What’s Next? Pope Leo XIV and LGBTQ+ Catholics

On Sunday, May 11, 2025, three days after the election of Pope Leo XIV, New Ways Ministry hosted a webinar featuring seasoned Vatican observers to try to answer the question of the program’s title: “What’s Next: Pope Leo XIV and LGBTQ+ Catholics?”  This is a question on the minds and hearts of many Catholics these days, and the webinar set out to provide some answers to it.

The recording of this program is now available on New Ways Ministry’s YouTube channel.

The panelists were three distinguished Catholic commentators with years of experience writing about the Vatican, the papacy, and the contemporary church:  Claire Giangravé is a Rome-based reporter for Religion News Service, covering the Catholic Church and the Vatican; Steven P. Millies is Professor of Public Theology and Director of the Bernardin Center at Pope Leo XIV’s alma mater Catholic Theological Union; Heidi Schlumpf is a senior correspondent at the National Catholic Reporter and is that news outlet’s former executive editor. The moderator, Brian Flanagan, PhD, is a theologian who researches synodality, and a Senior Fellow at New Ways Ministry.

This informative and engaging webinar should give you some insights into what we might expect from our new pope not only about LGBTQ+ issues, but on other areas of concern in the church and the world.