LGBTQ+ Catholics’ Unions “Are Life-Giving and Blessings,” Including to the Church, Writes Author

Yunuen Trujillo

The love and participation of LGBTQ+ people not only is holy in itself, but it greatly enriches the church. This is the message that pastoral minister and author Yunuen Trujillo continues to emphasize in her LGBTQ+ ministry work, including in two essays for U.S. Catholic.

In one essay, Trujillo, a member of New Ways Ministry’s Advisory Board and Bondings 2.0 contributor, examines how romantic love, marriage, and children intersect in the church. Some tokenize getting married or having a child “as a symbol of compliance with rules, a way to determine who is in and who is out.” Not only LGBTQ+ people, but many Catholics are excluded by this approach, including couples who cannot or do not have biological children and single parents.

Trujillo challenges such a rule-based conception of love by arguing that, beyond simply having the possibility of procreation, “Love is life-giving in more than one way.” She ties her argument to Fiducia Supplicans and the question of blessing “irregular” couples, including queer ones:

“What might that blessing look like? ‘In a brief prayer preceding this spontaneous blessing, the ordained minister could ask that the individuals have peace, health, a spirit of patience, dialogue, and mutual assistance—but also God’s light and strength,’ the document reads.

“Some Catholics seem baffled by this possibility. This openness to bless is a recognition of the existence of grace-giving love in so-called ‘irregular relationships’ and an invitation for all of us to reflect on how these unions already enrich our church. . .

“I have no doubt that the committed and loving unions of LGBTQ Catholics, as well as other heterosexual Catholics in civil marriages or childless marriages, are life-giving and blessings in and of themselves. The Holy Spirit is calling us to discern how they are a blessing to the church and, consequently, to bless them in return.”

In a separate essay, Trujillo focuses on one way that LGBTQ+ people are a blessing to the church: acting as godparents.

While Trujillo had been a godmother once before, when asked recently it felt different because she was in a same-sex relationship, and her partner was the other godparent. Another possible wrinkle was that the  child’s parents were not sacramentally married. All of this made finding a parish somewhat difficult, forcing Trujillo to turn to a priest who was a good friend. About this option, she shares:

“After I explained the situation to him and asked whether he would celebrate a baptism with lesbian godmothers, his reply was simple: ‘Yes! When?’ As the iconic late Mexican queer singer and composer Juan Gabriel would say, ‘Pero qué necesidad, ¿para qué tanto problema?’ (‘But why is there a need to make it such a problem?’).”

Trujillo notes that in October 2023, the Vatican issued a document affirming that LGBTQ+ people may act as godparents and baptismal witnesses, and that children of same-gender couples are welcomed to baptism. About this, Trujillo continues:

“If we are honest, most parishioners don’t read these documents, and their religious formation will only grow as much as that of the pastor who leads them. Parishioners looking to grow spiritually and who are not afraid to tackle difficult questions are more likely to leave the church if their pastor is not pastoral—not because of a lack of calling, but because their needs are not being met. However, when they do decide to come back for eventual baptism, I hope they encounter many Father M.’s at their parishes.”

—Angela Howard McParland (she/her) and Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, July 27, 2024