New Ways Ministry Gathers Bishops and LGBTQ+ Experts for Dialogue

A newly-posted National Catholic Reporter article tells the story of a New Ways Ministry project concerning bishops and LGBTQ+ issues, showing that some bishops in the U.S. hierarchy are looking for greater openness an pastoral welcome to LGBTQ+ people.

Written by Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry Executive Director, who explained the reason and history of three meetings between bishops, theologians, pastoral care ministers, medical professionals, and, of course, LGBTQ+ people themselves:

“To address the need for knowledge about LGBTQ+ people, to promote good pastoral care by our bishops, and to walk forward in synodality, New Ways has been sponsoring a series of two-day meetings, in which bishops interact with theologians, scientific professionals, other scholars, pastoral ministers and, most importantly, LGBTQ+ people themselves.

“Since 2023, New Ways Ministry has hosted three such gatherings at Georgetown University, St. Louis University, and the Siena Retreat Center in Racine, Wisconsin. Seventeen bishops attended these programs, many attending more than one conference.”

The meetings discussed many different  topics: pastoral ministry, moral theology, health care, psychological understandings of gender, employment issues, school policies, gay priests/lesbian nuns, and, perhaps most importantly, the positive and negative encounters that lesbian, gay, transgender, nonbinary and intersex people have had with the institutional church.

Five of the bishops who have attended the meetings reflected about their participation:

Archbishop Jeffrey Grob, Bishop John Stowe, Bishop Michael Saportio, Bishop Joseph Kopacz

Bishop John Stowe, OFM, Conv. of Lexington, Kentucky, “It is one thing to consider an issue; it is quite another to encounter a person whose life is affected by that issue.

Archbishop Jeffrey Grob of Milwaukee: “Dialogue and listening are constitutive to learning and understanding. Once they cease, so does the hope for growth and movement.”

Auxiliary Bishop Michael Saporito of Newark, New Jersey:  “I certainly felt enriched by the exchange of personal stories and information that was offered. I had many questions answered and still need time to learn more.”

Archbishop John Wester

Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico: “I am very grateful to New Ways Ministry for facilitating this conference. The honest exchanges gave me a deeper insight into the issues facing LGBTQ members of the Catholic Church. The atmosphere was collegial and respectful, living up to the ideals of synodality.”

Bishop Joseph Kopacz of Jackson, Mississippi: “Further such meetings are needed. It was an authentic expression of what the Spirit is saying to the church in the worldwide synod.”

The article also reported:

“At the conclusion of one meeting, one bishop was in tears when he expressed how little he had known about the realities of transgender people, and regretted how he may have unintentionally added to their pain.”

Yunuen Trujillo

One of the presenters was  Yunuen Trujillo, a Catholic LGBTQ+ woman, lay minister and author, discussed her expeerience  of doing LGBTQ+ ministry in the Hispanic community:

“The need is especially urgent, when many Latinos are being targeted for harassment and discrimination by their own government. The church must be a safe and welcoming space for all.”

[Editor’s note: In another article, Yunuen Trujillo also published an account of the meeting at. which she presented. Bondings 2.0 will have a summary of that article later in the week]

Cristina Traina

Some of the other presenters also discussed what they talked about with the bishops:

“Theologians explained rationales for greater acceptance of LGBTQ+ people through the application of traditional Catholic concepts. Cristina Traina, the Avery Cardinal Dulles, SJ Chair in Catholic Theology at Fordham University, said at one meeting that even someone as revered as St. Thomas Aquinas broke forth with ideas considered revolutionary in his time, simply by bringing together Catholic principles and what was then the newest secular knowledge.

Dr. Cynthia Herrick

“The bishops heard from Dr. Cynthia Herrick, a practicing endocrinologist and former co-director at an academic adult transgender center. She spoke about the latest scientific understandings of gender development. Gender identity is not based on a new theory or ideology, she said, and it is not a contagion. How we understand our gender is determined by specialized areas within the brain.

Maxwell Kuzma

Maxwell Kuzma, a Catholic transgender man and writer, shared his personal journey at one meeting, summed up the sentiments of many of the participants:

“This was Catholicism at its best: rigorous intellectual discussion among experts, with plenty of genuine fraternal interest to go around.”

—Matthew Myers, New Ways Ministry, April 23, 2026