— Pope Francis has previously said “who am I to judge?” when asked about the LGBTQ community.
Pope Francis at a Mass on Sunday to celebrate the World Day of Grandparents and the elderly at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.
Pope Francis has told a young transgender person that “God loves us as we are,” his latest outreach gesture towards the LGBTQ community.
His comments, released by Vatican media on Tuesday, were in a podcast in which Francis listened and responded to audio messages from young people ahead of a Catholic youth festival which he will attend in Portugal next week.
One of the young people was Giona, an Italian in their early 20s who said they were “torn by the dichotomy between (their Catholic) faith and transgender identity.”
Francis replied that “the Lord always walks with us. … Even if we are sinners, he draws near to help us. The Lord loves us as we are. This is God’s crazy love.”
The Catholic Church teaches that members of the LGBTQ community should be treated with respect, compassion and sensitivity, and their human rights respected.
Whether the church can and should be more welcoming toward LGBTQ people, for example by offering blessings for same-sex unions, is a particularly sensitive topic.
Francis has famously said “who am I to judge?” in an answer to a question specifically about gay people and has condemned laws criminalizing members of the LGBTQ community as a sin and an injustice.
At the same time, the 86-year-old pontiff has reaffirmed that marriage can only be understood as a life-long union between a man and a woman. He backs civil laws giving same-sex couples rights in bureaucratic matters such as pensions and health care.
Conservatives have contested Francis’ more welcoming and less judgmental attitude towards the LGBTQ community, although he consistently refers to traditional Catholic teaching that says same-sex attraction is not sinful but same-sex acts are.
An upcoming world summit of bishops, due to convene this October and in 2024, is expected to discuss the church’s stance towards LGBT people, women and Catholics who have divorced and remarried outside the church.
I must know at least 1,000 nuns. (Though they are actually called “women religious” or “sisters.”) They taught me. I studied with them. We lived in the seminary with them. I’ve said Mass for several women congregations. We ministered together. I attended retreats given by them. They have been spiritual directors. I’ve written about them.
Yet, not once have I said to myself, “This nun is a lesbian.” And I think it’s because of my respect and reverence for them.
After reading two ground-breaking books about lesbian nuns, though, I think it’s the opposite. I had internalized the historic shame for same-sex feelings. Or, it simply does not matter.
The recently released “Love Tenderly” tells the story of 23 sisters coming to grips with their sexual orientation in the context of religious life. The contemporary work reflects a different milieu than the first ground-breaking, sensational “Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence,” published in 1985, which told 47 nuns’ stories. Jarring, it became an international hit because the words “lesbian” and “nun” had never been uttered in the same sentence in such a public way before. It also gave the curious a peek behind the convent walls that was not always flattering.
“Love Tenderly” oozes with tolerance and sensitivity, not only by the sisters telling their sometimes painful coming-out stories, but also of more accepting religious leadership in their communities.
Religious life in the U.S. has changed dramatically over the last 36 years.
“Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence” was originally published in 1985 and re-issued in 2013.
Years ago, young women entering Catholic orders were warned about “particular friendships,” which could be code for lesbians, and reminded to be friends with all sisters. But many women did bond and some crossed the line into sexual intimacy. When discovered, some were asked to leave the community or go for counseling or they were shamed.
Sister Kathleen Tuite — at 56, one of the youngest in the Dominican Sisters’ Caldwell order — is a product of the new formation. Entering the order at 25, she did her novitiate — or first period of formation — at a collaborative Dominican center in St. Louis with 10 other Dominican novices from all over the country. Unlike the closed environment in Caldwell, her novitiate was more expansive and open, exposing her to newer currents among young religious aspirants. A Dominican sister suggested I speak with her because she has her finger on the pulse of contemporary religious life.
“It was a wonderful experience with people on the same journey,” said Tuite, who later taught at St. Dominic Academy in Jersey City.
Throughout the next two decades, she also attended programs as part of Giving Voice, a program for anywhere between 50 and 80 young sisters, also from all over the country, so they would have support and encouragement to persevere in religious life. They also embodied a new understanding of church “where all God’s people live in pure love, social justice and truth,” she said.
These kinds of insights, she said, enabled sisters identifying as same-sex to remain in religious life, embracing the vow of celibacy with dignity and not shame.
The two anthologies recount the stories of young women who felt their call to enter the convent as sacred. Some described their feelings of attraction to girls since they were young, but not one said she entered because she wanted to fall in love with another nun. Though many described how their coming out was made safe in the confines of the convent in the company of other women, most felt lonely at first until they could confide in other sisters. Many stayed, some left and some returned.
“Sister Petra,” a pseudonym for a former congregational leader locally told me that “sex was never ever discussed” when she entered the convent. The main emphasis was “how to live a celibate life with women.”
She did become aware of “some people who did identify as lesbian and chose to leave.” It was not the lifestyle for them but “it was a safe space for exploration.”
She views the issue of same-sex relations as one of justice and adds that “inclusivity is always an issue” — not only in the matter of treating gays with dignity. Most religious communities of women have advocated for any people being treated unjustly in the church, especially women.
“Women are exiting the church like crazy and it has to come to grips with this exodus,” she said.
Tuite is now the vice president of Student Life at Caldwell University, owned by her religious order.
“My life is around women who have donated their lives as I have grown stronger in my religious life and allowed to develop the gifts I had,” she said.
She could see openly gay and transgender women disposed toward living celibate lives accepted in most religious orders today.
“Sister Petra” agreed, adding “if you have a vocation and feel called to serve.”
Religious communities of women continue to break new ground and lead the church by example.
You may have heard that the Catholic Church is holding a worldwide Synod on Synodality, aimed at getting everybody together to talk about church. The object of all the gatherings — all the talking and praying — is for folks to understand the church’s mission. That is, to think about how to spread the Gospel in the most effective manner for their cultures.
The process began in October 2021 at the local level, with dioceses and groups eventually sending reports to Rome. Then, Rome sent a “Document for the Continental Stage” to seven continental assemblies (Africa and Madagascar; Asia; Europe; Latin America and the Caribbean; Oceania; the Middle East; and North America) and synthesized their responses.
In June, the Synod Office published what is called the “Instrumentum Laboris,” or working document for the meeting to be held in the massive Paul VI Audience Hall in Vatican City in October. Soon after, the list of nearly 450 synod participants appeared, some 364 of which are voting members; others are experts or facilitators.
In addition to Pope Francis, among voters and non-voters alike there will be some 273 bishops, 67 priests, 37 non-ordained men and women religious, 70 other lay men and women, and one deacon, Belgian Deacon Geert de Cubber.
You would not know from the list that de Cubber is, in fact, an ordained deacon. He is listed as “Mr.” not “Rev. Mr.” or “Dcn.,” as is the general custom. There are a few other mistakes. San Diego Cardinal Robert McElroy’s name is spelled incorrectly. Two priests, the Rev. Eloy Bueno de la Fuente (Spain) and the Rev. Eamonn Conway (Ireland) are not noted as such. There may be a few other minor errors here and there. There may even be another deacon or two, but most probably not.
There were several deacons in the various synod processes, from parish and diocesan efforts to the national and continental levels, but that there is only one deacon in the entire assembly speaks volumes. After all, carrying the Gospel is a major diaconal task both literally and figuratively.
During Mass, the deacon carries the Gospel book and proclaims the Gospel reading and often preaches. Deacons, too, are most often connected with the church’s charity and social services.
Diaconal ministries are notably undertaken by women, and in 2016 the International Union of Superiors General, the organization of the heads of women’s religious institutes, asked Francis to examine restoring the abandoned tradition of ordaining women as deacons.
Two pontifical commissions prepared private reports for Francis on that question.
Now, according to the Instrumentum Laboris, “Most of the Continental Assemblies and the syntheses of several Episcopal Conferences call for the question of women’s inclusion in the diaconate to be considered.”
About this, it asks, “Is it possible to envisage this, and in what way?”
Many if not most Catholics think ordination is called for. But that battle has been going on for a long time.
The International Theological Commission, which advises the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, prepared reports on women deacons in 1997 and in 2002. The first reportedly determined there was no doctrine against ordaining women as deacons, but it never appeared: The prefect at the time, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), refused to sign it.
The second report, while it attempted to shut down the discussion with uncited passages from a book by Munich professor, Father Gerhard L. Müller, concluded that ordaining women as deacons was a question for the church’s “ministry of discernment.” Müller followed Ratzinger as CDF prefect.
Discernment is a big word in synodality. But who is discerning what for whom? The people of God agree that the mission of the church is to carry the Gospel to the world. That task is the principal duty of the deacon. And the people of God seem to think ordaining women once again for that task is a good idea.
— How Far The Pope Will Go Toward A More Inclusive Catholic Church
Solemn Holy Mass during the Days of Goodwill People in Velehrad, Czech Republic.
Two synods by the Catholic Church, to be held in Rome in late 2023 and 2024, are to debate possible and even radical changes to the Church’s practices and rules in line with the Argentine pope’s vision of a social and inclusive Church.
By Sergio Rubin
Pope Francis wants to press ahead this year with some of the bold reforms he envisages for the Catholic Church. Ample debate is already taking place on issues and likely to be aired in two synods to be held in Rome.
These include the rule of priest celibacy, allowing married men of proven faith to become priests in parishes with an acute shortage of vocations, women as deacons (the level below priesthood), full recognition of remarriage for divorced Catholics, a place for homosexuals in the Church and greater care and attention to the poor and socially excluded.
The Church wants to hold a synod (or clerical assembly) in two phases — in October 2023 and October 2024 — so it began organizing in 2021 a broad-based consultation among its clergy and flock worldwide, to promote internal dialogue “in the light of faith.”
In what is itself a “synodal process,” Catholics are being asked their views on a range of issues including thorny ones, and while this vast exercise will yield no resolutions, it will act as a reflector of the Christian mood on matters and act as a useful pointer ahead of the first synod.
Walking together
The Pope wants the Church to be more open to dialogue. In theological terms: it should be able to discern reality under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Etymologically, a synod is a confluence or “walking together,” which means that the first synod set for October will include among its 400 participants bishops and priests, but also laymen and laywomen. The latter are to constitute a quarter of all participants and for the first time, 56 laywomen will be voting at a synod. This is radical, prompting some observers to term the synod a “mini council.”
The coming synod will effectively consider the Church’s own broader “synodality” or the same spirit of “fraternal collaboration and discernment” associated with such gatherings. The initiative is important, not just for the level of participation it has already fomented across the Church, but for consolidating “the identity of God’s people opening itself to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking in our communities, in the cries of the poor and the earth’s lament,” says Jorge Lozano, the archbishop of San Juan de Cuyo in Argentina. Monsignor Lozano has been an active contributor to preliminary consultations at the regional level.
He says “some progress” has already been made on issues like allowing married men to become priests or women as deacons.
Pope Francis attends a vigil prayer on the eve of the XIV General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops at St Peter’s basilica on October 3, 2015 at the Vatican.
Addressing thorny issues
María Lía Zervino, president of the WUCWO (the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations) and one of the first three female members of the Dicastery for Bishops (the Vatican body that picks bishops) believes the synod is “of the utmost importance” because “only when we walk together, which we rarely do, can we preach the Good News credibly.” The synod, she says, was an opportunity to “find a new way of facing the Gospel and to apply the Vatican II Council in greater depth.” She is referring to the Church’s 20th century reforms.
Such issues should not monopolize the entire synod.
Zervino says controversial issues that had emerged in preliminary consultations were included in a working document “for consideration and treatment using the methodology of conversing in The Spirit.” But such issues should not, she says, monopolize the entire synod, nor should women’s active role in the Church be reduced to their ordination as deaconesses. Letting 56 women vote, she adds, “is an act of justice, not a feminist demand.”
Matias Taricco, an Argentine priest and theologian, sees the coming synod as a “new path for the entire Church” and undoubtedly a chance to confirm the direction Pope Francis wants it to take. He hopes the synod will address “all the thorny questions.”
Avoid bitterness
Theologian Marcela Mazzini also calls the synod a landmark as “it is dealing with nothing less than the Church adopting a new way of being.”
A more incisive presence and participation by women in the Church.
She is confident there will be advances on the contested issues, though cannot say which exactly, and how much. She doubted it would immediately pave the way for deaconesses in the Catholic Church, but “certainly it will address a more incisive presence and participation by women in the Church, not just in conversions but also in places where decisions are taken.”
To avoid any bitterness, Pope Francis has said the synod is no “congress or parliament, but the Church walking together to read reality with the eyes of faith and with God’s heart.”
Attendees of the annual assembly of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests discuss their ministry in the context of synodality during a table discussion on June 14 at the University of San Diego.
by Nancy Sylvester
It was a most welcome surprise to work with the Association of United States Catholic Priests recently. There has been such public resistance among a certain group of bishops and laity to Pope Francis’ vision and the reluctance to embrace the spirit of synodality, that to gather with close to 200 priests from around the country to explore unity through synodality was a needed shot in the arm.
These men who continue to minister within the spirit of the Second Vatican Council take Francis’ vision seriously and have chosen contemplative dialogue as their process for when they gather in their annual assembly.
This year, I had the privilege to lead their day retreat and opening prayers throughout the week. My theme was “Responding from a Contemplative Heart: Living Synodality in a Polarized World.”
Each day began with a contemplative sitting, consenting to God, Divine Love, working within us for our transformation and that of the world. The 10 minutes of stillness created an atmosphere that welcomed the different ideas and positions that would be encountered throughout the day.
The final day of the assembly created a unique opportunity to put this into practice.
To truly encounter another who is different from you or who holds differing views is not an easy task. Yet, it is only in that vulnerability and openness to the other that understanding and transformation occurs.
Dr. Cecilia González-Andrieu, professor of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University, addressed the assembly. Her address was “Bridge People or Neglected and Peripheral?: Latina/Latino Catholics in the U.S.” Her address was well-received, but what followed was a gift to all of us.
Working with the leaders of the organization Discerning Deacons, she invited about 40 local women from San Diego, where the assembly was held, to join with the men that morning. Women joined the men at the tables, and within the context of contemplative listening, each shared their responses to the following questions: Why am I in ministry? Why am I doing this work? Where do I find the fire to keep going?
The context to listen to those who differ had been set the previous days as the men sat in contemplative silence and attentively listened to themselves and to the speakers. This morning, clerics and laywomen engaged as equals and shared in depth the motivation for their ministry, even when many of the women’s desires are yet to be legitimated by the official church.
The energy in the room was palpable. The conversations were lively. The spirit of synodality prevailed. Many responded hoping that this could be replicated throughout the country in every diocese.
I believe this is what synodality calls us to. As the Working Document for the Continental Stage of the synod says, “A synodal spirituality can only be one that welcomes differences and promotes harmony, and draws from the tensions the energies to continue on the journey.”
To truly encounter another who is different from you or who holds differing views is not an easy task. We see that in the growing divisions within our country and our church. We become convinced of our own position or belief and consciously or unconsciously defend it, fearing that change may make us look weak or unprincipled or demand of us more than we are willing to give.
Yet, it is only in that vulnerability and openness to the other that understanding and transformation occurs.
How we foster that spirit within ourselves is for me rooted in contemplation. I believe the future that is emerging invites us to encounter deeply held assumptions, biases, beliefs and worldviews in ways we have not known previously and for which we are not skilled.
There are few, if any road maps for this emerging future. But I have often pondered the process by which the early church agreed to change the belief and practice that all Gentiles be forced to convert to Judaism before being baptized and to follow the law of Moses.
In Acts 15, it is written that the elders and apostles came together to hear advocates for the different positions. They celebrated all God had accomplished through the work of those men sent to Antioch to preach the good news to the Gentiles. They agreed to discuss this issue more thoroughly.
Peter posed a question to those assembled: “Why, then, do you put God to the test by trying to place on the shoulders of these converts a yoke which neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear?” Then the assembly fell silent.
They continued to listen to each other. James articulated what he felt was the sense of the whole: that they would not make it more difficult for Gentiles who are turning to God. The entire assembly decided to accept what James recommended.
I see within this narrative essential elements for us to ponder: sharing a position rooted in experience; listening to others; engaging in dialogue; asking generative questions; entering into contemplative silence; and allowing the emergence of a way forward. And deciding not to burden others with what we are unable to bear.
That is a synodal experience. That is a contemplative process.
