Pope Leo’s LGBTQ+ Approach Will Affect One Group Immensely: Queer Africans

Zikora Ibeh

While many people across the world are wondering if Pope Leo XIV’s approach to LGBTQ+ issues will be similar to Pope Francis’ approach, there is one group for whom the answer to this question can have serious consequences: queer Africans.

Writing in the journal International Politics and Society, Zikora Ibeh, an international development expert, asked the question because, as one of her articles subheadlines expresses, Pope Francis was “African queers’ most beloved ally.”  She explained that Francis’  historic 2013 statement “Who am I to judge?” caught the attention of the globe, but did so particularly in Africa:

“His words also reverberated across Africa, a continent that accounts for 20 per cent of the global Catholic population and where culture and religion have for decades served as powerful tools to reinforce the most virulent forms of homophobic stigma. Despite recent progress, African countries harbour some of the harshest and most discriminatory LGBTQ+ policies in the world. At least 31 of Africa’s 54 countries outlaw homosexuality and no fewer than 11 countries prescribe the death penalty for same-sex acts. This barrage of anti-gay legislation, mostly remnants of colonial rule, is often the cause of arbitrary arrests and detention of same-sex individuals and activists while stoking homophobic hate and violence.”

Of course, during his papacy, Francis went even further than that initial statement.  Ibeh wrote:

“Pope Francis became the first Pontiff to publicly oppose anti-gay laws, stressing that they are ‘neither good nor just’. In an interview with the Associated Press in January 2023, the late Pontiff argued that even if homosexuality is considered a sin according to Catholic doctrine, it is certainly not a crime, while urging church members, including bishops, to show ‘tenderness’ as God does with each of his children. More than pastoral advice, his appreciation of this contentious prism resonated as a reflection of Christ’s own example, who, when faced with a crowd ready to stone a woman accused of adultery, responded not with condemnation, but with a challenge: ‘Let the one without sin cast the first stone.’ “

Ibeh is not the only African leader who thinks this way.  She reports:

” ‘He kicked open the door for an inclusive path for queer participation in religious spaces across the continent’, says Adélard Kananira, a social development advocate and founder of Gay Christian Africa. According to him, Pope Francis changed the tone and broke the silence allowing Catholic communities to open up space to finally talk about queer reality. ‘His approach addressed the elephant in the room, which had been impossible for decades’, Kananira adds.”

Pope Francis’ inclusive message was particularly important in Africa, a continent where many Catholic bishops often support policies which criminalize and otherwise harm LGBTQ+ people.  Ibeh gave an example of how Pope Francis message soothed queer Africans after African bishops opposed the Vatican’s permission to bless people in same-gender relationships:

“In a statement, the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) said such unions were ‘contrary to the will of God’ and a violation of ‘the cultural ethos of African communities’. But while the conservative hierarchy of the Church in Africa railed, the Pope’s understanding gesture was a soothing balm to the wounded hearts of many LGBTQ+ African believers.”

Pope Leo has a tough act to follow, the writer stated, coming after “the more radical Pope Francis, who sought to reform the Church no matter how high the cost.”  She sees the new pope as more of a “centrist,”  which “may likely lead him to tread cautiously and conciliatorily, careful not to widen more than necessary the chasm between the progressive and traditionalist wings in the Catholic Church that disagreed with his predecessor on doctrinal ambiguities.”  For Ibeh, such a path would be tragic for queer Africans:

“This can result in painful trade-offs to the detriment of those on the margins of society, the existential peripheries, for whom Pope Francis’ pontificate served as a voice of hope and reason and sought to redirect the Church’s gaze.”

Ibeh’s concern is a valid one, especially given the fact that any centrist move may embolden conservative African bishops to dig deeper into their anti-LGBTQ+ policies.  That is why it will be incumbent on Pope Leo to quickly, strongly, and clearly state that his stated continuity with Francis’ reform project also includes Francis’ welcome and openness to LGBTQ+ people.  The world is waiting for such a statement, and perhaps none are waiting more expectantly than LGBTQ+ Africans, whose very lives are at risk.

—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, May 16, 2025