African Catholics give cold reception to Pope's call to decriminalize homosexuality (La Croix)

In a January interview, Pope Francis criticized laws criminalizing homosexuality as “unjust,” while noting the sinful nature of homosexual acts.

“The Pope’s opinion is not the Magisterium,” said an unnamed “senior Church official” in Africa. “For a change of doctrine, the Catholic Church has a decision-making process of its own. This is imperative, even when it comes to the Pope.”

(The Pope’s remarks were not without precedent. In 2008, Father Federico Lombardi, then director of the Holy See Press Office, said that “the rejection of all unjust discrimination—recognized clearly by the Catechism of the Catholic Church itself—evidently excludes not only the death penalty, but all violent or discriminatory penal legislations in relation to homosexuals.”)