Outreach asked some of the world’s leading Catholic theologians and scholars to reflect on the import of the work of Study Group 9: what it means for the church and for LGBTQ Catholics. We hope this series helps you as well to reflect on this group’s important work. Read more from Outreach’s series here.
This year, the General Secretariat of the Synod published a number of reports from study groups established after the last general session of the Synod on Synodality. One of those reports opened a promising path for LGBTQ people within the church. It is titled: “Theological criteria and synodal methodologies for the shared discernment of emerging doctrinal, pastoral, and ethical issues”. This follows the body’s XVI General Assembly, held in 2024 under the theme “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission.” A significant new development is that the study is accompanied by the testimonies of two married gay men—active in the life of the church and the sacraments—who value their own sexual orientation.
This Synod publication is not and does not aim to be an authoritative or magisterial document; rather, it presents work commissioned from a group during the synodal process to examine the topic and foster an exercise of discernment within local churches. The intention is to assist every community—and the church as a whole—in personally committing to recognizing and promoting the good through which God works in history and in people’s lived experiences. It is a text well worth reading and reflecting upon.
At the heart of the report’s theological foundation lies the conviction that “universal truth of the human, in its historical expression, cannot therefore be determined once and for all, but is found in the concrete forms of different cultures, in an unceasing dialogue in which cultures and people are formed through the exchange of gifts with one another, driven by the search for truth and justice in the light of the Gospel.”
Thus, listening to practices in the light of the Gospel does not mean judging them against a rule established once and for all; rather, it means recognizing the ever-growing power of the Holy Spirit at work in history, offering an interpretation that becomes effective in practice. In this vein, theological reflection proceeds from the experience of the good—an experience inscribed within the sense of the faith of the faithful.
Listening to practices in the light of the Gospel does not mean judging them against a rule established once and for all; rather, it means recognizing the ever-growing power of the Holy Spirit at work in history.
In addressing homosexuality, the Study Group 9 report refers to the 2019 document on anthropology from the Pontifical Biblical Commission (here). This Commission notes that various biblical assertions—on cosmological, biological, and sociological levels—have gradually come to be viewed as outdated due to the progressive advancement of the natural and human sciences; and that, by analogy, some infer that a new and more adequate understanding of the human person extends beyond the exclusive valuing of heterosexual union, favoring instead an acceptance of homosexuality and same-sex unions as legitimate and dignified expressions of human existence.
Subsequently, the Commission analyzes the biblical texts used to condemn homosexual practice, including those cited in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (Gen 19:1–29; Rom 1:24–27; 1 Cor 6:10; 1 Tim 1:10). This analysis offers a different, non-condemnatory interpretation. This points to the need for a doctrinal review—a task that is far from simple, given the controversial nature of the subject and the complexity of the Catholic Church.
After referencing this document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, the Study Group 9 report cites cites a 1986 document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which calls upon bishops to provide pastoral care to homosexual persons in their dioceses in full conformity with church teaching grounded in Scripture and the living tradition of the church. The report’s engagement with both the documents from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Biblical Commission reminds us that offering pastoral care grounded in Scripture and the tradition also involves ongoing work to understand and interpret the sources we rely on, precisely in order to remain faithful to them as part of the church’s living tradition.
In this context, the Study Group 9 report raises the question of how we might gain a deeper understanding of the human and moral experience of the faithful who experience same-sex attraction, drawing not only upon the light of the Word of God but also upon a transdisciplinary approach. Mention is made of those rejected for belonging to the LGBTQ community and of the many misconceptions within the Christian community, rooted in attitudes of homophobia and transphobia.
In the second testimony, the author is convinced that the church needs LGBTQ people just as much as they need the church.
In the first testimony presented, the author feels Christ’s fierce and loving call to personal integrity and wholeness—urging him neither to harm himself nor others, given that his own body is created and loved by God. He does not ignore the scars he bears. He witnessed the devastating effects of “conversion therapies” and the fracturing of families—phenomena that struck him as an attack on God’s sensitive and blameless creation. He realizes that his true sin was not his love, but his lack of trust in the divine desire for a full life for him.
In the second testimony, the author is convinced that his sexuality is not a perversion, a disorder, or a cross to bear, but a gift from God. He views his marriage as happy and healthy—a union in which he flourishes as an openly gay Catholic. He acknowledges that reaching this point required years of prayer, therapy, and life within a welcoming community, yet he thanks God for his sexuality and his life circumstances.
Reading the Bible within its proper context led him to realize that condemnatory interpretations interpretations have little to say about the vital, contemporary relationships between same-sex individuals. He takes his own experience—and the experiences of other LGBTQ people—seriously as a manifestation of God’s work. He is convinced that the church needs LGBTQ people just as much as they need the church.
This second author speaks of a form of Catholicism that keeps him Catholic by welcoming him exactly as he is. He knows many priests who have faced attacks for supporting LGBTQ people. He envisions them as Mary, shielding these individuals beneath her mantle while they are struck by the hateful arrows of homophobia and transphobia. He states that words fail to express the difference these religious leaders—some of whom are openly gay—make in people’s lives. They saved his spiritual life, as well as that of hundreds of other LGBTQ Catholics he knows. It is interesting to note a Vatican publication praising openly gay priests.
In the pursuit of an unceasing dialogue that advances through the exchange of gifts, the Study Group 9 report follows the path opened by the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) in its development of the tradition’s teaching on the freedom and autonomy of conscience. Conscience is the sanctuary of every human being, where one is alone with God, whose voice makes itself heard in the depths of one’s being.
Indeed, the church needs LGBTQ persons just as much as they need the church. The Body of Christ is incomplete without these members.
Through fidelity to the voice of conscience, Christians are united with other human beings in the duty to seek the truth and to resolve, considering that truth, the moral questions that arise in individual and social life. No one should act against their own conscience, nor be prevented from acting in accordance with it.
Thus, God truly manifests himself in LGBTQ persons who seek the truth and remain faithful to their own conscience. Through the telling of their life stories, the Spirit of God speaks to the church and to society, challenging them regarding this reality—fraught with both conflict and opportunity—where rejection and demonization are not uncommon. Indeed, the church needs LGBTQ persons just as much as they need the church. The Body of Christ is incomplete without these members. May God bless this promising synodal journey.
