Pope Francis leaves behind a complicated legacy for LGBTQ+ Catholics
Pope Francis addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015
"Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God," he said, while also calling trans identity an "ideological project."
On Easter Monday, the world received the news of Pope Francis’ passing at the age of 88. The news was a surprise after the pontiff’s herculean battle with pneumonia and his appearance at Easter Sunday Mass. Francis was one of the most beloved popes of the Catholic Church. He was called the People’s Pope.
However, when it came to LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Church, Francis left a complicated legacy, one of dashed hopes and waiting for change.
“Many of us had high hopes that some positive changes around LGBTQ+ teachings would come from the worldwide Synod. That has not happened as of yet. We are waiting for the report from the working group charged with addressing controversial issues,” stated Meli Barber, President of DignityUSA.
“But the discussion of LGBTQ+ issues is now part of the mainstream of our Church. LGBTQ+ Catholics, our family members, friends, fellow Catholics, and frontline ministers all spoke openly about our lives, our gifts, the discrimination we have faced, and the depth of our faith. This cannot be erased.”
I remembered his statement in 2013 when Francis responded to a question about a possible “gay lobby” in the Vatican. His answer set off global shock waves. “When I meet a gay person, I have to distinguish between their being gay and being part of a lobby,” he said. “If they accept the Lord and have goodwill, who am I to judge them?”
The pontiff’s public statement was then the most LGBTQ+-affirming remark the world had ever heard from the Catholic Church. The Advocate named Pope Francis its 2013 Person of the Year.
Pope Francis commanded attention around the world with his liberal-leaning pronouncements, but the pontiff was a complicated, if not confusing, figure to LGBTQ+ people. On the surface, Francis displayed a pastoral countenance to his papacy that extended to our community. However, during Francis’ tenure as pope, I came to see him as the consummate flip-flopper whose good intentions never fully followed up with good actions. And in some cases, the pontiff exhibited outright hypocrisy.
For example, Pope Francis approved blessings for same-sex couples if the rituals don’t resemble marriage. In October 2020, while being interviewed for the documentary Francesco about his life, Francis made a full-throated endorsement of same-sex civil unions. Again, setting off global shock waves.
“Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God,” the pontiff said in the film. “You can’t kick someone out of a family nor make their life miserable for this. What we have to have is a civil union law; that way, they are legally covered.”
Francis’s statement was a Hallelujah moment for many LGBTQ+ Catholics. It optimistically suggested a game-changer —having dogma-transforming ramifications— for the Church in this 21st century, despite conservative priests still hell-bent on continuing on an anti-modernity track of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.
However, marriage equality was out of the question because Francis repeatedly criticized “gender theory” as an “ideological project” that “denies the natural difference between a man and a woman.”
Marriage between people of the same sex? “Marriage is a historical word. It’s always between a man and a woman in humanity, and not only within the Church. We cannot change that. This is the nature of things. This is how they are. Let’s call them ‘civil unions,'” Francis stated in 2017 to New Ways Ministry, a pro-LGBTQ+ Catholic organization.
Francis called for the decriminalization of homosexuality, which LGBTQ+ advocates hailed as a milestone that would help end harassment and violence against us, as he also publicly distinguished between homosexual acts as a sin and not a crime.
Pope Francis had a complicated relationship with the transgender community. In the pontiff’s 2015 tome, Pope Francis: This Economy Kills, Francis compares transgender people to nuclear weapons as destroyers of God’s creation of male and female. However, he also embraced a transfeminine community.
In Torvaianica, Italy, a community of trans women, many of whom are sex workers, were welcomed and seated as Pope Francis’ guests for lunch to celebrate the Catholic Church’s World Day of the Poor in 2023. This wasn’t their first time lunching with the pontiff. They received VIP seats at Pope Francis’ monthly gatherings since COVID-19.
Also, in 2023, the Vatican agreed to baptize transgender Catholics and allow them to be godparents. This was a 180 from 2000, when the Catholic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith denounced the existence of transgender people.
Nothing in terms of church doctrine changed, sadly. The Catholic Church’s World Day of the Poor, with the message “Do not turn your face away from anyone who is poor,” was an example of the Church at its best regarding welcoming everyone. It allowed the faces of transgender people not to be hidden.
The Catholic Church still excludes the LGBTQ+ community from officially receiving any sacraments. Since 2015, DignityUSA has advocated for “sacramental equality” in the Catholic Church. With COVID-19 death rates hitting the LGBTQ+ community globally as hard as other minority communities worldwide, one would think the Church could put aside its homophobia.
Pope Francis was no doubt a humble man with a sincere heart. But he looked the other way when it came to his LGBTQ+ worshippers. It was not enough for Francis to say he embraced our community. He also needed to do it.
