Pope Leo XIV confirmed his intent to include LGBTQ parishioners within the Catholic Church ahead of their planned Holy Year pilgrimage to Vatican City.
This article’s headline is fairly misleading but essentially what is being said here is that Leo will maintain the status quo that was established under Francis, which was essentially that the Catholic Church still disapproves of homosexuality, but is willing to turn a blind eye to it in countries where the general culture is more accepting of LGBT people. In essence, it’s a balancing act because the Catholic Church, despite being so historically tied to European identity and culture, is increasingly a non-European institution, with almost all growth in Catholic membership and clergy coming from outside of Europe, and the non-European clergy are typically much more hard line on LGBT issues than the European leadership and power base of the Church. There is also the fundamental issue that almost all of the people in charge legitimately believe that God has forbidden homosexuality and that it is a serious sin to have sex with someone of the same sex, and that there is no difference between biological sex and gender. The question is not about “Does the Catholic Church approve of this?” It is “How much of this are we willing to ignore to keep the church from splitting in a time where it is already in decline?” That may seem odd, but the long term success of the Catholic Church, and the reason it has been able to survive for nearly 2000 years all across the world, is due in large part to their willingness to turn a blind eye to behaviors they consider sinful to keep people in the church.
TL;DR- the Catholic Church isn’t cool with LGBT people now, it’s just a political tightrope the Pope has to walk in the modern Church.
This article’s headline is fairly misleading but essentially what is being said here is that Leo will maintain the status quo that was established under Francis, which was essentially that the Catholic Church still disapproves of homosexuality, but is willing to turn a blind eye to it in countries where the general culture is more accepting of LGBT people. In essence, it’s a balancing act because the Catholic Church, despite being so historically tied to European identity and culture, is increasingly a non-European institution, with almost all growth in Catholic membership and clergy coming from outside of Europe, and the non-European clergy are typically much more hard line on LGBT issues than the European leadership and power base of the Church. There is also the fundamental issue that almost all of the people in charge legitimately believe that God has forbidden homosexuality and that it is a serious sin to have sex with someone of the same sex, and that there is no difference between biological sex and gender. The question is not about “Does the Catholic Church approve of this?” It is “How much of this are we willing to ignore to keep the church from splitting in a time where it is already in decline?” That may seem odd, but the long term success of the Catholic Church, and the reason it has been able to survive for nearly 2000 years all across the world, is due in large part to their willingness to turn a blind eye to behaviors they consider sinful to keep people in the church.
TL;DR- the Catholic Church isn’t cool with LGBT people now, it’s just a political tightrope the Pope has to walk in the modern Church.