South Sudan Leader Rebukes Pope: 'God Was Not Mistaken,' 'Same-Sex-Marriage is a Crime' Here

Pope Francis recently said that homosexual activity is “not a crime” but it is “a sin,” a claim that South Sudan Minister of Information Michael Makuei rejected, stressing that “God was not mistaken” and that in his country so-called gay marriage “is a crime, is a constitutional crime.”

Pope Francis is scheduled to visit South Sudan on Feb. 3. In that East African state, sodomy (defined as anal sex between men or men and women) is illegal, as is same-sex marriage. Sodomy is punishable by up to seven years in prison and, after a third offense, life in prison.

In a Jan. 24 interview with the Associated Press, Pope Francis said in reference to homosexual behavior, “It’s not a crime. Yes, but it’s a sin. Fine, but let’s distinguish between a sin and a crime.”

The Pope also criticized some bishops who support laws or discrimination against homosexuality.

“These bishops have to have a process of conversion,” he said, and should apply “tenderness, please, as God has for each one of us.”

After a cabinet meeting on Jan. 27, Information Minsiter Makuei spoke with the media. As reported by Radio Tamazuj, he said, “If he [Pope Francis] is coming here and he tells us that marriage of the same sex, homosexuality is legal, we will say no. But this is not what he is coming for.”

Makuei further said, “God was not mistaken. He created man and woman and he told them to marry one another and go and fill the world. Do same-sex partners give birth?” 

“Our constitution is very clear and says marriage is between the opposite sex and any same-sex marriage is a crime, is a constitutional crime,” said the Information Minister. 

However, Makuei went on to say that the Pope is visiting Sudan to preach peace and encourage people to forgive each other. 

“He is coming to bless us so that we change our behaviors because at times we behave abnormally,” said Makuei.  “So, he is coming here to pray for us so that peace prevails in South Sudan.”

The Pope currently is visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo, the first papal visit since 1985. An estimated 95 million Catholics live in Congo. From there he is traveling to South Sudan. 

Up until the early 1960s, nearly every state in the U.S. had laws against sodomy, and when the Lawrence v. Texas case was decided (6-3) by the Supreme Court in 2003 those laws were invalidated in every state and territory. 

In his dissent, then-Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, “Today’s opinion is the product of a Court, which is the product of a law-profession culture, that has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda, by which I mean the agenda promoted by some homosexual activists directed at eliminating the moral opprobrium that has traditionally attached to homosexual conduct.”

“I noted in an earlier opinion the fact that the American Association of Law Schools (to which any reputable law school must seek to belong) excludes from membership any school that refuses to ban from its job-interview facilities a law firm (no matter how small) that does not wish to hire as a prospective partner a person who openly engages in homosexual conduct,” wrote Scalia. 

He continued, “Many Americans do not want persons who openly engage in homosexual conduct as partners in their business, as scoutmasters for their children, as teachers in their children’s schools, or as boarders in their home. They view this as protecting themselves and their families from a lifestyle that they believe to be immoral and destructive.”

Scalia was joined in his dissent by Justice Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice William Rehnquist.  

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”

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