Unearthed comments from Pope Leo XIV alarm LGBTQ+ Catholics

* Western mass media is extraordinarily effective in fostering within the general public enormous sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel – for example abortion, homosexual lifestyle, euthanasia

* Catholic pastors who preach against the legalisation of abortion or the redefinition of marriage are portrayed as being ideologically driven, severe and uncaring—new Pope when he was Cardinal

By Robert Mackey, The Guardian

After years of sympathetic and inclusive comments from late Pope Francis, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) Catholics expressed concern about hostile remarks made more than a decade ago by Father Robert Prevost, the new Pope Leo XIV, in which he condemned what he called the “homosexual lifestyle” and “the redefinition of marriage” as “at odds with the Gospel”.

In a 2012 address to the world synod of bishops, the man who now leads the church said that “Western mass media is extraordinarily effective in fostering within the general public enormous sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel – for example abortion, homosexual lifestyle, euthanasia”.

In the remarks, of which he also read portions for a video produced by the Catholic News Service, a news agency owned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the cleric blamed mass media for fostering so much “sympathy for anti-Christian lifestyles choices” that “when people hear the Christian message it often inevitably seems ideological and emotionally cruel”.

“Catholic pastors who preach against the legalisation of abortion or the redefinition of marriage are portrayed as being ideologically driven, severe and uncaring,” Prevost added.

He went on to complain that “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children are so benignly and sympathetically portrayed in television programs and cinema today”.

The video illustrated his criticism of the “homosexual lifestyle” and “same-sex partners and their adopted children” with clips from two US sitcoms featuring same-sex couples, The New Normal and Modern Family.

The cleric also called for a “new evangelization to counter these mass media-produced distortions of religious and ethical reality”.

In 2012, Father Robert Prevost read from his address to the world synod of bishops in a video produced by Catholic News Service. After some of the comments were reported by the New York Times, American LGBTQ+ Catholic groups expressed alarm but also cautious optimism that the papacy of Francis had moved the whole church forward.

“We pray that in the 13 years that have passed, 12 of which were under the papacy of Pope Francis, that his heart and mind have developed more progressively on LGBTQ+ issues, and we will take a wait-and-see attitude to see if that has happened,” said Francis DeBernardo, the executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Maryland-based LGBTQ+ Catholic group, in a statement.

“We pray that as our church transitions from 12 years of an historic papacy, Pope Leo XIV will continue the welcome and outreach to LGBTQ+ people which Pope Francis inaugurated.”

DignityUSA, a group that represents LGBTQ+ Catholics, also expressed “concern” with the pope’s previous comments but wrote in an online post: “We note that this statement was made during the papacy of Benedict XVI, when doctrinal adherence appeared to be expected.

“In addition, the voices of LGBTQ+ people were rarely heard at that level of church leadership. We pray that Pope Leo XIV will demonstrate a willingness to listen and grow as he begins his new role as the leader of the global church.”

Perhaps the best-known of the sympathetic statements made about LGBTQ+ Catholics by Pope Francis was a comment he made to reporters in 2013, when he was asked about his observation that there was a “gay lobby” inside the Vatican hierarchy.

“I have yet to find someone who introduces himself at the Vatican with an identity card marked ‘gay’,” the pope joked. “But we must distinguish the fact that a person is gay from the fact of lobbying, because no lobbies are good.

“If a person is gay,” he added, “and he searches for the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge?”

DeBernardo, the New Ways Ministry director, referenced those remarks last Thursday: “The healing that began with ‘Who am I to judge?’ needs to continue and grow to ‘Who am I, if not a friend to LGBTQ+ people?’” DeBernardo said.

“Pope Francis opened the door to a new approach to LGBTQ+ people; Pope Leo must now guide the church through that door,” he added. “Many Catholics, including bishops and other leaders, remain ignorant about the reality of LGBTQ+ lives, including the marginalisation, discrimination and violence that many still face, even in Catholic institutions.

“We hope that he will further educate himself by meeting with and listening to LGBTQ+ Catholics and their supporters.”

Marianne Duddy-Burke, the executive director of DignityUSA, told the Washington Blade in a text message from St Peter’s Square shortly after Leo XIV’s election that the new pope “hasn’t said a lot since early 2010s” on the subject, adding “hope he has evolved”.

Father James Martin, an American Jesuit and the founder of Outreach, an LGBTQ+ Catholic resource, sounded a note of optimism in a video message from Rome, calling the new pope a “down-to-earth, kind, modest” man and “a great choice”.

In 2023, Martin was able to bless a same-sex couple for the first time, after Pope Francis said he would allow such blessings. In 2020, Pope Francis said he supported civil-union laws for same-sex couples: “Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family.

“They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it.

“Pope Francis did more for LGBTQ people than all his predecessors combined,” Martin wrote last month. “He wrote letters of welcome to Outreach conferences for LGBTQ Catholics. He approved the publication of Fiducia Supplicans, a Vatican document that permitted priests to bless same-sex marriages under certain circumstances – and weathered intense blowback from some parts of the church.

“And, perhaps most surprisingly and least well known, he met regularly with transgender Catholics and spoke to them with warmth and welcome.”

On May 8, 2025 Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected as Pope Leo XIV, the first American to take up the post

Leo XIV made his first remarks as pope from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in front of tens of thousands of onlookers, calling for peace and paying tribute to his predecessor, late Pope Frcanciw.

The 69-year-old from Chicago, is a leader with global experience, who spent much of his career as a missionary in South America and holds dual citizenship in the US and Peru, where he served as a bishop.

He most recently led a powerful Vatican office for bishop appointments and he is expected to build on Pope Francis’ reforms.

The pope’s election prompted an outpouring of congratulations from world leaders, who expressed eagerness to work with the pontiff on global issues — with US President Donald Trump calling the historic selection a great honour for the US.

John Prevost, Pope Leo’s brother, told CNN that he believed his brother “will be a second Pope Francis”, adding that he sees him following right in “Francis’ footsteps working for the underprivileged”.

He said his brother will make a good pope because Pope Leo has “a deep feeling for the disenfranchised, for the poor, for those who were not listened to”.

“I think the very fact that in his heart, in his very soul, he wanted to be a missionary. He didn’t want the bishop. He didn’t want the cardinal, but that’s what he’s asked to do so that’s what he did,” Prevost said.

Father Mark Francis — a friend who attended the same seminary as Pope Leo XIV in the 1970s — told CNN that the pontiff’s roots in the Midwest played a large role in shaping him as a religious leader.

Francis, who’s now Provincial of the Viatorians in the US, described Pope Leo as serious, focused, and dependable, with a good sense of humor: “He’s not a showboat kind of person,” he said.
“Bob,” as Father Francis has called him for the past several decades, never mentioned wanting to become pope, he said, or any of the leadership positions he went on to assume.

“He is a calm person who is not a careerist, is not just seeking a promotion – but someone who’s there to serve.”

Inside the Vatican, where he eventually lived and worked, he was considered the “least American” of the US cardinals though he was well regarded by Pope Francis.

The late pontiff “respected him and thought of him very highly,” according to CNN’s Vatican correspondent Christopher Lamb. “Clearly Pope Francis saw in him something – he saw him as a capable leader.”

He’s a member of the Augustinian order, which is spread across the world. He led the order for more than a decade as its prior general and he has strong leadership experience.

Pope Francis appointed Prevost to be the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, which is in charge of assessing bishop candidates and making recommendations for new appointments. He also served as the president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

He has a missionary focus: “I still consider myself a missionary. My vocation, like that of every Christian, is to be a missionary, to proclaim the Gospel wherever one is,” Prevost said in an interview with Vatican News shortly after he moved into his leadership role in Rome.—Additional reporting by CNN; edited by Maravi Express

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