Posted by By Kazeem Ugbodaga on
His eminence, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie, is very angry with priests engaging in sexual perversion in the Catholic Church, and has vowed to expel any priest henceforth caught in the immoral act.
His eminence, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie, is very angry with priests engaging in sexual perversion in the Catholic Church, and has vowed to expel any priest henceforth caught in the immoral act.
Okogie, at a news conference to mark his 72nd birthday in Lagos yesterday, lamented that the newspapers were replete with stories of priests engaging in sex scandals. 'There have been reports of priests engaged in sexual abuse. The law of celibacy is there to correct these happenings. The law is not force, the priests are well aware of it before their ordination. 'Priests involved in such act lack self-control, they lack discipline. But any of our priests involved in such acts would be shown the way out," he warned.
'We admonish our priests to keep to the vows of poverty, chastity and loyalty to the church. People should refrain from tempting priests; after all they are human beings. But the onus is on the priests to prove that they are thoroughly disciplined, chaste and virtuous," he stated.
Okogie also called on the Federal Government to ban the use of condom nationwide as well as condom advertisements in the media.
He said the use of condoms, abortion pills and contraceptives were against the teaching of the Bible as many innocent children were being killed through abortion while the use of condoms promotes promiscuity.
'We, therefore, called on government to help check this immoral advertisement of condoms and ban the use of condoms in our country.
'We equally call on the mass media to protect and safeguard our society from immoral and sexual permissiveness which the sale and advertisement of condom connotes. It is unchaste and uncharitable, it is repulsive and unclean," he stated.
The cleric said the issue of abortion, contraceptives and condoms must not be treated with kid gloves, adding that the government and citizens seem to be toying with this all important subject.
On contraceptives and condoms, Okogie said: 'We insist that on no account must human life be trivialized. It must be treated sacredly for only God can make and control life.
'We, therefore, call on our government and citizens alike to take life seriously, life must not be toyed with or taken at all. Extra care must be taken to protect and preserve it."
Okogie called on the Knights of St. Mulumba to publish the church's viewpoint on these issues in The Catholic Herald and any other newspaper.
The Director of Social Communications of the Archdiocese, Very Rev. Monsignor Gabriel Osu was told to also make the views known in both electronic and print media.
'Do you know that many Catholics today still indulge in abortions because they do not know or care to know the church's stand on the issue? We need to enlighten them," he said.
He said abstinence/fidelity was the only realistic solution to prevent pregnancies, abortion, venereal diseases and HIV/AIDS.