Trans advocates meet with pope, push for church to support gender ideology

A group of advocates is urging Pope Francis to abandon his stance on Biblical sexuality and change the Roman Catholic church’s position on transgender ideology. The discussion took place during a private meeting on Saturday, according to New Ways Ministry, an organization that characterizes itself as a pro-LGBTQ Catholic group. Several people who identify as transgender, as well as a doctor who performed transgender surgeries, took part in the nearly hour-and-a-half discussion, the group said in its Saturday press release.

Didn’t the church condemn trans surgeries earlier this year? New Ways requested the meeting after the pope condemned transgender surgery in the April “Dignitas Infinita” declaration. The church will only be able to hear the Holy Spirit and end its antiquated practices by listening to the experiences of transgender people, said New Ways co-founder Sister Jeannine Gramick. The group claimed the pontiff eagerly accepted the invitation to meet.

Hopefully, other Catholic leaders will follow the pope’s example and listen to LGBTQ+ congregants seriously, New Ways Executive Director Francis DeBernardo said. Pope Francis is showing a new way to develop church teachings by talking with the congregants most deeply connected to the church’s rulings, he added.

What are others saying? In a column for Catholic Culture, journalist Phil Lawler pointed out that in 1999, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith found New Ways Ministry’s positions to be incompatible with Christian morality. In 2011, the U.S. bishops’ conference added that the group’s teachings were incompatible with Catholic teaching and that it shouldn’t even be representing itself as Catholic. Lawler acknowledged that the pope did not endorse the group’s recommendation that the church break away from Biblical teachings on sexuality, but he didn’t condemn it either.

Dig deeper: Read my report for more detail on the pope declaring transgender surgeries as a violation of human dignity.