Hope and Disappointment for LGBTQ+ People Spring from List of Synod Participants

The following is a statement from Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry’s Executive Director, regarding the list of participants for next October’s assembly of the Synod that was released today.

The participants’ list for the Synod’s next assembly causes both hope and disappointment for New Ways Ministry as we work for LGBTQ+ inclusion. This news commits us to continue working to ensure LGBTQ+ people will be heard in the church’s synodal process.

On the hopeful side, Pope Francis’ appointment of several high-profile U.S. clerical leaders to participate in the Vatican’s October meeting of the global Synod signals that LGBTQ+ issues will be on the agenda. Cardinals Blase Cupich, Wilton Gregory, Robert McElroy, Sean O’Malley, Joseph Tobin, as well as Archbishop Paul Etienne and Father James Martin have, in varying degrees, expressed openness to improve the church’s pastoral care for LGBTQ+ people. Father Martin, well-known for his LGBTQ+ ministry, is a clearly positive voice.

As far as New Ways Ministry can identify, no openly LGBTQ+ person or leader was selected to participate at the Synod assembly. If our examination is accurate, it will be very disappointing for the following reasons:

1. For the first time, people other than bishops are being included as full, voting participants in the assembly. This possibility for non-episcopal voices presented a prime opportunity for openly LGBTQ+ people to express the joys and challenges of their faith with other leaders in the church. The Synod’s Instrumentum Laboris (working document) emphasized that those who have been excluded from church life “are bearers of Good News that the whole community needs to hear” and that “whenever we encounter another person in love, we learn something new about God.” The Synod assembly is ideal for such encounters to occur.
2. Since LGBTQ+ issues emerged in so many synodal conversations around the globe and were reflected in the reports at each previous stage, it is reasonable to have expected that openly LGBTQ+ people would have been included in the assembly. One of the reflection questions asks synod participants to imagine ways of “walking with people instead of talking about them or solely at them.” Unfortunately, with no openly LGBTQ+ people present, the participants will still only be talking about them, not walking with
3. Because of the promise that their voices were wanted in synod discussions, LGBTQ+ people participated actively in the initial stages of the synod process. They were glad to be welcomed at the table for discussion. Their absence at the October meeting does not allow for their voices to be heard directly. As thousands of pastoral ministers know, hearing LGBTQ+ people share their experience has powerfully moved them to work for their greater inclusion in the church.

From the U.S. perspective, a particular disappointment is the list of Synod participants put forward by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: Archbishop Timothy Broglio (Military Ordinariate) Bishops Daniel Flores (Brownsville), Robert Barron (Winona-Rochester), Kevin Rhoades (Fort Wayne-South Bend), and Cardinal Timothy Dolan (New York), who all have made negative statements on LGBTQ+ issues. We hope that their participation in the synod will help them to better understand the lives and spiritual journeys of LGBTQ+ Catholics.

However, despite all these disappointments, we still have hope that the synod can produce some steps forward in regard to LGBTQ+ people. Internationally, a number of the bishops appointed have LGBTQ-positive records, including support for blessing queer couples, ministry with the transgender community, and calls for non-discrimination protections. Importantly, the Synod’s Relator General, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, is quite positive. Other church leaders include: Cardinal Leonardo Ulrich Steiner (Brazil), Bishop Georg Bätzing (Germany), Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck (Germany), Archbishop Charles Scicluna (Malta), Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle (Vatican/Philippines), Cardinal Michael Czerny (Vatican/Canada), Cardinal Jozef De Kesel (Belgium), Cardinal Oswald Gracias (India), Cardinal Christoph Schönborn (Austria), Cardinal Matteo Zuppi (Italy), and Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. (England).

The October assembly is the first of two such international gatherings for this Synod. We hope and pray that for the October 2024 assembly, planners will correct their omission this year by prioritizing some openly LGBTQ+ people who can tell their stories. Although the Synod is not specifically about LGBTQ+ topics, concern about ways to include LGBTQ+ people in the church emerged as a dominant issue in preceding conversations and as a key part of how to become more fully a synodal church.

Openly LGBTQ+ people may be absent, yet the strong voices for LGBTQ+ equality who are included have the opportunity to be truthful and bold about their pastoral and ecclesial experiences with LGBTQ+ people. Indeed, since openly LGBTQ+ Catholics will not be there in person, it is incumbent for these church leaders to make them as present as possible by telling their stories to the synod assembly.

Ultimately, we have hope because we believe firmly that the Holy Spirit is guiding the Church. We have faith that the Holy Spirit can work through the 2023 participants to help move our church in a more positive direction towards LGBTQ+ ministry.  And we continue to hope and pray for the day when LGBTQ+ people themselves will have a place at the table to share their hopes, dreams, and prayers for the church they love so dearly.

In the coming days, Bondings 2.0 will feature more analysis about the different participants as they relate to LGBTQ+ issues. We will definitely report any information that becomes public concerning an LGBTQ+ identity for any of the synod participants. 

—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, July 7, 2023