Catholic LGBTQ+ Advocates Welcome Study Group 9 Report; and What Did the Report Say About Reparative Therapy?

Reaction from Catholic LGBTQ+ advocates toe the LGBTQ-positive report from the Synod on Synodality’s Study Group 9 has been, well, positive.

The report, issued two days ago, laid out a framework for how the Catholic Church should approach what the report called “emerging issues,” which included LGBTQ+ topics. Among the recommendations are recognizing the church’s current “paradigm shift” from an authoritarian structure to a synodal one based in listening and dialogue; respect for the lived experience of people, as well as for experts in fields of knowledge outside the church; applying the “principle of pastorality” which emphasizes searching for the common good, not the enforcement of doctrinal principles.

The report also included the testimonies of two married Catholic LGBTQ+ people, one from Portugal and one from the U.S., perhaps the first time that the voices of LGBTQ+ people have appeared in a Vatican-issued document.

New Ways Ministry’s full response to the report can be found by clicking here.

The following are a sampling of reactions which appeared in a Religion News Service article:

Yunuen Trujillo

Yunuen Trujillo, lesbian lay minister from Los Angeles who is a member of New Ways Ministry’s board of directors:

https://katholisch.de/artikel/68458-weltsynoden-gruppe-fordert-paradigmenwechsel-bei-kontroversen-themen

Marianne Duddy-Burke

Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA:

“‘The most significant thing for me was the recognition that top-down trying to dictate behavior and morality on the basis of dogma isn’t working.’ adding she was ‘hopeful’ to see the report using the language of a ‘paradigm shift.’ . . .

“We didn’t have a place at the table and, and this document says that it’s time that we did”

Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry:

“ I was expecting a rather bland report. And this was not that. In days gone by in the church, they would try to tick off the token box by getting someone who had certain traits and characteristics, but who was just not critical of the church in any way. . . .

““Dialogue really is the first step. The genius of Pope Francis is that he realized that people had to start talking with one another, and learning about each other and not having the fear and the stereotypes.”

Father James Martin, SJ

Father James Martin, SJ, founder of Outreach:

“ It’s a big deal because they included testimonies and published testimonies from two LGBTQ people, both of them married, which is also unusual for the Vatican to do,. As far as I know, it’s the first time that in any official publication of the Vatican, they’ve included witnesses and testimonies and stories from LGBTQ Catholics in any kind of detailed way.”

In a separate article on the Outreach website, Martin wrote:

“Some may still view the final report of Study Group 9 as ‘not enough.’  But if the Catholic Church has begun to listen to LGBTQ Catholics as part of its methodology, the church has already moved forward in a significant way.  The two testimonies published today by the Synod, then, mark an historic step forward.  The experience of a synodal church, as the Synod states, ‘demands listening.’ And that means, finally, listening to LGBTQ Catholics too.”

Did the Vatican condemn reparative therapy and criticize the Courage ministry?

Finally, an editorial comment about the report’s mention of reparative therapy and the Courage ministry.  Some news reports, headlines, and commenters have interpreted the report text as being critical of both these items.  However, it seems that is a misreading ( an understandable one) of what the report states and does.

Here’s the evidence (all emphases have been added, and did not appear in any of the original texts):

Testimony #1 stated:

Wounds from the Christian community: I cannot ignore the scars I carry. I have witnessed the devastating effects of ‘conversion therapies’ and the break-up of families, which felt like an attack on God’s sensitive and blameless creation. These experiences deeply hurt, because they target the inherent dignity of a person who simply bears the love of another of the same gender.

The main text of the report, which are the words of the committee, commented on this passage by stating:

“[The testimony’s author] describes the joyful discovery of a Christian community centred on Ignatian spirituality (Christian Life Community, or CLC). Yet, the positivity of this journey coexists with significant difficulties, as seen in the devastating effects of reparative therapies aimed at recovering heterosexuality. . .”

Testimony #2 stated:

“I was wracked with guilt over my same-sex attraction. I joined Courage, an apostolate that works with those who “suffer from same-sex attraction.” The group came at the suggestion of a conversion therapist I met to deal with my ‘condition.’

“Attending Courage meetings did little to help my spiritual and psychosexual development. The gathering was secretive and hidden. The people I met were lonely, hopeless, and often depressed. My life, too, was disintegrating as I resisted reconciling my faith and sexuality.”

The main texrt of the report comments on this passage:

“The testimony first describes the problematic membership in a Catholic group (Courage) which, by pushing for “reparative therapy,” had the effect of separating faith and sexuality.”

In both examples, the authors of the main text are reporting the opinions of the two people who wrote the testimonies.  The report authors are citing and describing what the testimonies from the two gay people said. The report authors’ statements are not critiques or condemnations coming from Study Group 9 itself.

While this may seem like hair-splitting, it is important to point out that Vatican representatives did not criticize or condemn reparative therapy or the Courage ministry. Yet, it is still significant that the authors of the report chose to highlight these two passages, but highlighting them is not the same as agreeing with them or with issuing the same criticism or condemnation.

We still must wait for the day when a Vatican offiicial directly and unambiguously critcizes or condemns reparative therapy and ministries which see a gay orientation as defective.

—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, May 7, 2026