The Catholic Church’s teaching on persons who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ) is often reduced to a few passages from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. But the church’s teaching on that topic is far richer than those few, albeit important, lines. In this, the situation is akin to the church’s stance on marriage, poverty, the death penalty, the environment or any number of complex issues. Church teaching on all of these matters, which has developed over 2,000 years, is too rich to be contained in any one book, no matter how comprehensive.
With that in mind, let’s look at this question: What does the Catholic Church teach about LGBTQ people?
God created you and loves you
The most fundamental teaching on LGBTQ people is this: Every human being is created and loved by God. As Pope Leo XIV wrote in his encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas,” “At the heart of the Christian understanding of the human person lies the great biblical affirmation that men and women are created in the image and likeness of the Triune God” (No. 50). That includes LGBTQ people. This may be obvious to most Catholics today but was less so in past decades.
Our dignity as human beings is inviolable, as Pope Leo affirms in this beautiful passage: “This is the dignity that belongs to every human being simply by virtue of existing, of having been willed, created and loved by God. No sin, failure, humiliation or exclusion can diminish the profound value of a human life that God has willed and called into being” (No. 52).
Moreover, the church teaches that God loves each person with an extravagant love that is hard to fathom, exceeding even the deep love that a loving parent has for a child. “I have loved you with an everlasting love,” said God in the Book of Jeremiah (31:3). And, as any loving parent would desire for a child, God wants only the best for us: “For I know the plans I have for you,” says God, “plans for welfare and not for harm; to give you a future with hope” (Jer 29:11).
The most fundamental teaching on LGBTQ people is this: Every human being is created and loved by God
For many LGBTQ people, especially those who feel as if they are somehow unwanted, or have been told that they are a mistake, or feel that their own church or family has rejected them, these are essential teachings. In the West, perhaps many LGBTQ people of faith know instinctively that God loves them, thanks to loving parents, siblings, pastors and teachers, as well as their experiences in welcoming parishes, through the sacraments and in their own prayer. But in other parts of the world, where homophobia is rampant—even within Catholic circles—this is an element of church teaching that must be stressed over and over.
The risk of not teaching clearly and repeatedly that God loves LGBTQ people is not only that they might continue to be persecuted and excluded—though that would be tragic enough. An equally grave risk is that LGBTQ people (and their friends and families) can end up convinced that God does not truly love them—the precise opposite of what the church believes and teaches.
Also, it’s important to note the following: Nowhere does the Catholic Church teach that simply being LGBTQ is a sin.
So the most fundamental church teaching for LGBTQ Catholics to understand is that God created you and loves you. Because of that, you have a dignity that no one can take from you.
Jesus and the Gospels
With that in mind, let’s turn to Jesus.
For the Christian, the most essential church teachings center on what Jesus said and did during his public ministry. In the words of the Second Vatican Council’s “Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation” (“Dei Verbum”), Jesus Christ is the “fullness of revelation” (No. 2). One could say, then, that the most fundamental source of church teaching is not so much a book, but a person: Jesus Christ.
During his public ministry, Jesus said nothing about homosexuality, at least as recorded in the Gospels. And he certainly could have. He pronounces on a variety of related issues, from marriage to divorce to family ties (Mt 19:1-12; Mk 3:31-35). But on homosexuality he is silent.
During his public ministry, Jesus said nothing about homosexuality.
On the other hand, Jesus does show us how to reach out to those on the margins, which is where many LGBTQ people feel they exist today, either within the church or in the larger society. Many Gospel stories recount how Jesus encountered people who felt rejected, ignored or excluded. Each encounter can teach us something, especially as we meditate on the church’s response to LGBTQ people, many of whom feel on the margins,
So how does Jesus treat those on the margins? Let’s look briefly at three Gospel stories.
First, in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus meets a Roman centurion who begs for healing for his servant (Mt 8:5-13; Lk 7:1-10). When the centurion tells Jesus that he is “not worthy” to have him come “under my roof,” Jesus pronounces the man’s faith greater than he has found anywhere in Israel and heals the man’s servant. Notice that while this centurion (according to Luke’s Gospel) provided the funds to build the local synagogue, he is about as far outside the Jewish milieu as possible; he is a Roman, a pagan and a member of an occupying army.
Yet Jesus treats the centurion with immense respect and does a great service for him. It is an early sign of how Jesus treats people on the margins.
Second, consider the story of the Samaritan woman, often the “Woman at the Well,” in John’s Gospel (4:4-42). This is an important passage for LGBTQ people because, as the narrative progresses, we discover that this Samaritan woman has likely been ostracized from her community (which would explain why she is fetching water at noon, the hottest time of day, when other women would not be there). A possible reason for her exclusion, which Jesus intuits, is that she has been married five times and is currently living with a man who is not her husband. Thus, she has what we might call an irregular sexual past and present.
This is one reason why one might expect Jesus not to spend much time with her, or even to ignore her. In addition, she is a Samaritan, a member of a community that was often at odds with many Jews of the time. This is one reason that Luke’s parable of the good Samaritan lands with such force (10:25-37) And of course she is a woman. And while Jesus often speaks with women during his public ministry, John’s Gospel says that the disciples are “surprised” he is speaking with her.
Nonetheless, Jesus engages with the Samaritan woman in one of the longest conversations recorded in the Gospels and reveals himself to her as the “living water.” After this, she returns to her people to proclaim what she has experienced. In this way, she becomes an apostle: not one of The Twelve, but an apostle nonetheless, someone sent, which is the root meaning of the Greek word apostolos. As an aside, there is not a hint of condemnation in this passage; rather, it is the story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman, listening to her and revealing something crucial about his divine identity. It is another sign of how Jesus treats those on the margins.
Finally, we can look at Luke’s story of Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector of Jericho (19:1-10). Zacchaeus would most likely have been on the outs with the Jewish population in Jericho for two reasons: first, because of his collusion with Roman authorities and, second, the widespread suspicion that tax collectors were skimming money from their collections and lining their pockets.
We can see Zacchaeus as a kind of emblem of the LGBTQ Catholic—not because LGBTQ people are to be equated with sin, but because of his likely feeling excluded. His situation and Jesus’s response to him invite us to reflect on the church’s pastoral outreach to LGBTQ people.
Luke’s Gospel describes Zacchaeus as “short in stature.” And how little stature, or standing, do LGBTQ people have in the church today? Moreover, he cannot see Jesus “on account of the crowd” (as a physically shorter man), and how often has the church become the “crowd” that prevents the person with little “stature” from seeing Jesus? So Zacchaeus must climb a nearby sycamore tree to glimpse Jesus—doing more than the rest have to do for the same encounter.
We can see Zacchaeus as a kind of emblem of the LGBTQ Catholic—not because LGBTQ people are to be equated with sin, but because of his likely feeling excluded.
When Jesus spies Zacchaeus in the tree, he announces to the crowd that he will dine at the man’s house, what New Testament scholars call table fellowship, an unmistakable sign of welcome. Yet, as Luke notes, the crowd expresses anger over this: “All who saw this began to grumble.” Then, as now, showing mercy to people on the margins always infuriates some people.
Both Jesus and Zacchaeus, however, stand their ground (the Greek word used here, statheis, connotes this). Then the tax collector undergoes a conversion, promising that he will repay anyone he has defrauded four times over and that he will give half his money to the poor. Interestingly, the Greek verbs are in the present tense: “I repay…” “I give…” So perhaps the conversion we are meant to see is not only that of Zacchaeus, but that of the crowd, who realize that this man on the outs was more generous than they might have initially thought.
The story of Zacchaeus can speak to us about the need for the church to stand with those on the margins even when people “grumble.” Overall, each of these three Gospel stories —the Roman centurion, the Samaritan Woman and Zacchaeus —are fundamental forms of church teaching, reminding us to stand with those who feel excluded, as LGBTQ people often do.
(For a talk on these three stories, delivered at the Church of the Gesù in Rome, click here.)
Homosexuality in the Old and New Testaments
As I’ve mentioned, although the question of homosexuality is a pressing one for many people today, Jesus never pronounces explicitly on it in the Gospels, though he could have. There is a recent theory that the Roman centurion’s servant was the man’s lover (based on the man being called, in Greek, pais (“young person, boy, student”), an arguably more affectionate term than the word more commonly used in the Gospels, doulos (“servant” or “enslaved person”), but this is a minority view among scholars.
Overall, we can say there is no evidence of homosexuality being discussed in the Gospels.
The few instances in which homosexuality is mentioned in the Old and New Testaments more generally are negative. For example, it is categorized as an “abomination” in Leviticus (18:22). Because of their negativity, these few passages are often called the “clobber passages,” since they have historically been used to “clobber” LGBTQ Christians.
But even a cursory glance at these passages reveals a few important considerations.
First off, a great many things are labeled as an “abomination” or are, more broadly, forbidden in the Old Testament: dishonest business dealings (Dt 25: 13-16); eating pork (Lv 11:7-8), planting two different crops in the same field (Lv 19:19), and so on. And several offenses are listed as punishable by death in the Old Testament, for example adultery (Lv 20:10).
Yet we need to see these in their historical and cultural contexts. If we are not observant Jews today, we are probably not avoiding pork. If we are farmers today, we may indeed plant different kinds of crops in the same field. And while adultery is a sin, it is not something that most Christians believe warrants the death penalty. In other words, most contemporary believers understand these condemnations and restrictions in their historical and cultural contexts.
We need to see biblical passages about homosexuality in their historical and cultural contexts.
As Vatican II’s “Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation” (“Dei Verbum”), reminds us: “Since Holy Scripture must be read and interpreted in the sacred spirit in which it was written, no less serious attention must be given to the content and unity of the whole of Scripture if the meaning of the sacred texts is to be correctly worked out” (No. 12).
Likewise, there are certain actions in the Old and New Testaments that are treated as morally acceptable but that we now recognize as profoundly unjust or even evil: slavery, to take the most obvious example. The Book of Exodus sanctions a father selling his own daughter into slavery (21:7) and in the Letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul tells enslaved people to “obey their earthly masters” (6:5-9). Most Christians today grasp that these teachings need to be understood in their historical context and sometimes, as with slavery, understood in an entirely new way.
As for St. Paul’s condemnations of homosexuality, there is an entire field of study that wonders what he meant by the words arsenokoitai (an apparent neologism from St. Paul that combines the words for “male” and “bed”) and malakoi (meaning “soft” or weak”) to describe what he is condemning. Some contemporary scholars argue that these references may be more about male domination, predation or rape, rather than the mutual, loving, consensual relationships that many same-sex couples experience today, a kind of relationship probably unknown to St. Paul..
Again, these readings must be understood in their context. (“A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text,” as the saying goes.) More recent biblical translations try to take this into account. The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, which offers an accurate translation while reflecting cultural differences across history, translates arsenokoitai in 1 Cor. 6:9 as “male prostitutes.” The recent film “1946” also looked at how the translations of these words influenced Christian understanding of homosexuality.
(For more on understanding the biblical treatment of homosexuality and the “clobber passages,” see the collection of some of the world’s top biblical scholars online at The Outreach Guide to the Bible and Homosexuality and in our book The Bible and Homosexuality.)
The Catechism on homosexuality and same-sex relations
When we turn to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the official compendium of church teaching, we find some compassion for LGBTQ people. The Catechism asks us to “accept” gay people (not simply treat them) with “respect, compassion, and sensitivity” (No. 2359). (The term “homosexuals” is used in the catechism, which was first published in 1992, but it is reasonable to broaden the application to LGBTQ people in general.)
All these words —”acceptance,” “respect,” “compassion” and sensitivity”—are key virtues for a world, and sometimes a church, in which LGBTQ people can still find themselves excluded, ignored or vilified.
David Palmieri, D.Min., a longtime Catholic school educator, pointed out that when the modern catechism was written during the papacy of St. John Paul II, it was first published in French, in 1992. One sentence in No. 2358 is especially relevant. Referring to people with “homosexual tendencies,” the French text reads, “Ils doivent être accueillis avec respect, compassion et délicatesse: “They must be welcomed with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.”
The 1994 English translation translated this sentence as “They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.” “Concerns soon emerged about the meaning of ‘accept’ in English,” wrote Palmieri, “given its potential to imply moral endorsement rather than moral regard.”1997, the church issued an official Latin translation of the catechism that rendered the sentence as Excipiendi sunt observantia, compassione et suavitate (“They must be received with respect, compassion, and sensitivity”). Palmieri writes, “While the English translation of this Latin sentence retained the word accept, the Latin version’s use of excipiendi sunt (they must be received) made clear the Church’s intent is one of hospitality”
Interestingly, the original English-language version of the catechism, published in 1994, also said, “They do not choose their homosexual orientation,” an insight that was dropped in subsequent editions and no longer appears in the online version, but only in older print editions.
But let’s look at the lines most often quoted. The catechism teaches that homosexuality (the inclination, not the person) is an “objective disorder” and that same-sex acts are “intrinsically disordered” (No. 2359). Thus, homosexuals are called to celibacy, referencing the “Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics” (“Persona Humana”), from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1975.
What do these terms mean?
First, they do not mean that LGBTQ people are a mistake. Nor does it mean that they are psychologically disordered or disordered in themselves. Rather, in Catholic theology there are two purposes to sexual relations, which are “inseparably connected,” as explained in Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical “Humanae Vitae” (“On the Regulation of Birth”). They are essentially philosophical and theological terms having to do with the ends, or ultimate purposes (the telos, to use some Greek terminology) of human sexual relations.
One purpose for sexual relations is “procreative” (that is, having children) and the other is “unitive” (mutual love, affection and support). The church says that since same-sex couples cannot produce children; the erotic drive for same-sex relations is not “ordered” to the proper end. It is also important to see that the catechism is not commenting on the mutual love, affection or deep friendship that can exist between two men or two women, but instead on the erotic physical impulses. Indeed, even while explaining why they “cannot justify” same-sex relationships involving sexual activity, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has recently acknowledged “positive elements, which are in themselves to be valued and appreciated,” in these relationships.
And while not having the same authority as a Vatican document, individual bishops and even bishops conferences have spoken positively about the love that exists within same-sex couples. In 2022, the bishops of Belgium wrote the following in their document “Being Pastorally Close to Homosexual Persons”: “Others choose to live as a couple in lasting and faithful union with a partner. They too deserve our appreciation and support, For this relationship too, though not a church marriage, can be a source of peace and shared happiness for those involved.”
Many same-sex couples who have lived together for years would say that their relationships are indeed profound sources of love and support
Not surprisingly, many same-sex couples who have lived together for years would say that their relationships are indeed profound sources of love and support. Many same-sex couples also demonstrate a self-sacrificing love, as when one partner falls ill and is cared for by the other. Thus, many feel hurt when these relationships are not recognized as “unitive” by the church.
More recently, the church has taught that priests and deacons, under certain circumstances, can offer blessings when same-sex couples request them. This was seen as a major step forward by many observers, but fiercely resisted in other quarters. According to the document called Fiducia Supplicans (“On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings”), promulgated by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2023, those blessings cannot be liturgical (they cannot resemble a marriage ceremony); they cannot be planned (the couple shouldn’t be sending out invitations, for example); and they must be spontaneous (say, on the steps of a church before or after Mass). This is to prevent people from thinking that the church is marrying same-sex couples.
These forms of blessings have, as mentioned, proven controversial, with many bishops in Africa in particular (and a major African bishops conference) saying that they will not accept this Vatican teaching. On the other hand, in many places, especially in the West, this new permission has proven popular, with same-sex couples (the term used in the document) appreciating a sense that the ministers of the church are able to respond to them with pastoral care.
(For more on the Catechism and homosexuality see “What is the official church teaching on homosexuality?”)
Pastoral care for transgender people
Finally, there is the relatively new question of the church’s teaching on, and pastoral care for, transgender people. On this topic, the church’s response has been complex, varying from country to country, even diocese to diocese. In Amoris Laetitia, the apostolic exhortation that followed the Synod on the Family in 2015, Pope Francis wrote that ‘biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated.” At the same time, toward the end of his life, Pope Francis met regularly with transgender people as a sign of his pastoral outreach.
In 2019, the Vatican office then known as the Congregation for Catholic Education (now part of the Dicastery for Culture and Education) released a statement titled “Male and Female He Created Them,” which condemns any “gender theory” that would allow people to “choose one’s gender.” At the same time, it calls for dialogue and listening on this topic. A few years ago, when I met with the prefect of that office, Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, he told me that I could publicly share his desire that the document not harm transgender people and stressed that this document was mainly for Catholic schools.
What about the treatment of, and pastoral care for, transgender people in the church in the United States?
On the one hand, some bishops place severe limits on, and sometimes refuse to allow transgender students to attend Catholic schools. On the other hand are guidelines, which have been enacted in some US dioceses, from the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith that say that transgender people can serve as godparents and witnesses at weddings. The Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, to take but one example, issued a document on the pastoral care of LGBTQ people, the result of several listening sessions, which was seen by many as a compassionate approach to transgender students in Catholics schools.
Finally, we have the witness of bishops like Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C., who when asked by a transgender youth where she fits in the church, said, “You belong to the heart of this church.” And some parishes welcome transgender people in pastoral ministry, as we have shared in articles in Outreach.
Other forms of teaching
New Testament scholars remind us that Jesus taught by both words and deeds, with one amplifying the other. Likewise, what church leaders, especially popes and bishops, say and do is teaching. As a reminder, there are also different “levels” of church teaching: what the Second Vatican Council promulgated in a document, or the pope writes in an encyclical, is naturally on a different level than an offhand comment from a bishop, or something that a priest or deacon says in a homily. With that in mind, we can look at several such “teachings” over the last few years.
To begin with, even though it has not been yet included in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis publicly came out against the criminalization of homosexuality. (In some countries same-sex relations are not only a criminal offense, but punishable by death.) During his papacy, Francis also said that parents should never abandon their LGBTQ children; he appointed an openly gay man to a papal commission; he wrote letters of welcome to Outreach conferences; and he met with Catholics who ministered to LGBTQ people, including people like Sister Jeannine Gramick, S.L., co-founder of New Ways Ministry and me. These are all forms of teaching.
More recently, Pope Leo XIV spoke with the journalist Elise Allen for her biography of him and talked about acceptance. As an aside, he referred to “LGBTQ questions” when answering her, marking a change from church officials going out of their way to avoid the term. “What I’m trying to say is what Francis said very clearly when he would say, ‘todos, todos, todos,’” said the Holy Father. “Everyone’s invited in, but I don’t invite a person in because they are or are not of any specific identity. I invite a person in because they are a son or daughter of God. You’re all welcome, and let’s get to know one another and respect one another.”
In my own audience with the Holy Father in September 2026, the message I heard was that he wanted to continue the message of Pope Francis’ openness and welcome, but that he also had other issues on his plate: war, peace and church unity. These are all teachings from popes.
As Jesus says in Jn. 13:34, we are invited to “love one another.”
Lately the church has also seen a flurry of cardinals, archbishops and bishops speaking about extending pastoral care to LGBTQ people in the church, from Cardinal Domenico Battaglia in Italy to Cardinal Robert McElroy in the United States to Bishop Arnaldo Carvalheiro Neto, the official liaison of the Brazilian bishops conference to LGBTQ Catholics. Again, these are all forms of teaching —in this case from bishops, whose traditional ministry is to “teach, govern and sanctify.” A recent conference at the Jesuit Curia in Rome asking questions about ministering to LGBTQ people, and reflecting on all of these levels of church teaching, drew 10 Italian bishops.
(See Outreach.faith for more on popes, cardinals, archbishops and bishops on LGBTQ people)
Love one another
Overall, when we consider church teaching on LGBTQ people we return to the foundational teaching, which is that they are created and loved by God. And when we look at the words and deeds of Jesus in his public ministry and see him repeatedly reaching out to those on the margins, we are invited to ask ourselves, how are we “doing likewise” and how are we treating and accepting LGBTQ people with the Catechism’s “respect, compassion and sensitivity.”
More basically, as Jesus says in Jn. 13:34, we are invited to “love one another.”
Portions of this article appeared, in abbreviated form, in “What does the Catholic Church teach on LGBTQ people?” in US Catholic; “What is official church teaching on homosexuality?” in America Media and “Zacchaeus, the grumblers and LGBTQ people on Outreach.faith. See also The Bible and Homosexuality, a collection of essays from Outreach, edited by Michael J. O’Loughlin; and the online resource of those same essays, The Outreach Guide to the Bible and Homosexuality. For more on the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s concepts of “respect, compassion and sensitivity,” see my book Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion and Sensitivity.
