Priests Group’s Webinar Focuses on LGBTQ+ People in the Church

A recent webinar sponsored by a national group of Catholic priests brought together laypeople and clergy to discuss the experiences, hopes, and challenges of LGBTQ+ Catholics. 

The webinar, titled “Conversations in the Spirit: Understanding and honoring the lived experience of our LGBTQ+ Catholic siblings, parents, family, priests, and allies,” was sponsored by the Women in the Church working group of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests.  Over 300 participants logged on to hear  featured speakers , join breakout room discussions, and participate in imaginative prayer exercises, all centered on LGBTQ+ Catholics’ stories and how the Church can be more welcoming to LGBTQ+ individuals

Icon of Alana Chen and Our Lady of Sorrows by Father William Hart McNichols

 According to an article in U.S. Catholic, the event was inspired in part by an image created by gay priest Father William Hart McNichols depicting Our Lady of Sorrows reaching out to Alana Chen, a young LGBTQ+ Catholic woman who died by suicide. The webinar was dedicated in memory of Chen and to Our Lady of Sorrows. 

Joyce Calvo, Alana Chen’s mother, shared her story during the webinar and urged parents to be aware of the impact the Church can have on LGBTQ+ youth. “No child should ever be robbed of their ability to love and be loved by God and by their church,” she said. “Every child deserves to know that they are not broken, they are not sinful; they are loved.”

Calvo spoke of her daughter’s devout faith as well as the devastating effects of individual  priests and Church representatives who  encouraged Chen to undergo conversion therapy disguised as spiritual direction. To all of those gathered, Calvo read aloud from a letter Chen wrote to herself shortly before her death:

“Dear Alana, you are just a little girl, but you really don’t like yourself. . . . I wish you could see that the people who love you, the people that matter, they don’t hold you to those standards. . . . Those other people that left, that walked away . . . they can’t handle your light.”

The other featured speakers were Yunuen Trujillo, an LGBTQ+ pastoral minister who serves on New Ways Ministry’s Board of Trustees, Father Bryan Massingale, an out gay priest who is a leading social ethics theologian, and Bishop John Stowe, OFM, Conv., the leader of the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, and an outspoken supporter of LGBTQ+ people. 

Yunuen Trujillo

Trujillo spoke of the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ Catholics seeking to find their place in the Church. Sharing her experiences as an immigrant, Latina, woman, and LGBTQ+ Catholic, Trujillo spoke of key moments of discernment along her journey, such as when she felt she had to return to the closet after coming out as a teenanger and when, 10 years later, she came out again after years of ministry and service to the Church. She urged participants to follow their own discernment journeys, listening to as many LGBTQ+ stories as they can. “In the church,” she implored, “we’re supposed to follow a preferential option for the poor and vulnerable, and if we don’t listen to these stories, we will never understand how these communities are so vulnerable.”

Father Massingale spoke of the importance of intersectionality and visibility:

“I come to you as a Black gay priest. Making a public declaration of one’s sexuality, especially as a priest, is still pretty unusual. I didn’t do this in order to say look at me, I’m a gay priest. But to say I am here with you. I can no longer do the ministry that I’m doing unless I’m willing to share in the vulnerability of this community.”

Speaking of the role of gay priests in the Church, Massingale reflected:

Father Bryan Massingale

“How long do we serve a church that does not appreciate who we are? I stay because this is where God has called me. God knew who I was and what I was when I received the call to ordination. The problem is not on God’s end, and the problem is not on the laity’s end, the problem is with the church as an institution and with all too many of our ordained leaders.”

During the Q&A portion of the webinar, Bishop Stowe, spoke about the importance of standing up and speaking out. He identified himself as a “fellow pilgrim on the journey with everybody else. I also have to maintain my integrity. I don’t hide my disagreement with a lot of what the USCCB [United States Conference of Catholic Bishops] does, even though I would be encouraged to do so. But I think unity comes out of directly confronting those things.”

Along with featured speakers and discussions, the webinar included time for reflection and prayer, facilitated by Ignatian Encounter Ministry leader Ariell Watson Simon, who is also a regular  Bondings 2.0 contributor and LGBTQ+ CatholicShe urged participants to 

“imagine a Catholic Church that is inclusive and supports LGBTQ+ people and families. What comes to mind when you imagine that? How would the church need to be focused or structured to accomplish that goal?” 

Results and notes from the event will be submitted to USCCB’s synod office. 

This meeting is a powerful reminder of the passion, energy, and prophetic witness of LGBTQ+ Catholics and allies, so many of whom are working to bring about a Christian community truly inclusive to all. 

Phoebe Carstens, New Ways Ministry, February 28, 2025