Catholic LGBTQ+ folks have had a long, often toxic, relationship with their Church ever since the days of Paul the Apostle, the architect of Catholicism.
While many gay Catholics have been and remain closeted, there have been several individuals, such as John J. McNeill, who have been open about their sexual orientation.
During a 2009 speech given while accepting the Bridge Building Award from New Ways Ministry, McNeill (who passed away at the age of 90 in 2015) offered the following thoughts: “We came to realize early on that we could not accept and obey Church teaching on homosexuality without destroying ourselves physically, psychologically and spiritua[lly]. Consequently, as a matter of survival we had to take distance from Church teaching, develop our freedom of conscience and learn to hear what the Spirit of God is saying to us through our experience. The result has been that the LGBT community is leading the way to transform the Catholic Church into a Church of the Holy Spirit.”
Support organizations such as New Ways Ministry, DignityUSA, and the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics continue to maintain robust memberships; and now queer Catholics are trying to figure out what to make of a new report issued recently by the Holy See. The report has a long title: “Theological Criteria and Synodical Methodologies for Shared Discernment of Emerging Doctrinal, Pastoral, and Ethical Issues.”
Study Group N.9 is a specialized, Vatican-appointed body established by Pope Francis in February 2024 to study “controversial” or “emerging” doctrinal, pastoral and ethical issues, topics and other complex matters. Among those issues it wrestles with are how “different forms of the experience of faith in Jesus” can coexist. One of those forms is the experience of queer Catholics in the face of two millennia of condemnation.
The first section of the report states, “The Church’s mission is not a matter of abstractly proclaiming and deductively applying principles that are set out in an immutable and rigid manner, but of fostering a living encounter with the person of the risen Lord Jesus, by engaging with the lived experience of faith of the People of God in its personal and social relevance, in relation to the diverse situations of life and the many cultural contexts.”
One of those situations and cultural contexts is that of queer people. The testimonies of two gay Catholics were used in the report to address that aspect of the report.
“The two testimonies, while very different from one another and reflecting the cultural context of Western societies, present several common features,” the report states. Both testimonies were from gay married men.
The first is that of a queer Portuguese man. In that testimony, according to the report, one sees how “the positivity of this journey [developing one’s sense of queer identity] coexists with significant difficulties, as seen in the devastating effects of reparative therapies aimed at recovering heterosexuality…”
The second is from the United States, in which the individual talks about their experience with the LGBTQ+ Catholic support group Courage, which, according to the authors of the report, has “the effect of separating faith and sexuality” by pushing reparative therapy.
Inclusion of the material in the report would infer that the Church has recognized the grievous harm caused by “conversion therapy.”
Responses to the report from queer Catholic individuals and organizations have been cautious but encouraging.
Fr. James Martin, SJ, wrote for Outreach, a LGBTQ+ Catholic ministry, that the testimony aspect of the report, “marks the first time that a Vatican report has included such detailed stories from LGBTQ Catholics. As such, it marks a significant step forward in the church’s relationship with the LGBTQ community.”
Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, posted on the organization’s website, “This document demonstrates a welcome humility and openness to learning from the People of God about their lives and faith journeys…To see this reality reflected and respected in this document is a long-awaited positive step.”