February 25, 2013
African Cardinal Peter Turkson Makes Controversial Comment on Gay Priests
The potential successor of Pope Benedict XVI is under fire for suggesting that gay priests are to blame for child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.
In an interview with CNN, Cardinal Peter Turkson, discussed the worldwide scandal of child molestation in the church and whether the epidemic could extend out of the U.S. and Europe to Africa.
“Not in the same proportion as we have seen in Europe,†Turkson said. “Probably because African traditional systems kind of protect or have protected its population against this tendency. Because in several communities, in several cultures in Africa, homosexuality, or for that matter, any affair between two sexes of the same kind are not countenanced in our society.”
Turkson went on to say that Africa’s taboo on homosexuality has traditionally kept such scandals out of the continent.
This isn’t the first time the 64-year-old made controversial comments surrounding homosexuality. Last year, Turkson characterized Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” bill, in which gays would be legally executed, as “understandable” and said that the “intensity of the reaction is probably commensurate with tradition.â€