'We don't want your aid if it's conditional! 🚨 | Catholic Bishops after passage of anti-LGBTQ Bill

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Most Reverend, you're welcome to Eyewitness News.

[00:00:04]>> Thank you very much for inviting me to your news.

[00:00:09]>> How is the church receiving the news of the passage of the bill against LGBTQI+?

[00:00:18]>> Well, I just heard that it has uh Parliament has passed the bill.

[00:00:25]Uh if Parliament has done so as we have heard, then you should expect that the the church and not only the church, all the religious bodies in Ghana and many other Ghanaians who have advocated and have requested for uh this bill to be passed.

[00:00:50]We Christians, including Catholics, join them to say congratulations to Parliament for work uh well done. We receive it with great joy.

[00:01:04]>> What would you say to critics who say we are going backwards and that this is being approved and agreed upon by many countries of the world and that is just a matter of time before it comes to us and that this singular decision of ours appears to be looking backwards when it is an inevitable act or thing.

[00:01:31]>> Well, I do not know what they may mean by going backwards.

[00:01:37]Uh we have our traditions.

[00:01:41]We have our cultures. It has never been accepted.

[00:01:47]And we just want Parliament to say that we do not accept these practices as part of our culture, part of our family and life.

[00:02:00]Now, it is not all countries that accept this.

[00:02:07]And we join the number of countries who said no to this.

[00:02:13]There may be others who say yes. What they got it from is up to them, but we do not want to take the culture and cultural practices that are alien that do not help the Ghanaian society and community. So, we are doing what we think Ghanaians believe is good for Ghana.

[00:02:38]>> And >> And our is in line with our culture and our practices. Others may do whatever they want to do. Let me say, in some country they have legalized marijuana.

[00:02:50]Just a few years ago, it was illegal.

[00:02:53]Then they said they want to legalize this, and they did it.

[00:02:57]So, if they have legalized same-sex relationships and marriage, it's good for them.

[00:03:05]But we are not compelled to do it because they do it. If it is good for them, let them do it. We are saying it is not good for us.

[00:03:16]>> Now, reverend the the the last question I have for you would have to do with in the past we saw an attempt to tie the passage of this bill or the non-passage of this bill to aid. Do you remember the UK Prime Minister who visited the late Professor Mills and the conversation that was had at the time, where he said that he was not going to accept aid tied to gay rights?

[00:03:40]There's a concern that this passage of the bill is going to lead to a tightening of aid and also investors into our country.

[00:03:49]Have you considered that, and how would we deal with that, sir?

[00:03:54]>> Uh you see there is a whole ethics and whole philosophy even about aid that we receive from uh so-called donors.

[00:04:06]And even for us to say whether they are really aid and if that aid really aids us.

[00:04:13]So, probably if they remove the aid, we will become better.

[00:04:18]We may not need the aid that they give us.

[00:04:22]Aid that they give us with conditions attached, even conditions that are inimical to our interest.

[00:04:30]And if this is a unique essential existential interest to Ghana, then if they say if you don't do this as they have always been doing, if you don't go against your interest, we will not give you aid, then we say take your aid.

[00:04:48]And we can survive. That will even make Ghanaians sit up proper and be able to be self-sufficient and self-supporting uh in the main issues.

[00:05:01]>> Thank you so much for speaking to us, sir.

[00:05:05]>> Thank you very much, sir.

[00:05:06]>> That's Most Reverend Matthew Gyamfi, he's president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference.