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On at the very least one main problem, it’s not but clear simply how carefully the brand new pope will adhere to the legacy established by his predecessor.
As Pink News reported, Pope Leo XIV hasn’t made many public statements on LGBTQ+ rights, however the ones he has expressed have been described by The New York Times as “less welcoming” than stances Pope Francis as soon as embraced.
Per the Occasions, Leo gave remarks in 2012 that criticized Western information media and popular culture for selling “sympathy for beliefs and practices which are at odds with the gospel.” Examples of such beliefs that Leo reportedly referenced included a “gay life-style” and “various households comprised of same-sex companions and their adopted kids.”
As a bishop in Peru, Leo additionally deemed “the promotion of gender ideology” in faculties “complicated,” noting that “it seeks to create genders that don’t exist.”
And in 2024, Leo adopted a extra ambivalent stance relating to blessings for same-sex unions. Whereas Francis backed the observe, Leo declined to oppose or endorse a doc that supported them, according to The 19th.
Throughout his tenure as head of the Catholic Church, Francis was identified for ushering in a extra inclusive interval of management that embraced LGBTQ+ parishioners and clergy members in a brand new approach.
“If somebody is homosexual and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to evaluate?” Francis said of gay clergy members in 2013. He additionally pushed again in opposition to legal guidelines around the globe which have criminalized homosexuality and met with LGBTQ+ Catholic teams, changing into one of many first popes to take action.
Francis’ management was broadly heralded as a sea change in comparison with previous papacies that promoted anti-gay views, although he didn’t fundamentally change doctrine on issues like same-sex marriage.
For now, LGBTQ+ Catholics are watching carefully to see whether or not Leo — who emphasised inclusion broadly in his opening remarks — will keep the identical trajectory.
“We pray that within the 13 years which have handed, 12 of which had been underneath the papacy of Pope Francis, that his coronary heart and thoughts have developed extra progressively on LGBTQ+ points,” mentioned Francis DeBernardo, the chief director of New Methods Ministry, an LGBTQ+ Catholic group, in a press release.
