The series on Dignitatis Humanae having been paused to complete a demanding teaching assignment, posting resumes with a superb response to Fiducia supplicans from the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon. All bishops should be so manly and direct.
Please forgive the disjointed appearance of the document. The images were taken piecemeal from a reproduction of an apparently official English text on a Cameroonian website.
The website linked above for this text also provides an apparently official French text, and the two match. Rorate Caeli has run a different English version, however. The Rorate Caeli version cites a French text found on this website. The French text which Rorate Caeli cites, unlike both the text reproduced above and its French counterpart, is not on letterhead and does not bear the signature of the President of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon. More importantly, in addition to some stylistic differences between the English text reproduced above and the English version provided by Rorate Caeli (the awkwardness of which suggests a computer translation), the French text Rorate Caeli cites and Rorate Caeli’s English version both have an additional paragraph, for a total of 10, unlike the 9 shown above:
“Men and women have the natural right to each assume the specificity of their nature. This right is invariable, irreducible and structuring, and is to be considered in the context of the couple, sexuality and the family, as the basis for fatherhood in the case of a man, and motherhood in the case of a woman. The free orientation of sexuality brandished by the promoters of homosexuality is a negation of this right.”
While very interesting philosophically, the extra paragraph is rather tough. It reminds one of the jibe commonly heard from woke circles–that heteronormative thinking is simply an oppression of a sexual minority by the sexual majority, a point the last sentence of the apparently official text seems to address. Without better evidence, this writer cannot assume the additional paragraph is found in the official version. He could find no version at all on the rather limited website for the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon, for example.
Addendum: In an interview published by The Remnant, Bishop Athanasius Schneider offers this assessment: “I regard the statement of the Bishops of Cameroon, which rejects Fiducia supplicans and “formally prohibits” all blessings of same-sex couples in their dioceses, as among the finest statements made thus far.”