By Olivia Obijiaku
His Lordship, Most Rev Dr. Habila Tyiakonaboi Daboh of the Catholic Diocese of Zaria, celebrated the Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit for the 2025 Camping Programme of Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Nigeria (CCRN) of his diocese, affirming that male and female are the only two genders recognized by the Catholic Church.
Drawing from the first reading on honouring the institution of marriage (Heb. 13:1-8), during that Mass he celebrated at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Pastoral Centre, Graceland, Zaria, Kaduna State, Friday, February 7, 2025, the Local Ordinary charged participants to honour marriage, catechizing that Holy Matrimony was instituted by God.
The Chief Shepherd said, “We should be people who preach two genders – male and female. So, no change. Transgender was very famous in America, but Trump came up and said, ‘We have only two genders, male and female. If you are a man, you are a man. If you are a woman, you are a woman. There is nothing like transgender.’”
“The God who created man and woman yesterday is the same that yesterday. He is the same today. And He will forever be the same. We have people who have come out to say, ‘Ah, we have to change marriage. Ah, we have to make women to marry women, men to marry men. That one is from Satan. So, we are not part of that teaching.”
“Marriage is to be honored by all and marriages are to be kept undefiled because fornicators and adulterers will come under God’s judgment (cf. Heb. 13:4). The Sacrament of Matrimony is instituted by God Himself. So, it is not something we can take for granted. It is not merely a human institution, but a sacred covenant, established by God.”
“From the very beginning, God created marriage as a union of love and fidelity. And so, when you are in that union, you are to love your wife, you are to love your husband, so that when your children are growing up, they will see that love between their mother and their father, and when they grow up, they too will continue in that.”
“Fornication or adultery have no place in the life of a Christian. As Christians, we must stand against it, we must preach against it. We must be people who are talking about the sanctity of Holy Matrimony. And so, adulterers, fornicators have no place in God. This is telling us that when we remain pure in heart, we will see God, Matt. 5:8, said, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’”
