Vatican softens towards LGBTQ+ Catholics

VATICAN CITY: The Vatican is sending new signals about how it intends to minister to LGBTQ+ Catholics in the Pope Leo XIV era, with signs of openness and limitations after Pope Francis ushered in a notable welcome during his 12-year pontificate.

Catholic LGBTQ+ advocates cheered this week when a Vatican working group released a report featuring the testimony of two gay, married Catholics who spoke about their sexuality, faith and how the church's negative teaching had hurt them.

Leo made clear during a recent news conference that he believed the church's teachings on social justice, equality and freedom were far more important than its teaching on sexual morality.

At that same conference, though, Leo indicated he would go no further than Francis on the contentious matter of same-sex blessings. The Vatican has recently renewed its opposition to any local efforts to deviate from the Holy See stance.

Rev James Martin, a Jesuit who has spearheaded the church's outreach to the LGBTQ+ community in the US, said, "If the Catholic Church has begun to listen to LGBTQ Catholics as part of its methodology, the church has already moved forward in a significant way."

But the signals have prompted criticism from conservatives, who have stressed official Catholic teaching says homosexuality is "intrinsically disordered".

The Vatican working group report summarised the work of experts studying controversial topics that emerged after Francis' yearslong reform effort. The report has no binding value.

The testimony, contained in annexes published on the Vatican's synod website, featured accounts of how one man sometimes struggled with his faith because of insensitive rem-arks from a Catholic spiritual director and "conversion therapy". The other testimony, from an American, said, "My sexuality isn't a perversion, disorder, or cross; it's a gift from God."