No room for gays in Catholic Church, says Bishop

The Catholic Bishop of Lokoja, Dada Olorunmolu, on Tuesday reiterated Catholic church’s position against gay marriage, saying it was unequivocal and the church would not compromise on it.

The Bishop made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lokoja.
He said that approving gay union would amount to standing the Bible on its head.

According to him, the issue is against the teachings of the church and the Bible; it will amount to bending its teachings, its injunctions, just to accommodate what is unnatural.

Olorunmola support Pope Francis in not condemning gay people but leaving it to God to handle in his own terms for judgement.

“When you talk about gay union, it is man-to-man or woman-to-woman relationship.

‘’For us, the Bible teaches officially that it is the relationship between a man and woman that is marriage and not the other way round,” he said, adding that the Bible condemns homosexuality.

‘’What I am saying with emphasis is that if the Bible says something, there is no way you will trample on it by saying what is opposite and still be correct unless we are no more believing in the Bible,” he added.

The bishop prayed for those who indulged in the act, asking God to give them the grace to understand what was right.

“If you now want to compel the church to recognise you as homosexual and for the blessing of the union, the church is saying that it is against the bible because the bible says marriage is a union between man and woman.

“This is the difference; we are not saying gays are automatically condemned to hell but what we are saying is that it is not in accordance with the bible and therefore we cannot make it a sacrament.

‘’If we do that, it will nullify the official teaching of the bible and the church on marriage,” he said.

He said stressed that gay union could not be referred to as marriage but an ‘’unholy union’’, adding that where it was permitted, there would be chaos as family life would no longer be meaningful.