Pope Emphasizes Creative Pastoral Accompaniment Instead of a Focus on Sexual Activity

It has become Pope Francis’ custom to meet with the Jesuit community when he travels abroad, and often these conversations are later published by La Civilita Cattolica. The latest transcript from a visit with Jesuits in Portugal (when he visited that country for World Youth Day at the beginning of this month) was just published, and it includes comments on LGBTQ+ people.

In one question, a priest who is a campus minister in Lisbon asked the pope about gay students active in the church who “do not feel, in conscience, that their relationships are sinful.” The priest wanted to know how to pastorally care for these students who feel “called by God to a healthy affective life that produces fruit” and whether pastoral ministers could recognize “that their relationships can open up and give seeds of true Christian love.”

Francis responded that all are invited to a life with Christ, echoing his call at World Youth Day of “todos, todos, todos” (“everyone, everyone, everyone”). He continued:

“In other words, the door is open to everyone, everyone has their own space in the Church. How will each person live it out? We help people live so that they can occupy that place with maturity, and this applies to all kinds of people.

“In Rome I know a priest who works with young homosexuals. It is clear that today the issue of homosexuality is very strong, and the sensitivity in this regard changes according to historical circumstances. But what I don’t like at all, in general, is that we look at the so-called ‘sin of the flesh’ with a magnifying glass, just as we have done for so long for the sixth commandment. If you exploited workers, if you lied or cheated, it didn’t matter, and instead sins below the waist were relevant.

“So, everyone is invited. This is the point. And the most appropriate pastoral attitude for each person must be applied. We must not be superficial and naive, forcing people into things and behaviors for which they are not yet mature, or are not capable. It takes a lot of sensitivity and creativity to accompany people spiritually and pastorally. But everyone, everyone, everyone is called to live in the Church: never forget that.”

Francis added a note about his ministry with transgender people, explaining the results of his visit to a trans community living near Rome who are pastorally accompanied by women religious:

“They have a little chapel, a kitchen, sleeping area, everything well organized. And that nun also works a lot with people who are transgender. One day she said, ‘Can I bring them to the audience?’ ‘Sure!’ I answered her, ‘why not?’ And groups of trans come all the time. The first time they came, they were crying. I was asking them why. One of them told me, ‘I didn’t think the pope would receive me!’ Then, after the first surprise, they made a habit of coming. Some write to me, and I email them back. Everyone is invited! I realized that these people feel rejected, and it is really hard.”

In related comments, asked about church leaders in the United States who oppose him, Francis replied that the country’s episcopate had “a very strong reactionary attitude” that was organized and formative. Yet, the pope continued:

“I would like to remind those people that indietrismo (being backward-looking) is useless and we need to understand that there is an appropriate evolution in the understanding of matters of faith and morals. . .In other words, doctrine also progresses, expands and consolidates with time and becomes firmer, but is always progressing. Change develops from the roots upward, growing in accord with these three criteria.

“Vincent of Lérins makes the comparison between human biological development and the transmission from one age to another of the depositum fidei, which grows and is consolidated with the passage of time. Here, our understanding of the human person changes with time, and our consciousness also deepens. The other sciences and their evolution also help the Church in this growth in understanding. The view of Church doctrine as monolithic is erroneous. . .

“Those American groups you talk about, so closed, are isolating themselves. Instead of living by doctrine, by the true doctrine that always develops and bears fruit, they live by ideologies. When you abandon doctrine in life to replace it with an ideology, you have lost, you have lost as in war.”

For New Ways Ministry’s chronology of Pope Francis’ record on LGBTQ+ issues since his 2013 election, click here.

—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, August 29, 2023