Cardinal: God Will Provide Synod Direction on LGBTQ+ Issues

Bondings 2.0 writers Robert Shine and Francis DeBernardo are in Rome for the month of October covering the first global assembly of the Synod on Synodality, particularly LGBTQ-related developments. For the blog’s full coverage of this multi-year synodal journey, click here.

REPORTING FROM ROME—LGBTQ+ issues made their debut yesterday at the daily press conference for the Synod on Synodality. Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo of Kinshasa, president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, is one of the synod participants who spoke at the press conference. A reporter asked the cardinal what his response would be if the Synod approved blessing same-gender couples, given that the overwhelming African opinion is that such couples are taboo. Would African bishops accept such an approval as being the will of God?

“We’re here at a synod on synodality,” Cardinal Ambongo said, calling the meeting a “journeying together,” as it often is described. In this journeying, the participants need to ask themselves, “How can we address the issues that are raised?” The cardinal said that he felt that God will provide the answers to the Synod’s questions. If the LGBT issue is raised, “then the Lord himself, through collective discernment, will tell us that for this topic, you need to follow this direction.”

The cardinal declined to offer his personal point of view on the topic, saying “At the point that we stand now, I wouldn’t like to express my personal opinion because this would mean I am moving away from the spirit of synodality.” 

This was not the clearest answer to the question. It may show that at least some Synod assembly participants are going to be reluctant to express a point of view on particular issues—or at least LGBTQ+ issues—publicly. However, it may also indicate that the cardinal is open to hearing different points of view on the topic, and is open to seeing where the discussion will lead.

Cardinal Ambongo is known as a strong supporter of human rights in his homeland of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although same-gender sexual activity is legal (it had never been made illegal under Belgian colonial rule or after independence), there are no legal protections for LGBTQ+ people, who face strong discrimination from citizens and police alike.  Transgender people, in particular, are subject to frequent violent attacks. The cardinal does not appear to have made any statements, positive or negative, regarding LGBTQ+ people in his country.

In 2014, 98% of Congolese people reported they were against legalizing same-gender marriage. Catholics make up about 30% of the population, and the Catholic Church has an outsized influence on the nation. So when a cardinal from a country with such a strong anti-LGBTQ+ culture, with the Catholic Church being a major factor in that culture, says that he is open to where God might lead the Synod on LGBTQ+ issues, that can be seen as a positive step.

—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, October 8, 2023