African Bishop: Be Careful With These New Teachings Coming into the Church
“Unanimously, we [African Bishops] want to emphasize the family”
by Matthew Pearson • October 11, 2015
ROME, October 11, 2015 (ChurchMilitant.com) – In August, African cardinal Robert Sarah emphasized strongly his unwielding confidence in the African Church to save the family.
I have absolute confidence in the faith of the African people, and I am sure Africa will save the family. Africa saved the Holy Family (during the Flight to Egypt) and in these modern times Africa will also save the human family.
Two months later in Rome, during the first week of discussions at the Synod on the Family, Liberian bishop Anthony Borwah is echoing those same sentiments in response to rhetoric about homosexuality and same-sex “marriage” being accepted by the Church.
The 49-year-old bishop from Gbarnga stressed that the African bishops want to “emphasize the family, papa, mama, children.”
“For us, in Africa, we believe in the traditional teachings of the Church.”
His Excellency also went on to clearly state the Church’s teaching on Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried. “If the person is not having an affair … the person is coming for regular confession … then I think that person can come up for Communion.”
Bishop Borwah continued, “But if you are divorced and maybe you’re having affairs with somebody else … you cannot come for Communion. We want to be very careful about these new teachings coming into the Church.”
The Catholic Church has always taught that those in a public state of grave sin, such as adultery, are not permitted to receive Holy Communion, as it would constitute a sacrilege with the Holy Eucharist, as explained by St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians: “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord” (1 Cor 11:29).
Source: http://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/african-bishop-we-must-be-careful-with-these-new-teachings-coming-into-the
