The New Pope Faces Scrutiny On LGBTQ+ Rights

On at least one major issue, it’s not yet clear just how closely the new pope will adhere to the legacy established by his predecessor.

As Pink News reported, Pope Leo XIV hasn’t made many public statements on LGBTQ+ rights, but the ones he has expressed have been described by The New York Times as “less welcoming” than stances Pope Francis once embraced.

Per the Times, Leo gave remarks in 2012 that criticized Western news media and pop culture for promoting “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel.” Examples of such beliefs that Leo reportedly referenced included a “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.”

As a bishop in Peru, Leo also deemed “the promotion of gender ideology” in schools “confusing,” noting that “it seeks to create genders that don’t exist.”

And in 2024, Leo adopted a more ambivalent stance regarding blessings for people in same-sex unions. While Francis supported blessings for people in same-sex couples who sought them, Leo declined to oppose or endorse a document concerning this practice, according to The 19th.

During his tenure as head of the Catholic Church, Francis was known for ushering in a more inclusive period of leadership that embraced LGBTQ+ parishioners and clergy members in a new way.

“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis said of gay clergy members in 2013. He also pushed back against laws around the world that have criminalized homosexuality and met with LGBTQ+ Catholic groups, becoming one of the first popes to do so.

Francis’ leadership was widely heralded as a sea change compared to past papacies that promoted anti-gay views, though he did not fundamentally change doctrine on issues like same-sex marriage.

For now, LGBTQ+ Catholics are watching closely to see whether Leo — who emphasized inclusion broadly in his opening remarks — will maintain the same trajectory.

“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,” said Francis DeBernardo, the executive director of New Ways Ministry, an LGBTQ+ Catholic group, in a statement.

This article has been updated to clarify Pope Francis’ stance on blessings for people in same-sex unions.