Pope Francis defended inclusion. LGBTQ Catholics expect a new Pope to end what began.

Like him conclave To select a new Pope Start this weekLGBTQ Catholics hope that whoever is chosen ends the inclusion work that Pope Francis began more than 20 years ago.

Pope Francis, who died at 88 last month, was the first pontiff to be publicly included by the LGBTQ Catholic community. He did not change the doctrine, but changed the conversation expressing support for legal civil unions, gathering personally with LGBTQ groups and extending Blessings to individuals in same -sex unions.

“Francis was really a breath of fresh air, and a revolutionary in the way he told Church leaders to approach and related to LGBTQ people,” said Francis Debardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Catholic scope that educates and advocates by LGBTQ people.

Debardo said that the two previous popes before Francis had anti-gay opinions, probably the strongest in the history of the Church. Under Francis, the papacy adopted a different tone towards the LGBTQ community.

Some clergy and Catholics within the community expect The conclave – In which Some friends It seems to share Francis’s inclusive opinions, his job will continue.

“Who am I to judge?”

Only four months after Francisco became Pope in 2013, he created controversy when, during a press conference aboard July, he answered a journalist’s question about the members of the gay clergy. He said: “If someone is gay and looks for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis’s response was against years of Catholic precedent.

These words, which reverberated worldwide, Establish a very different tone From the previous relationship, the Church had with the clergy and homosexual members. His predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, accepted much less to LGBTQ people. Benedict XVI published the first modern formal statement denouncing homosexuality in 1986.

The treaty was written by Benedict while he was still a cardinal under Pope John Paul II. John Paul supported Benedict’s message, and also explicitly denounced legal recognition for same -sex marriage. Those feelings prevailed in 2003 when the Vatican officially opposed the same sex unions.

In response to the hard line positions of the Vatican, LGBTQ people celebrated protests during John Paul’s US visit in 1987. During his trip he stopped in several cities, but the resistance was more notable during his time in San Francisco. San Francisco was recovering from the AIDS epidemic and during the visit, the Pope was received with activists containing signs of protest and participated in candle and prayer vigils processions, hoping to promulgate change.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is an official document that describes Catholic beliefs, the Church still sees homosexuals act as “intrinsically immoral and contrary to natural law.” The text says that homosexual trends are “objectively messy.”

Cristina Traza, professor of the Department of Theology at the University of Fordham, says that the language used in the catechism to describe homosexuality does not easily translate into everyday life.

“You could read [“objectively disordered”] As a technical term, but people read it as fundamentally evil and broken, “Traina said.” It is a technical term, but certainly does not work pastorally. “

With his public comments, Pope Francis began to change the narrative. Francis called “a human fact” homosexuality, during a May 2024 interview with News themezone’ Norah O’Donnell. He personally met with LGBTQ Catholic groups, including the New Ways Ministry of Debardo, and clarified that transgender people can be baptized and serve as godparents.

Potential for continuous progress

Trace sees the potential for continuous progress within the Church despite the death of Pope Francis, because attitudes between everyday Catholics have changed.

“These things change in the field and in practice, and then change in the Vatican, and that is the last thing that changes,” Traina said.

A 2020 study of the Williams Institute of UCLA found that there were approximately 11.3 million LGBTQ adults in the United States, and around 5.3 million of them are religious, including approximately 1.3 million that are Roman Catholics.

Although 69% of Americans support same -sex marriage, political figures such as vice president JD Vance, a Catholic convert, continue to press for traditional family values ​​and support laws that allow religious exemptions to LGBTQ protections. While campaigning for his seat in the United States Senate in 2022, one of the laws that said that he would vote ‘is not the Respect for the act of marriagewhich provided federal protections for same -sex and interracial marriages.

Teresa Thompson is a member of Catholic lesbians in the church of San Francisco Xavier in New York. Catholic lesbians were founded in 1995 and has more than 300 members.

Thompson, who grew Catholic, began to distance himself from religion during the university, which was also casually when he came out as a lesbian. Although his departure from religion was not due to his sexuality, he felt that he could not return to Catholicism. That began to change when Francis adopted a more compassionate tone towards LGBTQ people, and Thompson discovered communities that welcomed her.

As the conclave approaches, Thompson expects the new Pope to continue the work that Francis began.

“I think there is a feeling of nervousness, not being sure of what is going to happen,” Thompson said. “If we observe the structure of the Cardinals College, Francis designated so many cardinals who seems unlikely that … let’s return, but also who can say?”

Sister Jeannine Gramick, co -founder of the New Ways Ministry, believes that the next Pope will be reflected The path of Pope Francis instead of undoing your legacy.

“My sense is that cardinal voters will choose someone who [will follow] In the steps of Pope Francis, “Gramick said.” So, if that is correct, then the changes caused by Pope Francis will not undo. “

In his conversations with LGBTQ Catholics, Gramick says he feels high hopes for the future, and there is hope for a Pope who will go beyond what Francis did.

“[LGBTQ] People are looking for more changes, and I think the main change they are looking for is to change the teaching of the church’s sexual ethics, “Gramick said.” The catechism has not yet changed. ”

Seeing the conclave on the clues

With the conclave ready to start, Some of the cardinals Who could be a contestant seem to be prepared to continue with Francis’s legacy? As News themezone reported, they include:

• Cardinal Peter Erdo, archbishop of Budapest, Hungary
• Kinshasa archbishop,
• Cardinal Mario Grech, general secretary of the Synod of Bishops
• Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Vatican
• Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem
• Cardinal Luis Tagle de Filipinas
• Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, archbishop of Bologna, Italy
• Cardinal Anders Arborelius, Archbishop of Stockholm
• Cardinal Gerald Cyprien Lacroix de Quebec

Cardinal Grech has advocated more compassionate language when I speak about LGBTQ people and has spoken about the importance of the inclusion of all members, including LGBTQ people, according to the new forms of the ministry.

Cardinal Tagle has also talked compassionately about LGBTQ Catholics and was an ally of Francis. Cardinal Zuppi is another contender who supports Francis’s hug to LGBTQ Catholics, according to New Ways Ministry.

“I am voting for Cardinal Tagle to be the first Pope Filipino,” said Thompson. “I think that in character and ideas, it is very similar to Francis, and I used to live in the Philippines, so I also have a special place in my heart for the idea of ​​a Filipino Pope.”

Traina says that he also has the hope of someone like Tagle, but points out that predicting who will be the new Pope is almost impossible.

“It is often difficult to know what (a cardinal) will really do when they get into the papacy, because Francis was also a surprise,” Traina said. “Since we have a Global Cardinals school, now the possibilities list is much longer.”

Although Thompson is launching his personal support behind Cardinal Tagle, he urges the electorate to put aside his political motivations while they cast his votes.

“I really hope this is a time when leaders can practice what they preach,” Thompson said. “In Ignatian spirituality, there is a practice of making decisions through discernment, [where you] Let go … of your preconceived notions [and] Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you. … I would say that please try to let politics go and try to listen to how the church really wants to move forward. “

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