reaffirms the original goodness of the human being, created as man and woman, and called to a love which is faithful, reciprocal and fruitful,” the statement further reads.
The statement has asked pastoral secretaries, parish priests and Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace officers to play an active role – in close collaboration with the ECM Secretariat and with leaders of other faith groups in preparing for the march.
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The action follows a constitutional referral matter of 2021 involving a Dutch national Jan Willem Akstar and a transgender woman Jana Gonani who are challenging the banning of same sex marriages in the country.
Akstar and Gonani moved the Constitutional Court to declare the two pieces of legislation banning same sex marriages unconstitutional, arguing that they violate their right to privacy and dignity, among others.
In 2012, the Ministry of Justice issued a moratorium on arrests and prosecutions for consensual homosexual acts.
However, a 2016 High Court order suspended the moratorium pending judicial review by the Constitutional Court.
ECM, alongside the Malawi Council of Churches, Muslim Association of Malawi and the Evangelical Association of Malawi moved the High Court of Malawi to join the case where pro-same-sex relationship advocates want an interpretation of Section 153 (c) of the Penal Code which criminalized same sex marriages.
