Pope Francis’ Revolution of Mercy

Pope Francis

Yesterday, March 13, was the anniversary of the election of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio to the papacy, emerging on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica as Pope Francis.  An America magazine article reviews the important points of the Argentinian pope’s leadership over 12 years, not least of all, how he advanced the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people.

Indeed, Brother Joe Hoover, SJ, America’s poetry editor, begins his examination by providing an anecdote of the response of some transgender women to an Apostolic visit to Indonesia:

“Among all the news articles I have read in the past couple of years, I am not ungrateful that one poignant, below-the-fold story has remained with me, a glow-in-the-dark star stuck to a ceiling. When Pope Francis visited Indonesia in September 2024, The New York Times reported about a group of transgender women in South Jakarta enthusiastically preparing to attend the papal Mass at the Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta. The reporter, Emma Bubola, described them donning feathers, glitter and rosaries. One of the women explained, “’Pope Francis deserves our best outfit.’

“The subhead of the article put it succinctly: ‘For many trans women living on the fringes of the nation’s society, the Catholic Church is a haven, and Pope Francis a personal hero.'”

The startling nature of this story is not lost on Hoover (or many other Catholic at the time, and even now.  After reviewing Francis’ steadfast support of immigrants, Hoover writes:

“. . . [I]t was his quieter and simpler outreach to the L.G.B.T.Q. community that was perhaps the most singular and astonishing. A pope of the Catholic Church, a man in his 80s who sits on the chair of Peter and commands something grand and a bit ominous called ‘the magisterium,’  with all its dogma and all of its ‘hard teachings’ on any number of sexual prohibitions…becomes a hero for Indonesian trans women? Really? What on earth has happened here?”

Mercy, the author writes was Pope Francis’ “pillar of fire for everything he did and spoke about,” and of course, that is what fueled his support for LGBTQ+ people:

“A mere five words by Francis to a reporter’s question about the possible presence of gay priests in the Vatican seemed to build a 5,000-mile footbridge from Rome across the Tiber toward the L.G.B.T.Q. community across the globe. The pope’s response, ‘Who am I to judge?’, created an epic cultural shift for the church’s relationship toward a group that has felt barely tolerated, if not entirely scorned, by the church. He also had audiences with trans men and women and insisted that pastors baptize the children of gay couples among other gestures towards the gay community.”

Of course, his support of LGBTQ+ people garnered the pope a lot of criticism. Issuing Fiducia Supplicans, the document which allowed priests to bless people in same-gender relationships, was “The place where the pope’s mercy toward the L.G.B.T.Q. community most came under fire,” and oplace where the pope’s mercy toward the L.G.B.T.Q. community most came under fire. And when he did so, ” a segment of the Catholic church lost its mind.”

Hoover acknowledges that he himself was at first skeptical of Fiducia Supplicans, but after the initial shock wore off, and two years of reflection, he came to see the document differently, causing him to reflect on change in the church:

“The fact is, developments in doctrine, the reframing of precepts, new ways of looking at ecclesial matters—they are opaque at first. They can beconfusing. They do scandalize the faithful. They do require study and discussion and debate and sometimes even a tectonic prayerful shift in thinking to absorb their meaning.”

And he even sees a gospel referent to the novelty of blessing gay couples:

“Everything is reversed. The lame walk, blind see, deaf hear, dead come to life. Our faith in a nutshell. Gay couples can’t receive a blessing. A gay couple receives a blessing.”

Hoover’s article is an excellent read, and there is so much more in it than only LGBTQ+ stuff.  It’s a reminder that while not many structures or language changed under Pope Francis, he still was a compassionate revolutionary, whose gestures spoke louder than decrees, allowing for change to take place in surprising ways.

—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, March 14, 2026

For a catalogue of Pope Francis’ entire record on LGBTQ+ issues, check out “The Many Faces of Pope Francis: A Timeline of His LGBTQ Record” on New Ways Ministry’s website.