Archbishop Philip Agalo of the Archdiocese of Nairobi shares his thoughts on the growing tide of anti-gay sentiment within the Catholic Church, and the reaction of the bishops in his diocese to it.
00:05:43.540May I ask you for our many viewers at home in Canada, in the United States, in Europe?
00:05:51.880The African bishops, the bishops here in Kenya, have spoken strongly to support the family,
00:06:00.080particularly with regard to the woke movements of the world.
00:06:05.600What's your view with regard to family and the need to support the traditional family?
00:06:10.720Yeah, it is important to support the family and to support the church.
00:06:18.680Because within the church, within the family, we have the first church and the first faith of every human person.
00:06:27.580And that knowledge of God is first and foremost in the family.
00:06:32.080Even without talking about it, we are already aware that from our understanding and our deep voice of faith,
00:06:38.240that God created man and woman in his own image and likeness.
00:06:44.060So in that manner, in that family, is where God starts also creating that and reprocreating that image of himself in the coming generations.
00:06:56.680And it can't be otherwise, because that's the way God does it.
00:07:00.080And for us, in the context of our faith here in Africa, even as we go along with the spirit of synodality in the church,
00:07:10.600we are very much convinced that that is how the church should grow.
00:07:16.160It should be rooted and founded in the principles and the dignity of a family.
00:07:23.940So we cherish so much the concept of a family as the first concept that God came up to as he was creating the whole world.
00:07:35.420And that's the concept that God gave to the world so that the world may procreate with him, may govern with him, may administer the creation with him.
00:07:45.180So we emphasize and insist on that aspect of the natural family, and that is what the African faith understands, and that's where it's rooted.
00:07:57.740So we are happy that even as we are being called and we are participating in the synodality, that is part of our contribution.
00:08:05.940Our contribution that we want to emphasize the concept of the family as goes on, starting way, goes on, initial way of creating humanity and creating all that we see in the world in life.
00:08:43.900And what do you have to say about that kind of pressure coming to America?
00:08:46.820I think we have to understand with the pressure that go on, they touch the family.
00:08:54.040But from the history also, I think Europe is very much to explain to us and made the developed world, not just Europe, but the first world.
00:09:01.080Maybe they have an example to explain to us and to show us, like the more you destroy the family, the more even the kingdoms fall.
00:09:11.060The kingdoms fall because of the family that has fallen.
00:09:14.320Anything that happens on the family, it brings down everything else and it has to start again from the family as such.
00:09:20.880And the kingdom of God, as it says, also is being spent on the family as such.
00:09:30.960It is obvious knowledge that where the families have not been emphasized or maybe they have been misconceived or abused and such like things, many things don't go on.
00:09:42.100It may be economically progressive, but still it collapses.
00:09:45.480It may be, I might call it whatever progressive, but then it collapses because the family aspect is not, as God wants it, is not emphasized.
00:09:55.340So all these things you see, calling them whatever names you want to call them, so long as they are not focusing on that natural aspect of God's own knowledge and understanding of the family, they will just collapse.
00:10:33.000How did the church here encourage people to have families still, to have children still and never to resort to things like abortion?
00:10:41.140Yeah, the church, the church and I think humanity also dictates that abortion is killing.
00:10:47.940And anything that interferes in that way, between the relationship of a man that is meant to procreate, is improper, is inappropriate.
00:10:57.260And the church in Africa, and the church in Africa, and our faith also dictates to us that we should follow the natural way of God's own teaching.
00:11:08.760No, God doesn't need to come to teach us by every single word that he says, but nature also teaches us, like, this is what God wants us to do.
00:11:18.060He spoke, he speaks very strongly in how we react with one another naturally without enforcing all these other artificial activities that come on and destroy our humanity.
00:11:30.440God saves us by very nature that he himself becomes human, born in our family, born in our family of Mary and Joseph.
00:11:41.240And he became more human so that even living in this world to save us, he had to pursue the difficulties and the challenges of the humanity so that he may save us.
00:11:52.360So this cannot be ruled out because we want a bit of luxury here, we don't want a bit to change a human person to look like another God.
00:12:02.040There's no other God, there's only one God.
00:12:10.140The God who created us, created man and woman, he created us.
00:12:13.800Africans, Africans, all other, all people, all races, he created us one, one family of God.
00:12:20.680And we should respect what, what he tells us.
00:12:23.520That's, that's a symbol, it's a symbol of that.
00:12:25.700If we start doing other things, because of our intellectual ability and everything, we are building towers of bubble.
00:12:33.520And all those towers of bubble collapse so that God will start to be building and then founding.
00:12:38.120And it happens, and you know, it happens when somebody has grown so much, so they have withdrawn their idea of God in building or building on God.
00:15:51.540I want to bless you and I want to wish you a happy preparation this Advent season of Christmas.
00:15:59.340And you know, Christmas is a special moment in our lives when God himself, or God offers himself to us by becoming a son and a human person in our meeting so that we may learn to be human.
00:16:14.500Not animals, not another thing, but human, with human hearts and with human minds, with human souls to continue serving him as such and to be like him.
00:16:24.720So, with this, I want to wish you a happy Christmas and prosperous new year as we continue celebrating the proceedings of the Synodality.
00:16:35.820And may God bless you, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
00:16:46.940The Archbishop's secretary is a father, Michael Indichu, and he went totally viral with this clip that was aired not only all around Africa, it also made it to the U.S. and other countries.
00:17:01.700When we judge by our conscience if a government, any government at a given time, enact rules that are against three things which are highlighted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
00:17:15.340One, if the rules are contrary to moral order, we are not obliged to obey such government.
00:17:24.040If the government enacts rules that are against the fundamental rights of a human person, the dignity of human person, me and you as Christians, we are not obliged to obey such kind of government.
00:17:39.220Under that instance or circumstance is when any government at any time enact the rules that are against the teaching of the gospel, we are not obliged to obey such government.
00:17:58.260There is no way when the government will come and enact the rules against human life, the sacralness of human life, and say it is right to do abortions, it is right to do a venetia, and so on, to do the croning, and so on.
00:18:18.640When we have no moral obligation to obey such government, when we are being forced, or any government can force us, for us to receive aid and development projects.
00:18:32.880We must agree to support the Western ideologies that are abhorred by our Christian teaching, our African culture, we cannot be able, because they go against the teaching of gospel.
00:18:50.000And that becomes morally repugnant, and we are not obliged to obey such.
00:18:54.780Them, those who enact such rules, they carry the image of God.
00:19:20.300So, Father Ndichu, from the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi, I work as Administrative Secretary for the Archdiocese and also for the Archbishop of Nairobi.
00:19:33.860During this time of Advent, we continue to thank God as we prepare ourselves for the birth of our Lord Jesus.
00:19:44.420And most importantly, is to prepare our hearts, that we can receive him fully in our hearts.
00:19:51.680And accepting and preparations should also help us to live a very good Christian life.
00:19:59.380One of the challenges that we are experiencing at this point in the history of humanity is a challenge to be family.
00:20:07.700We know that family is the basic cell of any society.
00:20:12.460Without good family, there is no good society.
00:24:58.700My name is Father, Father Simon Peter Kamome.
00:25:03.600I serve here, the Holy Family Minor Basilica in Nairobi.
00:25:10.660I have also been charged for the responsibility of coordinating the family life department in the Archdiocese of Nairobi.
00:25:18.360So I'd like to thank His Grace, the Archbishop, Philip Anjalo, for giving us, as priests, this challenge of setting up the family life department office.
00:25:32.580And one thing I would say is that family life is a very important work to be done in the church because we cannot do proper evangelization unless we start from down there in the families.
00:25:55.420And so we have really to strengthen the families.
00:26:01.300We have also to protect the families against some of the, you know, like worldly negative forces that are, of course, working against the family life and marriage and family.
00:26:19.020And family being a domestic church, you know, like that is where we should all start by incorporating the Christian, you know, culture, incorporating the Christian values, you know, in the life of the children so that every family should have the Christian philosophy or other.
00:26:39.100Children should be socialized through Christian culture, Christian culture, we thank God, like us, most of us who are the priests, we come from various towns, Catholic families, Catholic families.
00:26:53.180And that is why we still, by God's grace, feel more and more strengthened.
00:26:58.380And we have that foundation from our own families.
00:27:03.080And that is why, personally, I would like God that God has given us this opportunity.
00:27:09.940And so we should continue to animate the marriages and the families.
00:27:19.260And it's also a charge upon us as priests, those who are doing evangelization, to ensure that we prepare, prepare the couples well.
00:27:26.900And we ensure that we don't make it casual, you know, we should prepare them well, they should be, it should be very clear on their noble responsibility as couples in marriage and also as parents, as parents.
00:27:45.400So we should prepare them very well so that they can also become effective and proper instruments of evangelization within the family and, of course, beyond their own families as Christians, you know, in the church.
00:28:00.480And just in line with Pope Francis' call that all the people of God should work together, the synod, the spirit of synod, we should ensure that members of the same family are working together.
00:28:16.580You know, you know, the parents and their children, they are working together, they are sharing the Christian life together.
00:28:23.700So they should enjoy, rather, being together and experiencing the joys of salvation, of salvation.
00:28:32.280So that's, for me, that is where the church should start the evangelization.
00:28:38.520And even the pastoral programs that we have, largely the pastoral programs are supposed to be, actually, programs that address the family issues.
00:28:53.600And that is what is going to ensure that even the church, you know, the larger, you know, family of the church will be strong because we have strong, you know, families where people are well enlightened in their faith and especially the parents.
00:29:11.120For me, when people are complaining about the young people, for me, I know the people who are healed first are the parents, because parents have to become spiritual mentors.
00:29:23.660The spirits have to be, to be, to be, to model, to, you know, like, to model their children, to become models of the Christian faith.
00:29:32.640Children have to observe, they have to experience, you know, not a matter of just telling them what to do,
00:29:38.360but when they are, you know, like, reinforced by their parents.
00:29:43.080And as I said earlier on, you know, like, for me, I see this because it is the experience I have, you know, you know, like, you know, what I experience in the family.
00:29:52.640Of course, when I was young, I was feeling that the parents were too straight.
00:29:59.020The children who come to realize this, let alone, let alone in their life.
00:30:02.520So today, I appreciate my late dad and my mother.
00:30:07.700And for us, for me, you know, like, even the sizes of the families, you know, like, whenever I prepare couples for marriage, I ask them just, how many children are you going to have?
00:30:20.920But you can see people have become so secular, so secular in their thinking.
00:30:26.200Because most of them will tell me, Father, I would like to have one or two children.
00:30:30.620And then I always ask them, what criteria have you used?
00:30:34.900You know, like, because our parents used to, and that is still the same understanding,
00:30:39.860because children are supposed to be actually, to be seen as gifts from God.
00:30:46.340But today, most couples, they don't see them as gifts.
00:30:49.680In fact, they see them as burdens, you know.
00:30:53.040And people will justify, you know, and even try to rationalize and say that they don't have enough resources.
00:32:02.520So I would say that all of us, we should focus, focus on family.
00:32:10.160But for me, I'm planning even to suggest to the Archbishop, Philip, that in the Archdiocese of Nairobi, we try to consecrate all the families and to enthrone all the families in the kingship of Christ.
00:32:30.700Christ to become the king of every family.
00:32:35.020So Christ becomes, you know, to be enthroned, becomes now their focus in that family.
00:32:42.120So that, of course, then we also bring in the idea of Mother Mary.
00:32:46.640Because, you know, Mother Mary, I remember for us, I would say we were forced by my mother and my father to pray arousal every day.
00:32:55.940We were literally forced when we were young.
00:33:00.820So we should consecrate our families and we should have programs in the family, programs, the programs that will help the parents and the children to remain united.
00:33:15.680I always tell people, when people are able to eat together, you pray together, you work together, you socialize, and, you know, we do everything together.
00:33:24.980That is how we can pray, I mean, kind of promote the Christian unity in the families.
00:33:32.640This is what is going on to bring out the Christian values.
00:33:37.640Even if there are challenges in the world, but where the children have a proper Christian foundation, even if they are being influenced by media and other forces in the world, they will still remain strong somehow.
00:33:49.840And even if they divert, they will still come back because they have it.
00:33:56.420You know, you cannot give what you don't have.
00:33:58.060When they have it, they will still have it all the way in their lives.
00:34:02.440So I would encourage all Christians, all Catholics, especially, all the Catholics to really actually underscore the importance of the family, of the family.
00:34:15.640And for us priests, that is where our greatest challenge actually is in terms of evangelization.
00:34:22.580When we preach there, the pulpit, it is not enough.
00:34:26.260We have to go down to where the families are.
00:34:34.260And we encourage all the people, all the people to bring together all the forces that we have, all the resources that we have, so that we can do this very basic evangelization in the families.
00:34:50.440And all these other forces that we have, you know, like in the world, secular and all this, when we are strong, when we are strong, you know, when that characterization of Christian life has been built in the family, we are going still to remain firm.
00:35:07.000We are firm, and we will see the product.
00:35:10.760And as I say, we see children from the Catholic families like that, and they are still very firm, even if it doesn't matter whatever is happening in the world.
00:35:23.060Thank you, my friends, for joining us for this in-depth look into the African church in one of the principal dioceses here in Eastern Africa.
00:35:33.420And that take gives us a very good glimpse, not only as to what the church in Africa thinks of what's going on, but what the traditional faith thinks of what's going on.
00:35:44.260Because this is where the faith is being maintained.
00:35:48.240Please pray for Archbishop Agnolo, all the bishops of Africa, as they minister to us with the truth as one of the last voices in the church still speaking the truth on the issue of family.
00:36:02.820May God bless you all, and from Africa, we'll see you next time.
00:36:14.260Hi, everyone. This is John Henry Weston.
00:36:20.800To see more like it, be sure to hit the subscribe button below to get all the latest content from LifeSite News.
00:36:26.360Check the links in the description to read more and connect with us on social media so that you can stay up to date with all the latest life, family, faith, and freedom news.
00:36:34.680Thanks for watching, and may God bless you.