Pope Leo XIV will continue Francis's acceptance of LGBTQ+ Catholics

Pope Leo XIV will continue Pope Francis' policy of inclusion for LGBTQ+ parishioners.

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The recently elected Pope met on Monday with Father James Martin, an American priest and one of the faith’s most outspoken LGBTQ+ advocates. Martin said the new pope made it clear the church would remain welcome to all.

“Dear friends: I was honored and grateful to meet with the Holy Father (Pope Leo XIV) this morning in an audience in the Apostolic Palace, and moved to hear the same message I heard from Pope Francis on LGBTQ Catholics, which is one of openness and welcome,” Martin later shared on social media. “I found Pope Leo to be serene, joyful, and encouraging. For me, it was a deeply consoling meeting. Please pray for the Holy Father!”

Martin further detailed his meeting on his Outreach blog, where he described the new Pope as “jovial” and “tremendously at ease” in his position. According to Martin, Leo XIV offered a “hopeful message of continuity” in keeping with the late Francis’ progressive policies regarding gender and sexual minorities.

“This is, in Pope Leo’s mind, naturally tied to ‘synodality,’ the idea that the church must listen to people from all walks of life (including LGBTQ people) to become more open, more listening, more welcoming and more inclusive. Again, this is very much in line with Pope Francis’s desires and his famous words ‘todos, todos, todos’ to describe the church. This is also in line with Leo’s public embrace of synodality, not simply as a Synod delegate, but as a pope whose very first speech after his election mentioned what is now a ‘constitutive dimension’ of the church,” Martin wrote.

“At the same time, the Holy Father has a great many issues on his plate. In terms of Pope Leo’s priorities, there is his fervent desire to help the process of peace and unity in places like Ukraine, Gaza and Myanmar, among others. He sees peace and unity as paramount in his ministry. So while LGBTQ issues are on his radar, other things may be more pressing for the time being. And even when addressing LGBTQ issues, he may not move as fast as some might like. By the same token, he may move far too fast for others. (In this, he would be like Francis as well.) But my overall sense is that he ‘gets it’ and that he is ready to continue Francis’s legacy of openness, and that is surely good news.”

Leo XIV is the first Pope to hail from the U.S., which helped Martin in relating a message, and in simply being able to speak in English with no need for translators. For his part, Martin said he urged Leo XIV to be proactive in acknowledging the existence of LGBTQ+ people, design programs specifically for outreach in the community, to advocate for the community when it faces violence or harassment, and to listen to LGBTQ+ parishioners while making sure they get included in church activities.

Of note, Francis also first communicated to Martin in writing that the church would be inclusive of LGBTQ+ members. "God is Father and he does not disown any of his children,” Pope Francis wrote in a letter to Martin in 2022.

Martin, a Jesuit leader, has written books and appeared in films urging greater tolerance and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people in the church.