Brazil’s Bishops’ Conference Appoints Liaison to Catholic LGBTQ+ Groups

The national bishops’ conference of Brazil officially appointed one of its members to work with the country’s network of Catholic LGBTQ+ groups. Bishop Arnaldo Carvalheiro Neto of the Diocese of Jundiaí will serve a three-year term as the head of pastoral care for LGBTQ+ Catholics in Brazil, reported Crux. 

Bishop Arnaldo Carvalheiro Neto

The groups — present in every Brazilian region — form the National Catholic LGBTQ+ Groups Network, which has belonged to the official Catholic Church lay council in Brazil since 2018. On the local level, individual groups have had a checkered relationship with diocesan bishops. The National Conference of Bishops of Brazil’s(CNBB)  recognition represents a major milestone in pastoral care and movement toward equality

Carvalheiro Neto’s role will function “as a hand to give us support and to make us closer to CNBB and individual bishops,” said Luis Fernando Rabello,the executive secretary of the national LGBTQ+ network. “Concretely, we [have] ceased to be on the fringe and we’re now ecclesial subjects.”

Suzane Moreira, a theologian and doctoral candidate at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, agreed that the appointment of an episcopal delegate would bolster the work of LGBTQ+ groups nation wide:

“I think it’s relevant that the Network will not feel alone anymore in the Church. The priests and religious sisters and brothers who accompany it many times don’t talk publicly about it. Now, maybe they’ll feel safer to speak about it.”

As for the global significance of the move, one Church expert is optimistic about its potential impact, while recognizing its distinctly Brazilian quality. Francisco Borba Ribeiro Neto, a sociologist of religion told Crux that the high-level outreach to the LGBTQ+ community will perhaps enrich the Brazilian Church, and even the universal Church, but that it is unlikely to pursue a confrontational stance, either with LGBTQ+ people or with Rome. He stated:

“In Brazil, a more rigorist stance tends to displease most Catholics. We’re a society that prefers to avoid conflict. So, there’s a disposition from the Church to find ways of providing pastoral care that would not entail an immediate condemnation of homosexuality, but would lead to a growing mutual understanding.”

Alluding specifically to the international tensions arising from the German Synodal Way, Ribeiro Neto added:

“The Brazilian episcopate would never do anything like that, given that it has been historically loyal to the Magisterium – and especially now, when anybody is willing to create embarrassments to the new pope.

“It’s a community that wants to be welcomed and received and is open to dialogue in order to build a better relationship. Both sides, the bishops and the LGBT+ groups, know there will be mutual concessions along the process.

“I hope it can be a laboratory for the universal Church, so it can enhance important pastoral practices. Maybe it’s a contribution from the Brazilian Church to the universal Church.”

As for the background of this first bishop to be specifically responsible for LGBTQ+ pastoral care in Brazil, Carvalheiro Neto was appointed by Pope Francis in 2016. The 58 year-old bishop studied in the United States and Dublin, and has a master’s degree in Pastoral Counseling from Loyola University.

—Jeromiah Taylor, New Ways Ministry, December 4, 2025