The President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference, Bishop Matthew Gyamfi, has refuted contents of an investigative piece conducted by the CNN.
According to them, the international media outlet did not reach out to them on the issue contrary to what was suggested in its report.
In the report, the American channel stated, among other things, that some Ghanaian churches received foreign aid and funding from donor United States, United Kingdom and European donors who support Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQ+) activities.
These churches, according to the report, despite their strong support for the anti-LGBTQ+ Bill in parliament, benefitted from funding from intergovernmental organisations that support LGBTQ rights and activities for developmental purposes.
CNN’s findings cited Churches and Christian institutions, including the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG), Evangelical Presbyterian Church (CCG member), Methodist Church (CCG member), Presbyterian Church (CCG member), and the Catholic Church, as having received not less than $5.1 million of monies from donors for development projects by or for the church.
The CNN also stated that before it aired its report, it had contacted the churches but failed to get any responses from them.
But in a response, Bishop Matthew Gyamfi, President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference told GhanaWeb in a phone interview that they had not been contacted on any such thing.
“I was not contacted; we were not contacted,” he stated.
He also explained that the stance of the church has remained as it is: it is not in support of LGBTQ+ rights.
He added that if the donations they receive from such countries, as stated in the CNN reported, were with the assumption that they (the churches) would support campaigns for same sex rights, then they need to revisit their notes.
“We will not accept any monies from LGBTQ or those who are proposing those things, or we accept it to promote their views, no. we have our views, we have our stance on certain issues and you can’t buy it.
“If they gave it on the assumption that they can change the church’s stance on LGBTQ, then they were making a very big mistake and they should have done their work very well. But I don’t think LGBTQ group anywhere has given anything to any church in Ghana; I don’t know, but certainly not the Catholic Church,” he said.