Jessica Onyegbula
Abuja – The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) on Wednesday criticised the outcome of the recently concluded International Conference on population and Development (ICPD +25) in Nairobi.
The bishops at a press conference in Abuja, with the theme; ”Towards Integral Human Development,” stressed that the church stood for life, the natural family of man and a woman, and the natural way of regulating births.
The Most Rev. Hyacinth Egbebo, Episcopal Chairman, CBCN, Family and Human Life Committee Bishop of Bomadi, said sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights” is a coded language (euphemism) for contraception, abortion, and sterilisation’’.
Egbebo said that The Holy See objected to the summit where contraception, abortion, transgenderism and contraception were projected as a global rights of women.
He said all that was projected at the conference was against the sanctity and dignity of human life from conception to natural death.
”They are against our faith as Catholics.
“The killing of an unborn child and wilful disruption of women’s natural rhythm of fertility cannot be accepted as normal.
”We continue to affirm that human life is sacred and belongs to God; it begins at conception a fact which is universally-known by the scientific community.
”Therefore, any action taken after fertilisation has occurred summarily destroys a living human life a person with his or her own rights to life.
”Lesbianism, Tayism, bisexuality, Transgenderism, Gueer and Gender Indeterminism are disordered sexual orientations, and are not accepted by the Catholic Church as a normal way of life.
”The philosophy and practices are against our concept of being made in the image and likeness of God,” he added.
The Archbishop of Kaduna, the Most Rev. Matthew Ndagosa, said that human sexuality was not a disease to be controlled.
”It is therefore, curious that instead of helping to address the genuine health needs of Africa and other developing countries, women’s bodies are medicalised, mechanised with different gadgets, and accused of being the cause of the world’s “population” problems.
”Everyone knows that ”overpopulation” is a myth: the world is not overpopulated.
”Concerned citizens can clearly see the political and economic drivers of the persistent focus on Africa and other developing nations by the Western vested interests.
Ndagosa said the church did not attend “this infamous convention on account of its dangerous agenda which included:
”Attacks against all that the Church holds dear such as: natural family and its values, respect for the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, respect for the dignity of every human being, love for children, two genders of male and female. ’’
Another curious feature of the conference was that all those who were perceived to be in opposition to their set unholy agenda, especially, pro-family and pro-life groups, were effectively and systematically excluded from participating,” he said.
The conference held from Nov. 12 to Nov. 15, and attended by 160 countries stressed the need for intensified efforts for the full, effective and accelerated implementation of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.
The agenda includes universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights for zero unmet need for family planning information and services and universal availability of quality, accessible, affordable and safe modern contraceptives.
The conference also advocated access to safe abortion to the full extent of the law and avoiding unsafe abortions, as well as the provision of post-abortion care in national Universal Health Care strategies, policies and programmes,
It also called for access for adolescents and youth, especially girls, to comprehensive and responsive information, education and adolescent-friendly comprehensive services to be able to make free and informed decisions and choices about their sexuality and reproductive lives, to protect themselves from unintended pregnancies.
(NAN)
