Last week, Them magazine, an LGBTQ publication, reported that Pope Leo XIV planned to meet with the group We Are Church, a coalition of church reform groups, which Them described as a “pro-LGBTQ+ Catholic reform organization.”
Them’s reporting, seemingly based on a German-language Vatican News article, was then picked up by various other outlets. What did not reach as far was We Are Church’s response to the story. On August 15, the day after Them’s story was published, the organization sent out a press release saying that despite press reports, the We Are Church delegation would not be meeting privately with Pope Leo.
“We applied to take part in the Jubilee of the Synod Teams 24-26 October 2025 in Rome as another participating organization. We were pleased that our registration was accepted upon submission. To us, this is a positive sign that confirms the Church is listening to everyone,” the press release stated. “Along with many hundreds of delegates from around the world we look forward to hearing Pope Leo XlV deliver his address. But we are clear that no special meeting will take place with the pope and our group.”
Throughout the Jubilee Year, the Vatican is hosting a range of events featuring different themes, including a recent Jubilee for Youth and Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers. The meeting We Are Church is scheduled to attend is one of those events, the “Jubilee of synodal teams and participatory bodies.” The Jubilee Year is a centuries-old tradition, also called a holy year, during which Christians are called to repent, to lead lives of holiness and encouraged to participate in pilgrimages.
(There are also unofficial events centered around the Jubilee, including a gathering next month, which will feature LGBTQ Catholic organizations from around the world together in Rome attending a special Jubilee Mass, prayer service and procession. Outreach is leading a group of pilgrims to that gathering.)
Eight people from We Are Church plan to walk through the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica and participate in the Jubilee of Synodal Teams in late October. It will be the first time We Are Church has officially participated in a Vatican event in its almost 30-year history. The organization, which is a coalition of national reform groups in countries primarily in Europe and the Americas, advocates for, among other things, gender equality in the church, optional celibacy for priests, and an updating of Catholic teachings on sexual morality.
The Jubilee of Synodal Teams is the next major event on the calendar for Pope Francis’ signature reform process, the Synod on Synodality. Throughout the process, which included a global listening phase, the Vatican’s synod office reached out to groups outside the church’s traditional diocese-parish structure to host listening sessions and return their feedback to the Vatican. The synod office posted, then took down, then reinstated a link to a webinar on synodality hosted by the LGBTQ Catholic group New Ways Ministry.
During the 2023 synod meeting at the Vatican, We Are Church partnered with Root and Branch, another reform group, to put on a parallel “Synod of the People of God” held just outside the Vatican walls.
The 2025 meeting of synodal teams that the We Are Church delegation will attend was primarily intended for members of official diocesan, eparchial, national or “groupings of Churches” groups like presbyteral and pastoral councils. Groups outside of those structures, like We Are Church, were required to gain written approval from their bishop, episcopal conference or “grouping of Churches” in order to receive the registration link, according to the Synod website. The working meeting of synodal groups, while originally intended only for official church-affiliated teams, was also opened to anyone who wished to register, depending on availability, due to “the growing interest also of individual faithful who are not members of synodal teams/participatory bodies,” the synod website says.
That working session will conclude with a meeting with Pope Leo XIV.
