ROME — The Vatican’s much-hyped “synod on synodality” ended up punting on the issue of LGBT Catholics, much to the chagrin of Jesuit Father James Martin.
The synod released its 41-page final report this weekend, which made no mention whatsoever of gender, homosexuality, or LGBT Catholics, to the relief of many observers and the consternation of others.
Jesuit Father James Martin, a vocal advocate for LGBT issues in the United States, said he was “disappointed but not surprised” by the failure of the synod committee to make any mention of blessings for gay couples or outreach to homosexuals.
“There were widely diverging views on the topic,” Father Martin told the far-left National Catholic Reporter. “I wish, however, that some of those discussions, which were frank and open, had been captured in the final synthesis.”
Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe, another longtime supporter of normalizing gay sex in the Church and a darling of the LGBT community, said there is always time for future “evolution” on Catholic teaching.
“The question always put is: is the Church’s teaching going to change? That’s not the issue,” Father Radcliffe said in relation to the Church’s moral stance against gay sex. “The issue is, will we love and welcome our fellow human beings?”
“If there are evolutions to happen, they will happen,” he added, “but you don’t start off by asking what changes have to be made.”
In a 2006 address to the Los Angeles Religious Education Conference, Radcliffe called on the Church to “stand” with gay people.
“We must accompany them as they discern what this means, letting our images be stretched open,” he declared. “This means watching Brokeback Mountain, reading gay novels, living with our gay friends and listening with them as they listen to the Lord.”
For its part, New Ways Ministry (NWM), a dissident LGBT group that calls itself “Catholic” despite having been disowned by the U.S. bishops, said that the synod report “greatly disappoints on LGBTQ+ issues.”
“With no positive statement on LGBTQ+ issues in the document, and with only two references which simply state what was known when the Synod began, Catholics globally will be greatly disappointed,” said NWM president Francis DeBernardo.
Nonetheless, with this meeting, “the universal church has begun an institutional LGBTQ+ dialogue, ending decades of obstinate suppression of the issues of sexual and gender identity which are so essential to human flourishing,” DeBernardo said.
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