Anti-LGBTQ+ Catholic leader confirmed as ambassador to Vatican

Brian Burch, the cofounder and former president of anti-LGBTQ+ group CatholicVote, has been confirmed as ambassador to the Vatican.

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The U.S. Senate Saturday voted 49-44, along party lines, to confirm Burch, who was critical of Pope Francis’s outreach to the LGBTQ+ community. Donald Trump, who was endorsed by CatholicVote, nominated Burch in December.

Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii had placed a hold several months ago on Burch’s and other State Department nominations in protest of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican, invoked cloture, a procedural move, last week to lift the hold, Catholic News Agency reports.

After Francis approved blessings for same-sex couples in 2023, Burch went on the right-wing outlet Newsmax to say the pope’s action had created confusion. Francis said the blessings should not resemble marriage ceremonies and that they were for the individuals, not the relationship.

But Burch claimed that “the secular press” and LGBTQ+ activists, both inside and outside the Roman Catholic Church, are treating the move “as a key stepping stone toward their goal, which is to totally destroy the Catholic Church’s understanding of human sexuality.” He said the church already allowed blessings of individuals, so he questioned why the Vatican even issued the document on same-sex couples. CatholicVote’s Instagram post on the interview put “same-sex couples” in quotes.

Pope Francis’s successor, Pope Leo XIV, has reaffirmed that the church sees marriage as a union between a man and a woman, something Francis also stressed, even as he reached out to LGBTQ+ people. Pope Leo said, however, that the church will continue the blessings of same-sex couples as approved by Francis.

Burch has additionally said that Pope Francis had engaged in a “pattern of vindictiveness and punishment,” a comment he made to The New York Times in November 2023. At the time, Francis had recently taken actions against some of his conservative critics.

Burch further objected to Francis’s 2015 statement that it was acceptable for Catholics to limit the number of children they have, as long as they do not use contraceptives. “God gives you methods to be responsible,” Pope Francis said at the time. “Some think that — excuse the word — that in order to be good Catholics we have to be like rabbits. No.”

When the U.S. Supreme Court heard U.S. v. Skrmetti, the case involving gender-affirming care for transgender youth, CatholicVote posted an article calling this treatment “experimental,” which it is not, and saying it mutilates and sterilizes young people.

A post on CatholicVote’s website this week dealt with the Trump administration’s decision to deny “extraordinary ability” visas to trans women athletes wishing to come from overseas and compete in the U.S. Like the administration, the post referred to trans women as “male.”

“I am profoundly grateful to President Trump and the U.S. Senate for this opportunity to serve as the next U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See,” said Burch in a statement released Saturday by CatholicVote. “I have the honor and privilege of serving in this role following the historic selection of the first American pope. In a remarkable coincidence, or what I prefer to attribute to Providence, Pope Leo XIV is from Chicago, which is also my hometown.”

“The relationship between the Holy See and the United States remains one of the most unique in the world, with the global reach and moral witness of the Catholic Church serving as a critical component of U.S. efforts to bring about peace and prosperity,” he continued. “As a proud Catholic American, I look forward to representing President Trump, Vice President Vance, and Secretary Rubio in this important diplomatic post. I ask for the prayers of all Americans, especially my fellow Catholics, that I may serve honorably and faithfully in the noble adventure ahead.”

He succeeds Joe Donnelly, a Democrat and former U.S. senator who was ambassador to the Vatican from April 2022 to July 2024. Callista Gingrich, the wife of onetime Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, was Vatican ambassador during Trump’s first term as president.