Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington (United States)

In 2019, Gregory told a transgender Catholic at a public event that “you belong to the heart of this church.” As archbishop of Atlanta, Gregory invited Fr. James Martin, S.J., to speak, despite some public opposition to the Jesuit, and Gregory has acknowledged that the church needs to improve its pastoral care for LGBTQ+ people. In 2018, during a talk on new forms of discrimination, Gregory decried “the brutality that an individual’s sexual orientation often fosters and justifies.” He has suggested the work of the 1960s civil rights movement continues today and that work includes efforts for lesbian and gay protections. In 2016, Gregory supported the Georgia governor’s veto of a “license to discriminate” bill that would have expanded anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination. In 2015, when marriage equality was legalized in the U.S., Gregory called for all sides to be respectful and civil. In 2014, he appointed a deacon to pastoral ministry with the LGBTQ+ community, suggesting at the time that the distinction between orientation and activity the church makes on homosexuality “needs reexamination and development.” Gregory was appointed by Pope Francis to participate as a member of the 2023 Synod assembly. (Full record here.)

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, S.J., Relator General of the Synod and Archbishop of Luxembourg (Luxembourg)

In 2023, Hollerich, who also holds leadership posts in European episcopal networks, expressed concern with the Catechism’s use of “intrinsically disordered” to describe same-gender sexual activity. He said sexual orientation should not be conflated with sexual acts, adding, “But how can you condemn people who cannot love except the same sex? For some of them it is possible to be chaste, but calling others to chastity seems like speaking Egyptian to them.” At one point in 2022, Hollerich called for a reconsideration of the church’s teachings on homosexuality, but later walked back his comments a bit. In October of that same year, Hollerich condemned discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in strong terms during an interview with the Vatican’s official newspaper. He made similar comments earlier in 2022, and he supported church workers in Germany’s #OutInChurch initiative, a movement to make LGBTQ+ church workers more visible. In 2021, Hollerich expressed openness to blessing same-gender couples. In 2019, at the Vatican’s summit on clergy sexual abuse, Hollerich defended gay priests scapegoated for the abuse scandal. Hollerich was recently named to the Council of Cardinals, who are among Pope Francis’ closest advisors. Hollerich is a member of the 2023 Synod assembly as its Relator General. (Full record here.)

Archbishop Martin Kivuva Musonde of Mombasa (Kenya): In September 2023, Kivuva criticized the Kenyan Supreme Court’s decision to mandate an LGBTQ+ group be legally recognized as a non-governmental organization, saying the group’s existence would promote homosexuality and suggesting that humanitarian donors to Kenya were forcing the decision.

Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., Prefect Emeritus, Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (Vatican City)

As head of the doctrinal office until 2023, Ladaria was involved in several LGBTQ-related controversies. In 2020, that office asked Fr. Tony Flannery to sign four oaths of fidelity so he could return to ministry after being barred over his support for marriage equality and LGBTQ+ people generally, as well as women’s ordination. In 2021, Ladaria wrote to U.S. bishops asking them on behalf of the Vatican to pause proposals to deny Communion to President Joe Biden and other politicians, in part because the politicians’ support LGBTQ+ rights. In 2018, the Spanish language group at the Synod on Youth that Ladaria led encouraged a “welcoming and cordial attitude…including [to] those of different sexual orientations,” though rejected any possibility of changing church teaching. In 2013, as Secretary of the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ladaria joined the Vatican’s investigation of U.S. women religious, in part because of their LGBTQ+ support. Ladaria was appointed by Pope Francis to participate as a member of the 2023 Synod assembly. (Full record here.)

Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick (Ireland)

Ahead of the 2018 World Meeting of Families in Dublin, Leahy said that “everyone must be made to feel welcome” at the meeting, including people from many types of families because, the bishop acknowledged, society’s understanding of family was “changing.” In 2016, Leahy led the Diocese of Limerick in holding a local synod with 400 delegates. The harm of the bishops’ opposition to marriage equality in that country, as well as the need to better include LGBTQ+ people was a prominent theme of the synod. Leahy acknowledged the church must admit “the failure and disappointment. . .in all that has not been right in the Church” by excluding many people. Leahy was chosen by the Irish bishops as one of their two representatives to the 2023 Synod assembly. (Full record here.)

Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, S.D.B., Archbishop Emeritus of Tegucigalpa (Honduras)

In 2016, Maradiaga, once a close advisor to Pope Francis and a top Latin American church official, said that a “gay lobby” existed inside the Vatican. Speaking about the 2015 Synod on the Family, the cardinal labeled suggestions that church teaching on homosexuality could change as ”crazy,” and said treating LGBTQ+ issues is “very complicated” given the staunch opposition to equal rights that exists in some places. Maradiaga was appointed by Pope Francis to participate as a member of the 2023 Synod assembly. (Full record here.)

Cardinal Robert McElroy, Diocese of San Diego (United States)

In a 2023 essay, McElroy objected to the “profound and visceral animus” towards LGBTQ+ people found in some parts of the church, describing this anti-LGBTQ+ reaction as a “demonic mystery of the human soul.” He also wrote that issues of gender and sexuality would very likely be discussed at the October assembly of the Synod, framing the topic as a “pre-eminently a pastoral question.” In 2021, he was one of the first bishops to sign the Tyler Clementi Foundation’s statement of encouragement to LGBTQ+ youth which declared “God is on your side.” In 2018, McElroy publicly refuted the way gay priests were scapegoated for the clergy sexual abuse crisis, saying that such abuse was a matter of power, not sexual orientation. That same year, he supported Aaron Bianco, a gay pastoral worker in his diocese who was threatened with harm by traditionalist churchgoers because of being married to a man. In 2017, McElroy criticized a decision by Springfield’s Bishop Thomas Paprocki to deny Communion and church funerals to people in same-gender marriages. McElroy also defended Fr. James Martin, S.J.’s LGBTQ+ work, saying right-wing Catholics’ attack on the priest “must be a wake-up call” for the church to purge itself of anti-LGBTQ+ prejudice. In 2016, he was the first (and one of just a few) who offered condolences to the LGBTQ+ community after the Pulse nightclub mass shooting, saying the tragedy was “a call for us as Catholics to combat ever more vigorously the anti-gay prejudice which exists in our Catholic community and in our country.” That same year, McElroy supported Pope Francis’ apology to gay and lesbian people, and he called for greater affirmation and welcome for the LGBTQ+ community. In 2015, after marriage equality was legalized in the U.S., McElroy said that the diocese would still honor heterosexual marriage as unique, but “do so in a manner which profoundly respects at every moment the loving and familial relationships which enrich the lives of so many gay men and women.” McElroy was appointed by Pope Francis to participate as a member of the 2023 Synod assembly. (Full record here.)

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Prefect Emeritus, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Vatican City)

In 2023, Müller, who led the Vatican’s doctrinal office until 2017, appealed to Pope Francis to possibly dismiss German bishops who had supported LGBTQ-positive proposals, such as blessing same-gender couples, during that country’s Synodal Way process. He received no public reply. In 2021, Müller compared the hate speech trial of two priests in Germany to Nazi persecution, despite the priests having used anti-gay slurs in their writing. In 2020, Müller said the LGBTQ+ movement meant “to relativize and ultimately destroy marriage and family, and encouraged Polish Catholics to resist it, as they had resisted the Nazis. In 2018, he linked the sexual abuse of children to homosexuality, saying that LGBTQ+ issues have “no place in Church documents” because they are “an example of the creeping influence of atheism in the Church, which has been responsible for the crisis of the Church for half a century,” and listed the term “LGBT” as among the “propaganda phrases of the homosexual lobby.” That year, Müller also denied the reality of homophobia, saying it was rather a “hoax that serves to threaten people” and “an instrument of totalitarian dominion over the minds of others.” He has compared the movement for LGBTQ equality to the totalitarian regimes of North Korea and the Soviet Union. Müller has been extremely critical of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, and he was a central figure in the Vatican’s investigation of U.S. women religious, whose support for LGBTQ+ people was one of the reasons for the inquiry. Müller was appointed by Pope Francis to participate as a member of the 2023 Synod assembly. (Full record here.)

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap., of Boston (United States)

In 2021, after the Vatican issued its ban on blessing same-gender couples, O’Malley stated that the church needed to proclaim its teaching on marriage. In 2020, his comment on Pope Francis’ support for same-gender civil unions did not address the topic, but stressed pastoral care for LGBTQ+ people. In a 2014 conversation with Bondings 2.0, O’Malley said the trend of firing LGBTQ+ church workers “needs to be rectified,” becoming the first U.S. bishop to critique such discrimination. In 2013, he banned the Austrian church reformer Fr. Helmut Schüller from archdiocesan property over the priest’s views on, among other topics, LGBTQ+ inclusion. In 2010, O’Malley welcomed children of LGBTQ+ parents to Catholic schools, after a dispute arose in his archdiocese. He was recently re-appointed to the Council of Cardinals, who are some of Pope Francis’ closest advisors. O’Malley was appointed by Pope Francis to participate as a member of the 2023 Synod assembly. (Full record here.)

Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen and of the Military Ordinariate of Germany (Germany)

In 2021, Overbeck published an essay questioning current church teaching on sexuality, saying he rejects adherence to an ethics that “wants to practically deny people who love someone of the same sex the possibility of a successful and fulfilling relationship. The life experiences and deep feelings of those who are homosexual or transgender have touched me very deeply. Church teaching must integrate these concrete testimonies of life.” Elsewhere, he said the church needs to fundamentally reassess its approach to homosexuality. In 2021, after the Vatican issued its ban on blessing same-gender couples, Overbeck said “why not” when asked about them, and he has expressed his support for such blessings several times. The Diocese of Essen under the bishop’s leadership held a virtual symposium on the topic following the ban. That year, Overbeck said personally that no priest who participated in Germany’s blessing protests would be sanctioned. In 2019, Overbeck defied the Vatican’s ban on gay men in the priesthood. He allowed the story of a married gay church worker to appear in the diocesan magazine the following year, too. In 2010, when first appointed a bishop, Overbeck spoke more negatively about homosexuality. He explained in 2019 that his reversal on the issue was because he had  “come to new insights through my personal encounters and an in-depth discussion of this topic.” Overbeck was chosen by the German bishops as one of their three representatives to the 2023 Synod assembly. (Full record here.)

Archbishop Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle of Cape Coast (Ghana)

Palmer-Buckle serves as vice president of Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, which in 2023, endorsed legislation to further criminalize being LGBTQ+, saying the “abominable practice” of homosexuality should be illegal. The law also promotes conversion therapy. In 2015, at the Synod on the Family, Palmer-Buckle responded to a question from Bondings 2.0 about criminalization laws that LGBTQ+ people do indeed have human rights and should be welcomed in the church. He then appealed to “be patient with Africa” because “we are growing,” and change to more accepting attitudes could not happen “overnight.” Palmer-Buckle was chosen by Ghanaian bishops as one of their two representatives to the 2023 Synod assembly. (Full record here.)

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, Holy See (Vatican City)

Parolin has had a central role in Vatican attempts to slow the Synodal Way process in Germany for its LGBTQ-positive proposals, including blessings for same-gender couples. In 2023, he reminded journalists of the Vatican’s 2021 ban on those blessings, and argued local churches do not have the authority to take such steps. However, he rejected that the German church was in “rebellion,” saying “there have always been tensions and differing positions” in the church. In 2021, Parolin was involved in a controversy over the Vatican’s historic intervention in Italian politics against a proposal to enhance non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people. Parolin later defended the move, though also said such discrimination needed to be addressed. In 2019, Parolin met with fifty LGBTQ+ advocates to discuss ending the criminalization of homosexuality and conversion therapy. Previously, the cardinal described Irish voters’ passage of marriage equality in 2015 as a “defeat for humanity,” and he has said it was “essential” that Italian law reflect a difference between same-gender civil unions and marriage. Parolin is a member of the 2023 Synod assembly because he is the Secretary of State for the Holy See. (Full record here.)

Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes of Mexico City (Mexico)

In 2020, Retes said “I completely agree” after Pope Francis endorsed civil unions for same-gender couples, though he previously campaigned against marriage equality. In his 2020 comments, the cardinal encouraged parents to love and accept their LGBTQ+ children, saying “all are members of the family, and if we’re fighting so that families are united, regardless of their conduct, they don’t stop being our children. . .Because if, as it happens unfortunately, a son in a family declares himself openly homosexual, then they don’t want to have anything to do with him. And that can’t be, it just can’t be.” Retes was appointed by Pope Francis to participate as a member of the 2023 Synod assembly. (Full record here.)

Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend (United States)

In 2023, Rhoades, as a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Doctrine, helped prepare a doctrinal note on preventing gender-affirming care at Catholic hospitals. That note will likely inform upcoming revisions by the same committee to the U.S. bishops’ Ethical and Religious Directives, which dictate Catholic healthcare norms, revisions which could ban gender-affirming care outright. In 2022, Rhoades, who has held several top roles at the USCCB, was elected to chair the conference’s Committee on Religious Liberty, which has led the bishops’ anti-LGBTQ+ rights work. A main figure in the 2021 effort by some bishops to deny Communion to President Joe Biden, in 2016, he objected to the University of Notre Dame honoring then-Vice President Biden in part because of the vice president’s support for LGBTQ+ equality. In 2014, Rhoades criticized a decision by Notre Dame and St. Mary’s College to offer benefits to employees’ same-gender partners. In 2013, he joined USCCB leaders in opposing the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act because it would have included protections for LGBTQ+ people. That same year, he said the Boy Scouts of America’s decision to welcome gay members did not conflict with church teaching. In 2012, Rhoades, as chair of the USCCB Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, signed onto an interfaith letter claiming marriage equality was a grave threat to religious liberty. Rhoades was chosen by the U.S. bishops as one of their five representatives to the 2023 Synod assembly. (Full record here.)

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, O.P., of Vienna (Austria)

In 2021, Schönborn said he was “not happy” with the Vatican’s ban on blessing same-gender couples, and that if such a couple approaches the church with an “honest request,” then “this blessing will not be denied to them.” The cardinal explained his position by observing that people should be encouraged to live out human virtues for a successful relationship, even if the relationship is not the church’s ideal. In 2018, he sharply condemned a fellow Austrian prelate’s claim that same-gender blessings were comparable to blessing a concentration camp. In 2020, Schönborn hosted a third fundraiser for HIV/AIDS work at Vienna’s cathedral. He responded to critics of the event that the first question asked by Jesus would not be about one’s sexual orientation, but how one cares for the poor. The cardinal also led a World AIDS Day memorial service in 2017, acknowledging that his friendship with a gay HIV/AIDS activist had “melted away” prejudices against lesbian and gay people. In 2017, Schönborn said that the church must meet and welcome all families where they are, including same-gender couples. That year, he said that Austrian courts would be denying reality if they legalized marriage equality as it “ultimately harms everyone.” In 2019, he reversed course and endorsed civil marriage equality, and in 2013, he had previously expressed support for civil unions. In a 2015 interview, Schönborn called a close friend’s same-gender relationship “an improvement” as the couple shares a life together, even if the relationship is considered irregular by the church. After the 2015 Synod on the Family, Schönborn admitted LGBTQ+ advocates were likely “disappointed” by final report, but said “cultural differences must be respected.” At the 2014 Synod on the Family, Schönborn spoke about a same-gender couple that “was saintly” because of their love and care for one another. That same year, Schönborn spoke positively about the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, a drag performer known as Conchita Wurst, saying, “As we all know…Not everyone who is born male feels he is a man and the same applies to women,” and such people “deserve the same respect we all have a right to.” In 2012, Schönborn reinstated a gay man to a parish council after the local pastor had rejected him. Schönborn is a noted advocate of gradualism, or the idea that people proceed slowly in building up virtues rather than being instantly perfect, and he has said Amoris Laetitia does in fact show church teaching develops. Schönborn is a member of the 2023 Synod assembly because he is presently on the Ordinary Council of the Synod. (Full record here.)

Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta (Malta)

In 2022, Scicluna encouraged parents to accept LGBTQ+ children as a mandate of the Gospel, saying, “[A]ccept your children as God the Father has done. Jesus is looking at your children – as he looks at each and every one of us – when he tells us that he is giving us a new commandment to love one another.” That same year, he met with LGBTQ+ advocates in Malta. He also rebuked a priest who made anti-gay comments, going so far as to threaten the priest with sanctions if the harmful rhetoric continued. In 2019, at the Vatican’s summit on clergy sexual abuse, Scicluna repeatedly rejected any link between gay priests and abuse. In 2015, Scicluna did not punish—and even affirmed—the LGBTQ+ outreach ministry of a priest who blessed a same-gender couple’s union. He has said the church should apologize to LGBTQ+ people (though opposed civil unions), and he condemned “conversion therapy” with an apology for a church report which had supported it. Since 2014, Scicluna has participated in IDAHOBIT events. In 2013, while he was an auxiliary bishop, he called for the church to respect gay people. He gave a soft defense of love in same-gender relationships, saying at one point, “Love is never a sin. God is love.” Scicluna was chosen by the Maltese bishops as their five representative to the 2023 Synod assembly. (Full record here.)

Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect, Dicastery of the Causes of Saints (Vatican City)

In 2018, Semeraro addressed the meeting of Italy’s National Forum on LGBT Christians with a message emphasizing inclusion, welcome, and a shared equality because of baptism. Semeraro stated, in part: “You are Christian groups and this means a title of fraternity. ‘Christian is my name’, wrote Paciano of Barcelona in the fourth century: this allows all Christians to call each other by name. This is the title for which I recognize you as siblings.’” Semeraro is a member of the 2023 Synod assembly because he heads a dicastery in the Roman Curia. (Full record here.)

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Prefect, Dicastery of Evangelization (Vatican City)

In 2018, Tagle offered ambiguous answers at the Synod on Youth on whether the term “LGBT” would or should be included in that synod’s final document, as well as on whether gay men should be accepted into seminary. In 2015, as archbishop of Manila in the Philippines, Tagle told a gathering of young Catholics that the church needed to learn from the damaging attitudes and acts it had inflicted on marginalized groups, including lesbian and gay people. Tagle is a member of the 2023 Synod assembly because he co-heads a dicastery in the Roman Curia. (Full record here.)

Cardinal Joseph Tobin, C.SS.R., of Newark (United States)

In 2023, ahead of a vote by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to revise healthcare directives, including items concerning gender-affirming care, Tobin said it was essential to consult with transgender people in that process. In 2021, he joined a dozen other U.S. bishops in signing the Tyler Clementi Foundation’s statement to end bullying against LGBTQ+ youth. In 2019, Tobin said the language the church uses in its teachings on homosexuality was “very unfortunate” and should evolve to be “a little less hurtful.” In 2018, Tobin described LGBTQ-related church employment issues as a “very difficult question.” Back in 2016, he said that church employment concerns should be charitably dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Tobin was reportedly asked by the Vatican to mediate a dispute between the current archbishop of Indianapolis and Brebeuf Jesuit Prep School over the school’s refusal to fire a gay teacher. In 2017, Tobin welcomed a group of LGBTQ+ pilgrims to Newark’s cathedral, telling them in a message before the event, “I am delighted that you and the LGBTQ brothers and sisters plan to visit our beautiful cathedral. You will be very welcome!” On the day of their visit, he greeted the pilgrims warmly, an experience one attendee said “felt like a miracle.” That same year, he publicly challenged the USCCB’s decision to make its Committee on Religious Liberty, which often leads the conference’s anti-LGBTQ+ work, a permanent structure. In 2016, he criticized the USCCB’s priorities, which focused on marriage and religious liberty, as being inconsistent with Pope Francis’ vision. In 2013, as archbishop of Indianapolis, Tobin defended the right of Catholics to follow their conscience on a vote to ban marriage equality. In 2010, he defended U.S. women religious when the Vatican launched its investigations against them, in part for their support of LGBTQ+ equality. Tobin is a member of the 2023 Synod assembly because he is presently on the Ordinary Council of the Synod. (Full record here.)

Cardinal Leonardo Ulrich Steiner, O.F.M., of Manaus (Brazil)

In 2014, Steiner endorsed civil unions for same-gender couples while serving as an auxiliary bishop in Brasilia, saying such couples “need legal protection in society,” in addition to support from the church. He cited Pope Francis and the Catechism as the basis of this stance, commenting further, “Acceptance and walking with them are necessary to reflect on what fits or doesn’t fit the reality experienced by homosexual people and what, in fact, is rightfully theirs, for their own good and that of society.” Steiner was chosen by the Brazilian bishops as one of their five representatives to the 2023 Synod assembly. (Full record here.)

Bishop Sanctus Lino Wanok of Lira (Uganda)

In 2023, on Ash Wednesday, Wanok warned in a homily not to “lure anybody into the sin of homosexuality as it is not human; it is death, which humanity must repent against.” He added that it was “mocking the Church” to request blessings for queer relationships for “the Catholic Church will not accept homosexuality.” Wanok was chosen by the Ugandan bishops as their representative to the 2023 Synod assembly (Full record here.) 

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna (Italy)

Zuppi has been head of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, chosen personally for this role by Pope Francis, since 2022. In 2020, he wrote the prologue to a book on homosexuality which featured interviews with theologians and LGBTQ+ Catholics. Zuppi wrote that communities need to “truly begin to look at people as God looks at them, then homosexual people — and everybody else — will begin to feel, naturally, a part of the ecclesial community.” In 2018 at the Synod on Youth, Zuppi was asked by Bondings 2.0 whether the bishops were advancing on LGBTQ+ inclusion. He replied that such pastoral ministry is “an important topic,” referencing a gay Catholic group in his archdiocese that has existed for more than three decades. Zuppi added that issues of gender and sexuality are experienced differently across the world. That same year, Zuppi wrote the preface to an Italian edition of Building a Bridge that approved of Fr. James Martin, S.J.’s, use of the term “LGBT” as “a necessary step for beginning a respectful conversation.” Zuppi is a member of the 2023 Synod assembly because he is presently on the Ordinary Council of the Synod. (Full record here.)