Half a World Apart, Two Events Emphasize Listening to LGBTQ+ Catholics

Bishop Bruce Lewandowski

In both Providence, Rhode Island, and Chiponia, Spain, dioceses are opening their doors to LGBTQ+ Catholics, in the spirit of Pope Francis’s Todos, Todos, Todos (Everyone, Everyone, Everyone). Together, these groups are working to ensure that the Church grows more accepting and inclusive, and to recognize queer Catholics in their place in the Body of Christ.

In Providence, multiple parishes are using Pope Francis’s doctrine to welcome LGBTQ+ Catholics. The Providence Diocese will be hosting two listening sessions for LGTQ+ Catholics and their friends and family aAt Holy Trinity Parish, in Woonsocket, as well as St Mary of the Bay, in Warren, LGTQ+ Catholics and their friends and family can join in community gatherings in August and September. According to the diocesan website, Bishop Bruce Lewandowski will attend both meetings where there will be small groups for LGBTQ+ people to share their stories before Bishop Bruce Lewandowski celebrates Mass.. After Mass, each church will host a community dinner. 

In Spain, a synodal meeting of LGBT Catholics will take place in October in Chiponia. This event has its origins in 2010 when The LGBTQ+ Christians group began holding  meetings of LGBTQ+ believers, reports Vida Nueva. It began as  meetings for gay Christians (mostly Catholics) in the Andalusia region but is now open to lay people from all over Spain and Portugal. 

Participants at a previous meeting in Chiponia.

In October of this year, the synod will be held at The House of Spirituality Our Lady of Regla, a Franciscan retreat center in Chiponia. Miguel Angel Sosa Gonzalez, president of Pastoral Care for Sexual Diversity (PADIS), a Jesuit Christian Life Community in the Canary Islands, will serve as the host. They expect more than 150 participants to attend.

Gonzalez says that he hopes that “this meeting will help people see that we are not here to judge the Church, that we are not here to put obstacles in its way, but to work for a synodal Church, with the aspiration that we can all form a single community.”

During the synodal meeting, there will be presentations by Maria Luisa Berzosa and theologian Eloy Bueno de la Fuenta, two delegates to the General Assemblies of the Synod on Synodality held at the Vatican in 2023 and 2024.. The meeting will break into small groups, where participants will reflect and discern “how LGBTQ+ communities can and should be present on the synodal path.”

The guidance of Pope Francis has been instrumental in the growing number of clergy and lay people opening Church doors to LGBTQ+ Catholics. The news article said that Francis’ stance on queer Catholics marked “a significant shift in tone, characterized by a focus on acceptance.” During Pope Francis’s tenure, Church leaders started  using the term LGBTQ+ .

Pope Francis urged Catholic leaders to listen to LGBTQ+ people. It is heartwarming to see his request take root. 

—Lynnzee Dick, New Ways Ministry, August 8, 2026