Image Source: Pigama / Shutterstock
Cardinal Robert Sarah has accused the European Union of using international agreements, foreign aid and trade to pressure African nations into accepting abortion and LGBT ideology.
Speaking at the European Parliament in Brussels on 15 July, the Guinean cardinal warned that Europe was engaging in what Pope Francis has previously described as “ideological colonisation” by attaching contested social policies to international cooperation with African countries.
Cardinal Sarah, who formerly served as Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, delivered his address at an event entitled Europe and Africa: In Dialogue with Cardinal Robert Sarah, organised by the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group alongside pro-life organisations SOS Chrétiens d’Orient and Pro Vita e Famiglia.
His speech focused on the relationship between Europe and Africa, particularly the European Union’s agreements with African, Caribbean, and Pacific states, including the Samoa Agreement.
The cardinal criticised what he described as the use of “imprecise and ambiguous” language concerning abortion and LGBT issues within such agreements.
“If words no longer mean what they say, how can there be authentic dialogue?” he asked. “How can Africa trust a Europe that speaks with equivocal, double-meaning words?”
He argued that vague terminology surrounding issues such as “gender” and “sexual and reproductive health” allows controversial social policies to be advanced without being openly debated.
“A treaty, a resolution or an action plan that uses imprecise and ambiguous vocabulary are not tools of cooperation but tools of perversion and silent power of cultural and economic neocolonialism,” he said.
As an example, Cardinal Sarah pointed to a 2023 European Parliament resolution on Uganda, which called for diplomatic, financial and commercial measures in response to the country’s anti-homosexuality legislation. He argued that using aid and trade as leverage against sovereign nations undermines their right to determine their own laws and values.
The cardinal contrasted this approach with the constitutions of countries including Kenya and Uganda, which recognise legal protection for human life before birth.
He also warned against efforts to redefine the family and human identity.
“When Europe constructs rights detached from the truth about man, abortion being elevated to a fundamental right, sexual identity being reduced to mere subjective self-creation, reason itself becomes deformed,” he said.
Concluding his address, Cardinal Sarah urged the European Parliament to respect Africa’s cultural sovereignty, abandon ideological conditions attached to cooperation, and recognise the continent’s witness to “a living faith”. He also called on European lawmakers to use clear language when discussing issues such as abortion, gender and the family, rather than employing terms that conceal their true meaning.
Speaking on the matter, SPUC’s Communications Manager Peter Kearney said: “For the past fifty years Western leaders have tried to foist destructive progressive policies upon a sovereign African people. Whether that be around contraception, homosexuality, or abortion; it stems from the Malthusian view on population control, and it must stop.”
He continued, “Cardinal Sarah is right to call out the EU as it is Brussels, not Africa, that has forgotten the basic tenets of human dignity. SPUC supports his message entirely. The African continent must be allowed to practice that ‘living faith’ that the Cardinal spoke of. If Europe wants to restore their civilisation they should take note.”
