Latest news with #LGBTQCatholic
Washington Post
14-05-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Pope Leo's views on LGBT Catholics are a mystery — but we have clues
Michael J. O'Loughlin is executive director of Outreach, an LGBTQ Catholic publication, and author of 'Hidden Mercy: AIDS, Catholics, and the Untold Stories of Compassion in the Face of Fear.' My husband and I stood in St. Peter's Square waiting for white smoke, our eyes darting from the giant screens near us to the tiny chimney in the distance. As minutes ticked by, the crowd grew in size, but expectations seemed to diminish. Yet shortly after 6 p.m., white smoke appeared. The cardinals had elected a pope.
NBC News
10-05-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
LGBTQ Catholics hope Pope Leo XIV continues Francis' legacy of acceptance
In the eyes of many LGBTQ Catholics, the late Pope Francis created a 'seismic shift' toward acceptance. Now, as the world welcomes the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, these lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer faithful say they hope he will continue to move in the same direction. Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of the LGBTQ Catholic advocacy group DignityUSA, was in Rome on Thursday when Cardinal Robert Prevost, a 69-year-old Chicago native who holds both U.S. and Peruvian citizenship, became the new pontiff. 'I was actually quite excited to see that Cardinal Prevost had been elected as Pope Leo XIV and thrilled that he took the name of a pope rooted in social justice. I think what a clear signal to a hurting world that that's where his energy is going to be focused,' she told NBC News in an interview Friday. 'I also found a lot of hope in his remarks from the balcony … where he talked about God's all-inclusive love without any condition, and where he talked about being a church for all of God's people.' Jason Steidl Jack, a gay Catholic and an assistant teaching professor of religious studies at St. Joseph's University, New York, described his reaction to the election of Pope Leo, the first-ever American to lead the Holy See, as 'cautiously optimistic.' 'I do see him continuing Pope Francis' legacy, especially of dialogue and synodality,' Steidl Jack said, describing synodality as 'this idea of journeying together' and 'listening to one another.' However, he said the new pope's election 'doesn't assuage all of the fears that I have as an LGBTQ Catholic.' 'The church's teaching, even under Pope Francis, remains incredibly homophobic, and the church goes on inventing new ways of being transphobic as it really avoids learning about trans people and their experiences,' he said, adding, however, that the new pontiff seems 'open to dialogue and inclusion' given his remarks on Thursday. Chicago resident Greg Krajewski said he's been a practicing Catholic his whole life and sings at his local parish every Sunday. However, he said, as a gay man, he's 'careful who I talk to and how I present myself.' 'There's a few things in his opening speech that he gave that really give me a lot of hope,' he said of Leo. 'The first thing is he said a couple of times, 'God loves us without limits or conditions.' I think this is a really big indication that even if he himself maybe has more reservations about the LGBTQ issues in the church, he is open to those discussions. He is open to bringing us in.' Track record on LGBTQ issues Leo's past comments on LGBTQ issues are limited, though several LGBTQ Catholics expressed concern about remarks he reportedly made in an address to church leaders over a decade ago. During the 2012 Synod of Bishops, then-Father Prevost reportedly lamented the challenges presented to the Catholic Church due to sympathetic media portrayals of 'alternative families.' 'Note, for example, how alternative families comprised of homosexual partners and their adopted children are so benignly and sympathetically portrayed on television programs and in cinema,' he told a group of bishops at the time, according to the Catholic News Service. 'The sympathy for anti-Christian lifestyle choices that the mass media fosters is so brilliantly and artfully engrained in the viewing public that when people hear the Christian message, it often inevitably seems ideological and emotionally cruel by contrast to the ostensible humaneness of the anti-Christian perspective.' Francis DeBernardo, the executive director of New Ways Ministry, which works to foster LGBTQ inclusion in the Catholic Church, called the remarks 'disappointing.' 'We pray that in the 13 years that have passed, 12 of which were under the papacy of Pope Francis, that his heart and mind have developed more progressively on LGBTQ+ issues, and we will take a wait-and-see attitude to see if that has happened,' DeBernardo said in a statement. Steidl Jack said Leo seemed to have a 'culture warrior mentality' on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ representation in pop culture back in 2012, but he expressed hope that the new pope's views have changed since then. 'A lot of the world has changed since 2012 — even Pope Francis changed a great deal over the course of his pontificate,' he said. 'So I hope that Pope Leo has been listening to LGBTQ Catholics. I hope he's been paying attention and growing, just as Pope Francis did, just as the rest of the world has been.' Views on LGBTQ issues have shifted dramatically over the past decade, including the views of practicing Catholics. For example, the Pew Research Center's 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study, which found 19% of U.S. adults identify as Catholics, found 70% of Catholics favor allowing same-sex couples to marry, up from 57% in 2014. Michael O'Loughlin, the executive director of Outreach, an LGBTQ Catholic organization, was in Rome for the announcement of the new pope. He said the 2012 comments were disappointing but that he was keeping an open mind. 'I'm willing to look at his wider message, which was one of peace and standing up for the marginalized,' he said. 'The fact that he switched to Spanish to address his former community in Peru I thought was a nice sign that he's a man of the people.' After 2012, the future pope's subsequent remarks on LGBTQ issues are sparse. In 2017, when he was bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, and spokesman of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, he appeared to speak out against 'gender ideology,' a term some people use to refer to transgender identities, telling local media that this ideology 'seeks to eliminate biological differences between men and women.' Then, in 2024, a year after Pope Francis formally approved allowing Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples, then-Cardinal Prevost said the subsequent pushback from bishops in Africa highlighted the need to give more doctrinal authority to local bishops, according to CBCPNews, the news service of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines. 'The bishops in the episcopal conferences of Africa were basically saying that here in Africa, our whole cultural reality is very different. … It wasn't rejecting the teaching authority of Rome, it was saying that our cultural situation is such that the application of this document is just not going to work,' Prevost said at the time, according to CBCPNews. 'You have to remember there are still places in Africa that apply the death penalty, for example, for people who are living in a homosexual relationship. … So, we're in very different worlds.' Hopes for the future When asked what she'd like to see from Leo's papacy, Duddy-Burke said she hopes he can serve a 'trusted moral voice.' 'The world is so broken at the moment in so many places — you know, this rise of nationalism, the increased xenophobia, so many wars that are very vicious happening around the world — I just hope that he can become a very clear and trusted moral voice in the world, and some of that means dealing with the inequities and failings within our own church as well,' she said. Steidl Jack said he hopes Leo listens to Catholics with differing viewpoints. 'One of the gifts of Pope Francis' papacy was that he encouraged church leaders to go outside of the church, to listen to people outside of the hierarchy, and that's really what Pope Leo needs to do, especially regarding same-sex relationships and transgender experience,' he said. DeBernardo, of New Ways Ministry, said in his statement that he hopes Leo continues to build upon the foundation that Francis laid out. 'Pope Francis opened the door to a new approach to LGBTQ+ people,' he said. 'Pope Leo must now guide the church through that door.'
CTV News
28-04-2025
- Business
- CTV News
New pope will face a Vatican budget crisis, and a myriad other problems
Dean of the College of Cardinals Giovanni Battista Re blesses the coffin during the funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) VATICAN CITY — Heavy is the white miter worn by the pope. Whoever emerges from the coming conclave as the new leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church will face a myriad of problems. Among the pressing issues are a widening gap in Vatican finances, church attendance is sliding in many Western countries, and doctrinal debates over issues like ordaining women as clergy and LGBTQ Catholic inclusion portend coming divisions. The Vatican's financial crisis was one of Pope Francis' last headaches. Three days before his last hospitalization in February, he ordered the creation of a new high-level commission to encourage donations to the Vatican, which is facing a budget shortfall and growing liabilities for its pension fund. Although the Vatican hasn't published a full budget report since 2022, the last set of accounts, approved in mid-2024, included an 83-million-euro (US$94-million) shortfall, two knowledgeable sources told Reuters. The shortfall in the pension fund was estimated to total some 631 million euros by the Vatican's finance czar in 2022. There has been no official update to this figure, but several insiders told Reuters they believe it has ballooned. Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and commentator who has written about the Vatican's finances, said the budget woes could have a 'tremendous impact' on who the cardinals entering the secret conclave in the coming days choose as the new pope. 'They're going to have to elect somebody who's a fundraiser, not a pastor,' said Reese. If the cardinals are looking for someone who is familiar with where to make funding cuts across the Vatican's complicated bureaucratic structure, they may turn to Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin. A leading papal contender, he was the Vatican's number-two official for nearly all of Francis' papacy. But Parolin also led the Vatican's Secretariat of State when it was embroiled in a scandal over the messy investment of more than $200 million in the purchase of a building in London. Cardinal Angelo Becciu, once one of Parolin's key deputies, was later convicted of embezzlement and fraud by a Vatican court and sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail. Becciu denies all wrongdoing and is free pending an appeal. Declines in Europe Across the world, the Catholic Church has grown slightly in membership in recent years. According to the latest official statistics, there were 1.405 billion Catholics globally at the end of 2023, up 1.15% from 1.389 billion at the end of 2022. The highest proportion of Catholics are in the Americas, with 64.2% of the population in North and South America being baptized Catholic. Europe follows at 39.6%, Oceania with 25.9%. But, generally, the rate of infant baptisms, a key indicator of growth for the faith, are highest in developing countries. The highest ratios of infant baptisms per 1,000 Catholics, according to Vatican statistics, are in American Samoa (71.2), several islands in Oceania (37.7 to 21.8), Burundi (23.6), Cambodia (22.3), East Timor (20.3) and Myanmar (20.1). Meanwhile, many European countries are experiencing declines. The German bishops' conference reported earlier this year that only 29 new priests had been ordained in the country in 2024, an historic low. They also said around 321,000 German Catholics had left the Church that year. The total number of Catholics in Germany, whose population of 83 million was once about half Catholic, is now under 20 million. Looking at the patterns of growth, some cardinals searching for the new pope may wish to turn away from Europe towards Asia or Africa. In that case, a likely contender is Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle. A former archbishop of Manila who Francis asked to lead the Vatican's evangelization office in 2019, Tagle is known for a charming, down-to-earth persona and would be the first pope from east of modern-day Turkey. The Philippines, a country of nearly 115 million, is almost 80 per cent Catholic. When Francis visited the Philippines in 2014, he attracted the largest crowds in papal history. An outdoor Mass in Manila included an estimated 7 million people. But Tagle was also embroiled in a scandal. In 2022, Francis removed him from a job leading a Vatican-based confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development and social services organizations working in more than 200 countries. Francis fired the entire leadership of Caritas Internationalis following reports of bullying by management. Tagle's role, akin to chancellor of the organization, was mostly ceremonial. Doctrinal questions In terms of doctrinal disputes, Francis largely sought to open up the Church to new conversations. Topics such as women's ordination, taboo for decades, were allowed to be debated. The pope created two commissions to consider ordaining women as deacons, who are ministers like priests but cannot celebrate the Mass. One of the commissions has not yet completed its work. Francis also allowed for priests to bless same-sex couples, on a case-by-case basis. His moves drew criticism from conservative Catholics, including a few cardinals, who feared he was watering down the faith. Some cardinals are now calling for a change of direction. Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, a conservative, said the next pope should not be a successor of Francis, but a successor of St. Peter, the first pope. Francis, Mueller told La Repubblica newspaper, was 'a bit ambiguous' with doctrine. With regard to same-sex blessings, 'you must not jeopardize the Catholic doctrine on matrimony,' he said. (Reporting by Joshua McElwee, Editing by Crispian Balmer and Janet Lawrence)
Irish Times
28-04-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
New pope will face a Vatican budget crisis and myriad other problems
Heavy is the white mitre worn by the pope. Whoever emerges from the coming conclave as the new leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic church will face myriad problems. Among the pressing issues are a widening gap in Vatican finances, church attendance falling in many western countries, and doctrinal debates over issues such as ordaining women as clergy and over LGBTQ Catholic inclusion portend coming divisions. [ Conclave: Vatican confirms date of secret meeting to elect new pope ] The Vatican's financial crisis was one of the late Pope Francis ' last headaches. In Last February, three days before the final time he was admitted to hospital, he ordered the creation of a new high-level commission to encourage donations to the Vatican, which is facing a budget shortfall and growing liabilities for its pension fund. Although the Vatican hasn't published a full budget report since 2022, the last set of accounts, approved in mid-2024, included an €83 million shortfall, two knowledgeable sources said. READ MORE The shortfall in the pension fund was estimated to total €631 million by the Vatican's finance tsar in 2022. There has been no official update to this figure, but several insiders said they believe it has ballooned. Rev Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and commentator who has written about the Vatican's finances, said the budget woes could have a 'tremendous impact' on who the cardinals entering the secret conclave in the coming days choose as the new pope. 'They're going to have to elect somebody who's a fundraiser, not a pastor,' Rev Reese said. If the cardinals are looking for someone who is familiar with where to make funding cuts across the Vatican's complicated bureaucratic structure, they may turn to Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin. A leading papal contender, he was the Vatican's number-two official for nearly all of Francis' papacy. But Parolin also led the Vatican's Secretariat of State when it was embroiled in a scandal over the messy investment of more than $200 million in the purchase of a building in London. Cardinal Angelo Becciu, once one of Parolin's key deputies, was later convicted of embezzlement and fraud by a Vatican court and sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail . Becciu denies all wrongdoing and is free pending an appeal. Across the world, the Catholic church has grown slightly in membership in recent years. There were 1.405 billion Catholics globally at the end of 2023, up 1.15 per cent from 1.389 billion at the end of 2022, statistics show. The highest proportion of Catholics are in the Americas, with 64.2 per cent of the population in North and South America being baptised Catholic. Europe follows at 39.6 per cent, Oceania with 25.9 per cent. But, generally, the rate of infant baptisms, a key indicator of growth for the faith, are highest in developing countries. The highest ratios of infant baptisms per 1,000 Catholics, Vatican statistics show, are in American Samoa (71.2), several islands in Oceania (37.7 to 21.8), Burundi (23.6), Cambodia (22.3), East Timor (20.3) and Myanmar (20.1). Meanwhile, many European countries are experiencing declines. The German bishops' conference reported earlier this year that only 29 new priests had been ordained in the country in 2024, a historic low. They also said around 321,000 German Catholics had left the church that year. The total number of Catholics in Germany, whose population of 83 million was once about half Catholic, is now below 20 million. Looking at the patterns of growth, some cardinals searching for the new pope may wish to turn away from Europe towards Asia or Africa. In that case, a likely contender is Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle. [ The 'Papabiles': Six men who could become the next pope following the papal conclave ] A former archbishop of Manila whom Francis asked to lead the Vatican's evangelisation office in 2019, Tagle is known for a charming, down-to-earth persona and would be the first pope from east of modern-day Turkey. The Philippines, a country of nearly 115 million, is almost 80 per cent Catholic. When Francis visited the Philippines in 2014, he attracted the largest crowds in papal history. An outdoor mass in Manila included an estimated seven million people. But Tagle was also embroiled in a scandal. In 2022, Francis removed him from a job leading a Vatican-based confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development and social services organisations working in more than 200 countries. Francis fired the entire leadership of Caritas Internationalis following reports of bullying by management. Tagle's role, akin to chancellor of the organisation, was mostly ceremonial. In terms of doctrinal disputes, Francis largely sought to open up the church to new conversations. Topics such as women's ordination, taboo for decades, were allowed to be debated. He created two commissions to consider ordaining women as deacons, who are ministers like priests but cannot celebrate the mass. One of the commissions has not yet completed its work. Francis also allowed for priests to bless same-sex couples on a case-by-case basis. His moves drew criticism from conservative Catholics, including a few cardinals, who feared he was watering down the faith. Some cardinals are now calling for a change of direction. Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, a conservative, said the next pope should not be a successor of Francis, but a successor of St Peter, the first pope. Pope Francis, Mueller told La Repubblica newspaper, was 'a bit ambiguous' with doctrine. With regard to same-sex blessings, 'you must not jeopardise the Catholic doctrine on matrimony', he said. – Reuters
Straits Times
28-04-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
New pope will face a Vatican budget crisis, a myriad other problems
Catholic cardinals will meet on May 7 to start voting for a new pope. PHOTO: AFP VATICAN CITY – Heavy is the white mitre worn by the pope. Whoever emerges from the coming conclave as the new leader of the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic Church will face a myriad of problems. Among the pressing issues are a widening gap in Vatican finances, church attendance is sliding in many Western countries, and doctrinal debates over issues like ordaining women as clergy and LGBTQ Catholic inclusion portend coming divisions. The Vatican's financial crisis was one of Pope Francis' last headaches. Three days before his last hospitalisation in February, he ordered the creation of a new high-level commission to encourage donations to the Vatican, which is facing a budget shortfall and growing liabilities for its pension fund. Although the Vatican has not published a full budget report since 2022, the last set of accounts, approved in mid-2024, included an €83 million (S$124 million) shortfall, two knowledgeable sources told Reuters. The shortfall in the pension fund was estimated to total some €631 million by the Vatican's finance czar in 2022. There has been no official update to this figure, but several insiders told Reuters they believe it has ballooned. Reverend Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and commentator who has written about the Vatican's finances, said the budget woes could have a 'tremendous impact' on who the cardinals entering the secret conclave in the coming days choose as the new pope. 'They're going to have to elect somebody who's a fundraiser, not a pastor,' said Rev Reese. If the cardinals are looking for someone who is familiar with where to make funding cuts across the Vatican's complicated bureaucratic structure, they may turn to Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin. A leading papal contender, he was the Vatican's No. 2 official for nearly all of Pope Francis' papacy. But Cardinal Parolin also led the Vatican's Secretariat of State when it was embroiled in a scandal over the messy investment of more than US$200 million (S$263 million) in the purchase of a building in London. Cardinal Angelo Becciu, once one of Cardinal Parolin's key deputies, was later convicted of embezzlement and fraud by a Vatican court and sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail. Cardinal Becciu denies all wrongdoing and is free pending an appeal. Declines in Europe Across the world, the Catholic Church has grown slightly in membership in recent years. According to the latest official statistics, there were 1.405 billion Catholics globally at the end of 2023, up 1.15 per cent from 1.389 billion at the end of 2022. The highest proportion of Catholics are in the Americas, with 64.2 per cent of the population in North and South America being baptised Catholic. Europe follows at 39.6 per cent, Oceania with 25.9 per cent. But, generally, the rate of infant baptisms, a key indicator of growth for the faith, are highest in developing countries. The highest ratios of infant baptisms per 1,000 Catholics, according to Vatican statistics, are in American Samoa (71.2), several islands in Oceania (37.7 to 21.8), Burundi (23.6), Cambodia (22.3), East Timor (20.3) and Myanmar (20.1). Meanwhile, many European countries are experiencing declines. The German bishops' conference reported earlier in 2025 that only 29 new priests were ordained in the country in 2024, an historic low. They also said around 321,000 German Catholics left the Church that year. The total number of Catholics in Germany, whose population of 83 million was once about half Catholic, is now under 20 million. Looking at the patterns of growth, some cardinals searching for the new pope may wish to turn away from Europe towards Asia or Africa. In that case, a likely contender is Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle. A former archbishop of Manila who Pope Francis asked to lead the Vatican's evangelisation office in 2019, Cardinal Tagle is known for a charming, down-to-earth persona and would be the first pope from east of modern-day Turkey. The Philippines, a country of nearly 115 million, is almost 80 per cent Catholic. When Pope Francis visited the Philippines in 2014, he attracted the largest crowds in papal history. An outdoor Mass in Manila included an estimated 7 million people. But Cardinal Tagle was also embroiled in a scandal. In 2022, Pope Francis removed him from a job leading a Vatican-based confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development and social services organisations working in more than 200 countries. Pope Francis fired the entire leadership of Caritas Internationalis following reports of bullying by management. Cardinal Tagle's role, akin to chancellor of the organisation, was mostly ceremonial. Doctrinal questions In terms of doctrinal disputes, Pope Francis largely sought to open up the Church to new conversations. Topics such as women's ordination, taboo for decades, were allowed to be debated. The Pope created two commissions to consider ordaining women as deacons, who are ministers like priests but cannot celebrate the Mass. One of the commissions has not yet completed its work. Pope Francis also allowed for priests to bless same-sex couples, on a case-by-case basis. His moves drew criticism from conservative Catholics, including a few cardinals, who feared he was watering down the faith. Some cardinals are now calling for a change of direction. Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, a conservative, said the next pope should not be a successor of Pope Francis, but a successor of St Peter, the first pope. Pope Francis, Cardinal Mueller told La Repubblica newspaper, was 'a bit ambiguous' with doctrine. With regard to same-sex blessings, 'you must not jeopardise the Catholic doctrine on matrimony', he said. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
