Reaction to LGBT+ Synod report highlights ‘new and radical’ moves towards inclusion
The Final Report of Synodal Study Group 9 has been welcomed by London’s LGBT+ Catholics Westminster Pastoral Council which said it had focused on the inclusion of LGBT+ Catholics in ‘quite new and radical ways’.
In a statement, the British support group said the final report “far exceeded our expectations with clear evidence that the submissions we, and others in European Roman Catholic LGBT+ networks made, have hit a mark”.
Martin Pendergast, spokesperson for LGBT+ Catholics Westminster said the document, “even if it is not a formal Vatican doctrinal statement, is surprising[ly] honest in recognising what it calls ‘the inadequacy of our current categories and operational paradigms. There is a persistent resistance …to changing our usual mental and behavioural habitus (disposition).’”
Another support group for LGBT+ Catholics, DignityUSA, said the final report contained “hopeful possibilities” for LGBTQ+ people and families, but “leaves many questions about how the ongoing work of engaging in dialogue and discernment the document calls for will occur”.
Study Group 9 was one of ten study groups established by the late Pope Francis to consider detailed questions and practical outcomes of the Church’s 2021-2024 global Synod on Synodality. The report’s title is “Theological criteria and synodal methodologies for shared discernment of emerging doctrinal, pastoral, and ethical issues”.
In its statement, LGBT+ Catholics Westminster Pastoral Council applauded the study group for using the term “emerging” issues rather than “controversial” issues indicating a move away from a “problem-solving” approach towards a more relational dialogue as the Church tries to journey together with all its people.
“We welcome its affirmation that the shift in terminology is not merely superficial, but expresses a proposal for a reformulation linked to a paradigm shift,” the group said.
Though couched in the formal and academic language of theologians, Joe Stanley, acting chairperson of LGBT+ Catholics Westminster said, it “marks a firm, clear and radical restatement of the principles of the Second Vatican Council”.
“A good example of the Report’s frankness is its acknowledgment of problems prompted by the approach of the group, Courage, which “by pushing for ‘reparative therapy” had the effect of separating faith and sexuality rather than integrating them. “This reflects the Introduction to the Pastoral Care of Homosexual People, authorised by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales in 1979.”
The British group also welcomed the inclusion of two testimonies from gay men in Portugal and the USA, relating how they have integrated their faith and sexuality as same-sex married couples.
“We welcome the Report’s highlighting of the principle of ‘pastorality’, moving away from a rigid application of ideo-theological theory to human situations, and emphasising the lived experience of believers, in the light of the Gospel and the discernment of developments in human and social sciences, as a source for renewed operational practices in a synodal Church,” LGBT+ Catholics Westminster Pastoral Council said.
“This document demonstrates a welcome humility and openness to learning from the People of God about people’s lives and faith journeys,” Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA commented.
“It is clear that the study group members understand that the doctrines of the Church undermine the deep relationship with God that many LGBTQ+ people have, or try to have, and that this needs to be corrected.”
She said that Church officials have decades of testimony from people who have found their sexual orientation or gender identity to be a blessing and a gift, and their relationships to be sacred. “To see this reality reflected and respected in this document is a long-awaited positive step.”
However, Duddy-Burke noted that the document provides few concrete recommendations and proposes no doctrinal changes.
Rather, it calls for dialogue, encounter, and communal theological reflection to shape how the Catholic church moves forward in addressing doctrine and pastoral practice.
“The paradigm shift repeatedly called for in this report is a significant and very welcome change,” she said. “Experience, especially of those most impacted, must be key to developing dogma. This kind of dialogue and engagement are exactly what DignityUSA, LGBTQ+ Catholics, families, and frontline ministers have been calling for, and offering to the larger church, for decades.
“Here in the United States, we have seen tremendous growth in support among Catholics who have put in the time and effort to understand their LGBTQ+ family members and friends. However, very few church leaders have been willing to listen with open hearts and minds. Will more of them take the call of the Synod process seriously? How will this dialogue take place in parts of the world where it is unsafe for people to identify as LGBTQ+? These are huge questions for us.”
She criticised the study group’s failure to acknowledge the “damage done to so many people and families by the dehumanising language used towards LGBTQ+ people, and the condemnation of same-sex relationships and efforts to protect our human rights by the Vatican may undermine the good aspects of this work”.
However, the Report has also generated strong criticism.
According to the National Catholic Register Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former Prefect of the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2012 to 2017, has lashed out at the Report.
He said that while the authors “do not openly deny revealed truths”, they “set them aside and, alongside them, build their own house of a comfortable and world-conforming Christianity.” The former Vatican doctrinal chief condemned how “the pro-LGBT lobby” within the Church had “openly welcomed” such “heretical relativisation of natural and sacramental marriage”.
The publication also reported that Courage International, an apostolate that ministers to persons with same-sex attractions, had condemned the “calumny and detraction” in the Synod report.
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