The Worst Catholic LGBTQ+ News Stories of 2024

The results are in for Bondings 2.0’s poll for the Best and Worst Catholic LGBTQ+ News of 2024.  We asked our readers and other New Ways Ministry supporters to vote for five best and five worst stories from a “nominations” list of 15 stories in each category.

We’ve tallied the results, and in today’s post we present the top 10 vote getters for the worst news events, followed by the percentage of votes each item received. We offered readers the option to suggest their own nominees, and their suggestions follow the list.  Tomorrow, we will close out the year with the results for the best news events.

To see the list of nominees for each list, click here.

Thanks to all of who participated in the poll.  At the end of this post is some opinionated anaylsis of the list, and we invite readers to offer their own insights about the list in the “Comments” section of this post.

THE WORST CATHOLIC LGBTQ+ NEWS STORIES OF 2024

1. Ghana’s Catholic bishops endorse an anti-LGBTQ+ law and support the use of “conversion” therapy for sexual and gender minorities. 55%
2. The Synod on Synodality closes after four years, but the final report does not mention LGBTQ+ people or issues, despite that these topics were mentioned in so many of the local reports. 54%
3. Pope Francis continues to condemn “gender ideology,” an amorphous term never fully defined. At one point, he refers to it as the “worst danger” in the world. 49%
4. Dignitas Infinita, a new Vatican document on the fundamental and universal application of human dignity lists “gender ideology” as a “grave harm” to such dignity. 47%
5. After transgender advocate’s funeral was held in New York’s St Patrick’s Cathedral, Cardinal Timothy Dolan condemns the liturgy and authorizes a Mass of reparation to be celebrated in the building. 45%
6. Though usually slow to implement directives from Pope Francis’ Vatican, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops moves with speed to implement the anti-LGBTQ+ guidance from Dignitas Infinita. 38%
7. Some bishops oppose the blessing of same-gender couples which had been allowed by the Vatican with the release of the December 2023 declaration, Fiducia Supplicans. 31%
8. A National Catholic Reporter investigation reveals that two conservative Catholic organizations–Cardinal Newman Society and Person & Identity–were driving forces behind many diocesan anti-LGBTQ+ gender policies. 29%
9. Pope Francis uses an Italian anti-gay slur in a meeting with members of the Italian Bishops Conference, then repeats doing so a week later. 23%
10. The Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire ends a 60-year relationship with a group which supports mentally and physically challenged people from using church-run facility for youth camps, after some campers displayed Pride flags this past year. 22%

OTHER NEWS ITEMS SUGGESTED BY READERS

1. Six readers suggested that the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president was one of the worst Catholic LGBTQ+ news stories of the year, with one of those readers also suggesting that the fact that no U.S. Supreme Court Justices resigned was also a negative.
2. One reader wrote: “Catholic grandmothers protest closing of LQBTQ ministry in a parish in the Milwaukee archdiocese. One grandmother says the church still sees her grandkids as disordered and are separated from their faith community. She is disheartened by church’s mistreatment of people who are transgender and their allies.”
3. One reader suggested: “The Norwegian Catholic Bishops’ Council has signed onto an ecumenical statement denouncing diverse categories of gender and sexuality. Signed by 14 denominations and over 40 Christian organizations.”\
4. One reader commented: “We cannot trust what the Vatican or current pope states affirming LGBTQIA+. We try to make something positive based on his noncommittal and bland comments. He does not make a firm commitment of support.”

SOME ANALYSIS

The top item about Ghana’s bishops supporting the criminalization of LGBTQ+ people seems to have struck a strong nerve among readers, perhaps because Pope Francis continues to condemn such criminaliztion laws.

The failure of the Synod on Synodality to take up LGBTQ+ issues in any substantial way is not surprising to find near the top of the list, as so many people had high hopes for this event and had participated so vigorously in it.

Interestingly, the two items that captured the #1 and #2 spot this year were closely related to the two top vote-getters on 2023’s “Worst” list:

1. 1. TIE Despite Pope Francis’s declaration against laws which criminalize LGBTQ+ people, bishops in Ghana, Uganda, Malawi, and elsewhere continue supporting such legislation.   47%
   2. TIE The General Assembly of the Synod’s report in October gives short shrift to LGBTQ+ issues in contrast to the widespread support for inclusion in previous stages.  47%  

Dignitas Infinita, the April 2024 document which promoted human dignity but condemned gender transitions, featured in two items (#4 and #6) on the above list.

Two items (#1 and #7) report on bishops opposing papal directives that support LGBTQ+ equality.  One item (#6) reports on bishops who are usually slow to enact LGBTQ-positive papal directives to act with speed on an LGBTQ-negative one.

What are your insights into this list?  Please mention them in the “Comments” section of this post.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s list of the BEST Catholic LGBTQ+ News Stories of 2024!

—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, December 30, 2024