Choose “morally acceptable alternatives”: Catholic Bishops of Nigeria’s Owerri Province to Childless Couples

Jos, 11 August, 2025 / 9:48 PM

Catholic Bishops of Nigeria’s Ecclesiastical Province of Owerri are imploring childless couples to consider “morally acceptable alternatives” such as child adoption and foster parenting.

In a statement following their meeting two-day meeting that concluded on August 6, the Local Ordinaries of Owerri Catholic Archdiocese and the Dioceses of Aba, Ahiara, Okigwe, Orlu and Umuahia caution against Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART). They express concern about the increasing demand for In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and “the social stigma and trauma” that couples in childless marriages face in Southeastern Nigeria.

“When couples’ expectations for children are not fulfilled immediately, we encourage them to consider other morally acceptable alternatives like adoption and foster-parentage. We know that adoption and foster-care practices are acceptable solutions in our legal system to address the challenges of childless couples,” they say in their statement published on August 9.

While the Church accompanies “with pastoral solicitude couples who must face the agony of childlessness in their marriages,” she must also “speak with clarity” her position on ART, the Catholic Bishops of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province say and single out IVF, which they describe as a “mortal sin and morally unacceptable.”

“The Church believes that the sexual act within marriage should be both unitive (expressing love and intimacy) and procreative (open to the possibility of new life),” they further say, noting that IVF “separates” the two “aspects, as fertilization occurs outside the marital act.”

The caution, “IVF often results in the creation of multiple embryos, some of which are not implanted and may be discarded, frozen, or used for research.”

Such, the Catholic Church leaders continue, is against the position of the Church, which “considers the human embryo to be a human person with a soul from the moment of conception” and “believes that destroying or discarding embryos is morally wrong.”

“IVF, with its reliance on medical procedures and potential for selecting embryos, can be seen as treating children as commodities or manufactured items,” the Nigerian Catholic Bishops say referring to Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2377; Donum Vitae, Chapter II, no. 8.

They underscore the need to uphold respect for children, who, “should be welcomed as gifts from God and not as products of a technological process.”

In their four-page statement issued under the title, "On some burning pastoral issues", the Catholic Church leader say they are concerned about the myriad of challenges young couples are undergoing, including exploitation from scrupulous individuals, who prey on their desperation.

“These days it is not uncommon to see young couples postpone their sacramental marriage for fear of entering into an indissoluble union that might become childless,” they observe in their seven-point statement.

They lament that “pressures from relatives, taunts from neighbours” push young couples “into all sorts of embarrassment and humiliation, resulting sometimes in divorce or polygamy.”

“Regrettably, these couples do not find enough moral support even in our ecclesial community,” Local Ordinaries of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province lament, noting that many are the times when the “the childless wife is blamed for the childlessness even without medical proof.”

They send their sympathy to women who are victims of “all kinds of tested and untested traditional and scientific medical treatment, often commuting between prayer houses, traditional healers and unscrupulous medical doctors.”

“While the Church acknowledges the desire for children and supports couples seeking help with infertility, it frowns at the abuses that childless couples undergo in the hands of some doctors and quack fertility clinics who offer them false hopes and take advantage of their misery to enrich themselves,” they say.

The Catholic Bishops go on to “urge the government to establish strict ethical rules and guidelines regulating such fertility clinics in order to curtail every form of commercialization of human sexuality among our youths, and the exploitation of the needs of childless couples.”

The government should set up guidelines that make the process of child adoption and foster parenting for childless couples “more transparent and seamless,” they appeal.

“Care must, however, be taken that the process of child adoption should not encourage child trafficking and other related criminal activities,” the Catholic Bishops of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province cation, adding, “Our people should equally accept and respect adopted children as legitimate members of the family.”