{"id":57738,"date":"2025-09-01T23:45:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T03:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=57738"},"modified":"2025-09-01T23:45:58","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T03:45:58","slug":"pope-leo-meets-lgbtq-catholic-advocate-vows-continuity-with-pope-francis-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/09\/01\/pope-leo-meets-lgbtq-catholic-advocate-vows-continuity-with-pope-francis-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo meets LGBTQ+ Catholic advocate, vows continuity with Pope Francis’ legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Pope Leo XIV met Monday with one of the most prominent advocates for greater LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Catholic Church and encouraged his ministry, just days before a planned Holy Year pilgrimage of LGBTQ+ Catholics to the Vatican in a sign of continued welcome<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rev. James Martin, a New York-based Jesuit author and editor, said Leo told him he intended to continue Pope Francis\u2019 policy of LGBTQ+ acceptance in the church and encouraged him to keep up his advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI heard the same message from Pope Leo that I heard from Pope Francis, which is the desire to welcome all people, including LGBTQ people,\u201d Martin told The Associated Press after the audience. \u201cIt was wonderful. It was very consoling and very encouraging and frankly a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meeting, which lasted about a half-hour, was officially announced by the Vatican in a sign that Leo wanted it made public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The audience was significant because it showed a strong sign of continuity with Francis, who more than any of Leo’s predecessors worked to make the Catholic Church a more welcoming place for LGBTQ+ Catholics. From his 2013 quip, \u201cWho am I to judge?\u201d about a purportedly gay priest, to his decision to allow priests to bless same-sex couples<\/a>, Francis distinguished himself with his message of welcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his 12-year papacy from 2013 to 2025, Francis met on several occasions with Martin and named him an adviser in the Vatican\u2019s communications department and a member of his big multi-year meeting on the future of the church. Still, Francis never changed church teaching, saying homosexual acts are \u201cintrinsically disordered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leo\u2019s position on LGBTQ+ Catholics had been something of a question<\/a>. Soon after he was elected in May, remarks surfaced from 2012 in which the future pope, then known as the Rev. Robert Prevost, criticized the \u201chomosexual lifestyle\u201d and the role of mass media in promoting acceptance of same-sex relationships that conflicted with Catholic doctrine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he became a cardinal in 2023, Catholic News Service asked Prevost if his views had changed. He acknowledged Francis’ call<\/a> for a more inclusive church, saying Francis \u201cmade it very clear that he doesn\u2019t want people to be excluded simply on the basis of choices that they make, whether it be lifestyle, work, way to dress, or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prevost then underlined that doctrine had not changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut we are looking to be more welcoming and more open and to say all people are welcome in the church,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin, who knew Prevost from their time working together in the synod on the church\u2019s future, said he wasn\u2019t worried about Leo\u2019s views given Martin always had found him to be \u201ca very open, welcoming, inclusive person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s wonderful to hear this continuation,\u201d Martin said, adding that Leo told him his priorities are to work for peace and unity, citing in particular the conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and Myanmar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut he also wanted to remind people that this is a church for \u2018todos, todos, totos,\u2019\u201d Martin said, quoting Francis\u2019 famous line in Spanish about how the church is open to everyone, todos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin helped found Outreach, a ministry promoting LGBTQ+ acceptance<\/a>, which will participate in a big Holy Year pilgrimage Friday and Saturday sponsored by Italian LGBTQ+ Catholic group \u201cJonathan\u2019s Tent.\u201d Significantly, the pilgrimage of about 1,200 people includes a Mass at the Jesuit church in Rome celebrated by the second-highest member of the Italian bishop\u2019s conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pilgrimage is not officially sponsored by the Vatican, but is listed on the Vatican\u2019s calendar of Holy Year events. Vatican officials say such a listing doesn\u2019t signify endorsement, but is merely a logistical help to those groups that wish to organize pilgrimages and walk through the Holy Door of St. Peter\u2019s Basilica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the pilgrimage and Martin’s audience nevertheless send a signal that is consistent with church teaching \u201cthat Jesus reaches out to people on the margins,” Martin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The message he received from Leo was \u201cthat if people were happy with Pope Francis\u2019 approach to LGBTQ Catholics, they\u2019re going to be happy with Pope Leo\u2019s approach. And he asked me to continue what I\u2019m doing, which was very encouraging,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pope Leo XIV met Monday with one of the most prominent advocates for greater LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Catholic Church and encouraged his ministry, just days before a planned Holy… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"17","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDlcL3BvcGVsZW9nZW5lcmFsYXVkaWVuY2U0MDUyODI1LXNjYWxlZC53ZWJwP2ZpdD0xMDI0JTJDNjgzJnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiUG9wZSBMZW8gbWVldHMgTEdCVFErIENhdGhvbGljIGFkdm9jYXRlLCB2b3dzIGNvbnRpbnVpdHkgd2l0aCBQb3BlIEZyYW5jaXMmIzgyMTc7IGxlZ2FjeSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.fbwkB671KOlTjGs2cOeyFhBivA4QXBDserNPYxL1cWQMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":57739,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/popeleogeneralaudience4052825-scaled.webp","type":"image\/webp"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[12134,12135],"class_list":["post-57738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-pope-leo-meets-lgbtq-catholic-advocate","tag-vows-continuity-with-pope-francis-legacy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57740,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57738\/revisions\/57740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}