Synod Study Group Report on LGBTQ+ Issues Is Released; New Ways Ministry Responds

At the close of the 2024 General Assembly of  Synod on Synodality, the work of the synod was moved to study groups, each with its own topic(s) to prepare guidance for the global church to implement synodal ideas at all levels of the church.  Study  Group 9 was given the topic of “controversial issues” (which the study group changed to “emerging issues”), and that is where LGBTQ+ topics were assigned.

Yesterday, the Vatican released the report from Group 9–and it surprised many because of how progressive it was in recommending processes that hold hope for a wider, open, more informed discussion of LGBTQ+ issues in the church. You can read the full report in English or Italian.  An executive summary is available in English, Spanish, French, Italian, and Portugese. The title of th report was quite long: Theological Criteria and Synodal Methodologies for Shared Discernment of Emerging Doctinal, Pastoral, and Ethical Issues.

In a novel move, appended to the report were testimonies by two LGBTQ+ people, in which they shared their journeys of self-acceptance, faith, and commitment to Catholicism.

Although the testimonies did not have names attached to them, it was obvious that Testimony #2 was written by Jason Steidl-Jack, an openly gay theologian, who has been a frequent contributor to Bondings 2.0, as well as having participated with Outreach and Fortunate Families, two other Catholic LGBTQ+ groups.  Many of the details of his life included in the testimony were familiar to anyone who has heard him speak publicly; however, the proof positive was his mention of book he published entitled LGBTQ Catholic Ministry, Past and Present. The other testimony, from Portugal, did not have any identity-revealing clues.

Part of the reason there was surprise at how progressive the report tuned out is due to the fact that while LGBTQ+ issues were reported to have been one of the top two topics (the other being the role of women in the church) raised in synod conversations from diverse cultures across the globe, the reports of the two Synod General Assemblies in 2023 and 2024 were silent about these topics.  This absence of mention greatly disappointed LGBTQ+ people who had participated robustly in synod activities, sharing their blessings, challenges, and joys. Additionally, no openly LGBTQ+ people were named as delegates to the two General Assemblies. Having had high hopes that church officials were finally willing to listen, LGBTQ+ people expressed that the failure to mention their issues felt to some like a betrayal.

This report is evidence that LGBTQ+ voices and concerns had indeed been heard by synod delegates and officials.

The following statement, which offers more specifics about the report was released to the media yesterday.

Statement of Francis DeBernardo

Executive Director, New Ways Ministry

The treatment of LGBTQ+ issues in the long-awaited report of Study Group 9 of the Vatican’s Synod on Synodality is a breath of refreshing air, the first acknowledgement that LGBTQ+ issues were taken seriously by the three-year global consultation of all levels of the church. By establishing mechanisms and recommendations to continue dialoguing with LGBTQ+ people, the report is a significant step forward in the church’s process to become a more welcoming place for its LGBTQ+ members. 

Perhaps even more important than the document’s analyses and recommendations is the fact that the report appended two synod testimonies of LGBTQ+ people, one from Portugal and one from the United States.  These first-person accounts by LGBTQ+ Catholics, both of whom are married to same-gender partners, are significant because these contributions mark the first time during the synodal process that LGBTQ+ people were given the opportunity to speak for themselves and not through allies or advocates. No openly LGBTQ+ people were selected as delegates to the two Synod General Assemblies in 2023 and 2024, giving the impression that the church did not want to hear their perspectives. 

Each of the testimonies are moving and highly representative accounts of the blessings and  challenges, pains and joys that many LGBTQ+ Catholics experience in the Western world.

Three additional elements of this document highlight what good news it is to LGBTQ+ Catholics:

1. Welcoming and encouraging a paradigm shift in the church which “challenges the models that have been prevalent in ecclesial life over the past centuries.”  In other words, the church should be open to develop and change.
2. Basing any paradigm shift on “valuing the historical, experiential, practical, and contextual nature of humanity.”  In other words, pay attention to lived experience, not abstract philosophical concepts.
3. Implementing the “principle of pastorality,” by proceeding in ways which “are meant to serve the discernment of emerging issues and the active participation of the concrete, personal, and communal subjects who are directly involved: listening to one another, paying attention to reality, and bringing together different fields of expertise.” In other words, the report recommends that the church “get real” by learning from people impacted by a particular church teaching, and by being willing to learn from experts outside of the church, and they model this principle by sharing the testimonies of actual LGBTQ+ Catholics.

For many decades, New Ways Ministry and many other Catholic LGBTQ+ advocacy groups have been calling on the wider church to engage in dialogue with their sexual and gender minority siblings. Working Group 9’s report offers a pathway for the church to continue the listening process that the synod began, and to do so with serious and sustained effort. Moreover, it shows that listening cannot just be a passive experience, but instead an intentional posture of openness to be changed through the process of conversation.

This report has encouraged listening by showing that church officials have indeed listened to its LGBTQ+ members. Because other synod documents rarely mentioned LGBTQ+ issues even after individuals and churches raised these issues in the preparatory phase of the Synod on Synodality, many LGBTQ+ people felt the church did not truly value their participation. This document reverses that impression. If local churches and their bishops also seek the witness of joys and hopes, griefs and anxieties, of LGBTQ+ Catholics and their families, then our faith community will become a place where all are truly welcome.

—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, May 6, 2026