Vatican Signals Greater Openness, but Limits Remain on LGBTQ+ Outreach

Vatican City: The Vatican is sending new signals about how it plans to serve LGBTQ+ Catholics under Pope Leo XIV, with openness and restrictions after Pope Francis introduced a remarkable reception during his 12-year papacy.

Catholic LGBTQ+ advocates applauded this week when a working group at the Vatican released a report that included testimonies from two gay, married Catholics who spoke openly about their sexuality, their faith, and how the Catholic Church’s negative teaching on homosexuality harmed them.

In addition, Leo made clear at a recent over-the-air press conference that he believes the church’s teachings of social justice, equality, and freedom are far more important than its teachings on sexual morality, suggesting that he does not intend to prioritize this issue.

However, at the same press conference, Leo stated that he would not go further than Francis on the controversial issue of same-sex blessings. The Vatican recently reiterated its opposition to any local efforts to deviate from the Vatican’s position.

For American Jesuit Priest James Martin, who spearheaded the church’s outreach to the LGBTQ+ community in the United States, the developments signal strong continuity with Francis.

“If the Catholic Church has begun listening to LGBTQ Catholics as part of its methodology, the church has already made significant progress,” he recently wrote.

But the signals have sparked criticism from conservatives who emphasize official Catholic teaching, which has remained unchanged even during Francis’ papacy, and say homosexual activity is “inherently unregulated.”

A synod document with searing testimony The Vatican working group report summarized the work of experts examining controversial issues that have emerged after years of Francis’ reform efforts. The report has no binding value and is merely a synthesis of the negotiations. It’s unclear what Leo will do with this.

Testimony from gay men in annexes published on the Vatican’s synod website included moving accounts of how one from Portugal came to terms with his homosexuality and married his husband. The man also described how he sometimes struggles with his faith due to insensitive remarks from a Catholic spiritual leader and being forced to undergo “conversion therapy,” the scientifically discredited practice of using therapy to “convert” LGBTQ+ people to heterosexuality or traditional gender expectations.

Other testimony, from an American, criticized the therapy he received and the counseling he received from Courage, a Catholic pastoral group aimed at helping people with same-sex attraction live chastely.

“My sexuality is not a perversion, disorder, or hybridity; it is a gift from God,” the person wrote.

Courage, in a statement on Friday, condemned the negative portrayal of his work and said he was never involved in “reparative therapy.”

“Courage has been slandered and discredited before, but these often came from secular circles,” the group said. “It is a great sadness and an additional injury to our members that this false and unfair portrayal appears in a Vatican document.”

Martin noted that the publication was the first time an official Vatican report “featured such detailed stories from LGBTQ Catholics.” “As such, it marks an important step forward in the church’s relationship with the LGBTQ community.”

Bishop Joseph Strickland, whom Francis suspended from the Texas diocese of Tyler, said the report was “extremely alarming” and contradicted church teachings on sexuality, sin, marriage and morality. In a post titled “Emergency in the Church” on his personal website, Strickland said the church’s teaching on homosexuality comes from God, not prejudice.

“To suggest that sin does not arise from homosexual intercourse is not just confusing language. It is a direct attack on Catholic moral teaching and the words of Scripture itself,” he wrote.

German church guidelines The LGBTQ+ outreach issue is coming to a head in Germany, where Catholic bishops have issued guidelines for priests on giving same-sex blessings that go beyond what Francis’ Vatican agreed to in 2023.

That year, the Vatican’s doctrinal office issued a statement known in Latin as “Fiducia Supplicans”; this declaration allowed priests to offer spontaneous, non-liturgical blessings to same-sex couples; provided that such blessings are not confused with the rites and rituals of a wedding. Church teaching holds that marriage is a lifelong union between a man and a woman.

The declaration sparked unprecedented opposition from African bishops and other conservatives across the continent, prompting the Vatican to clarify that such blessings must be short, “10 or 15 seconds,” and are not a blessing of the union in itself but a blessing of the people in it.

In April 2025, German bishops and an influential secular organization published guidelines for implementing the declaration.

Emphasizing the spontaneous, non-liturgical nature of the blessings, the guidelines say they are for the relationship rather than the individual and provide criteria for an appropriate celebration. The guidelines say, for example, that there should be appropriate religious readings, that “care should be taken in the preparation” of the event, and that those invited should offer “clapping, prayers and song”.

While returning home from Africa last month, Leo announced that the Vatican had told the Germans that it did not accept their proposals. This week, the letter dated 2024, in which the Vatican clearly stated its position, was posted online.

The letter, signed by the chief of the doctrine, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, stated that the references to applause in the guidelines are similar to marriage and “in this sense effectively legitimize the status of these couples”, contrary to what is stated in the Vatican’s 2023 statement.

In Fernández’s letter, he complained that the German regulation’s mention of location, aesthetics and music as a blessing suggested a liturgical ceremony “at odds” with what the Vatican allows.

The letter did not directly veto German directives but offered Fernández’s “observations.”

LGBTQ+ advocates welcome Leo’s measured approach Leo met with German Cardinal Reinhard Marx on Thursday; Despite Fernández’s letter, Marx recently recommended that priests in his archdiocese use German guidelines as the basis for their pastoral care.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin said Wednesday that talk of sanctions against German priests who use the guidelines was “premature” and that dialogue with German bishops was ongoing.

Parolin said the hope is “that we will never have to resort to sanctions, that the issues can be resolved peacefully, as they should be in the church.”

Martin said it was clear that the Vatican limited the blessing of same-sex couples only under certain circumstances in the Vatican’s 2023 declaration.

“But the synod also made clear that it was inviting the church to listen to the experiences of LGBTQ Catholics in a new way. So, to me, there is no contradiction,” he told The Associated Press. “Both ‘Fiducia’ and the synod report are steps forward in the church’s ministry to LGBTQ individuals.”

Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics, praised Leo’s comments on the church’s teaching on sexual morality.

Returning from Africa, Leo was asked about Marx’s adoption of German guidelines and how he intended to preserve the unity of the church in the face of the divisive issue of same-sex blessings.

“It is very important to understand that the unity or division of the church should not revolve around sexual issues,” Leo said. “I believe that much larger, more important issues such as justice, equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion will take priority over that issue.”

DeBernardo said it was “good to hear that the Pope has decisively abandoned the church’s obsession with sexual issues.”

He also welcomed Leo’s “measured” comments about German homosexuality rules.

“He didn’t condemn or even criticize the German church leaders. He just said there were disagreements and that wasn’t a reason for separation,” DeBernardo said. “Both the new moral emphasis on social issues rather than sexuality and the promotion of a more collegial church are good news for LGBTQ+ Catholics.”