“Walking Together, Walking With Christ”: A Retreat for LGBTQ+ Catholics and Friends

New Ways Ministry is sponsoring a retreat/workshop for Catholic LGBTQ+ people and friends focusing on the roles that LGBTQ+ people can play in a synodal church.

“Walking Together, Walking With Christ“ is a weekend program which will be facilitated by Professor Brian Flanagan, Ph.D., the John Cardinal Cody Chair of Catholic Theology at Loyola University Chicago.  The program will be held from Friday to Sunday, March 6-8, 2026, at the Siena Retreat Center, 5637 Erie Street, Racine, Wisconsin.

The program is designed for LGBTQ+ people, family members, friends, and pastoral ministers.  All are welcome.  The weekend’s theme combines the gospel’s Emmaus story with the current Catholic focus on becoming a synodal church, i.e., a church where discussion and sharing divergent opinions is valued. Professor Flanagan has outlined how these themes will be explored:

“On Easter Sunday, the Risen Christ met two disciples on the road to the village of Emmaus. Their hearts were burning within them when he opened the Scriptures, and they recognized him in the breaking of the bread, filling the disciples with such joy that they raced back to Jerusalem that very night.

“Jesus continues to walk with us as LGBTQ+ Catholics, opening the Scriptures and breaking the bread. We still have much to learn about ourselves, about each other, and about our loving God. This retreat will explore how we walk together well with our fellow disciples in a synodal church – those we love and who have loved us and those we find more challenging travel companions – and how it is precisely along the way that the Holy Spirit will empower us to recognize Christ’s presence among us.

“Our time together will combine talks, synodal conversation, silent meditation, communal prayer, and socializing.”

For more information about the program, logistics, and registration, click here.

Brian Flanagan

Professor Flanagan does research in the field of ecclesiology, focusing particularly on questions of sin and holiness in the church, on synodality and synodal structures, and on the relevance to the entire church of LGBTQ+ experience in Catholic life.

He is the author of Stumbling in Holiness: Sin and Sanctity in the Church (Liturgical Press, 2018), the co-editor of Liturgy + Power (Orbis, 2017), and numerous articles for both scholarly and wider audiences. He promotes synodal dialogue and discernment on LGBTQ+ issues, and coordinates a global network of LGBTQ+ Catholic theologians. He is also a Senior Fellow at New Ways Ministry.

The Siena Center is located in Racine, Wisconsin, about 20 minutes from the Milwaukee airport.  New Ways Ministry will attempt to provide ground transportation for those who are flying to the retreat.

For more information about the program, logistics, and registration, click here.

—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, January 8, 2026