Pope Francis' (Mostly) Complete LGBTQ+ Record: the Good and the Bad

Looking back on a complicated legacy

Pope Francis has been head of the Catholic Church for over a decade, and during his tenure, LGBTQ+ recognition has come a long way.

Most recently, the pope made a landmark decision in approving blessings for same-sex couples. While it's not the same as marriage — therefore not truly equal — it's worth noting that just two years ago, Pope Francis flat-out denied same-sex blessings.

With that in mind, let's look back on just how far the highest Catholic authority has come. Not just as pope, but as a human being.

2001: Visited AIDs patients in hospice

When he was Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the pope visited HIV/AIDS patients in hospice, according to a 2013 profile in the National Catholic Reporter. He even reportedly kissed and washed the feet of the patients.

2010: Horrid comments on gay marriage and adoption

As Archbishop of Buenos Aires and Primate of Argentina, Bergoglio strongly opposed the government's push to legalize same-sex marriage in 2010. He warned that marriage equality and adoption would “seriously damage the family" in a letter to the Carmelite Sisters of Buenos Aires (the four monasteries of Argentina).

"At stake is the identity and survival of the family: father, mother and children. At stake are the lives of many children who will be discriminated against in advance, and deprived of their human development given by a father and a mother and willed by God," he wrote.

July, 2013: "Who am I to judge?"

After becoming pope in March, 2013, Francis made a stark shift from his 2010 letter. He said that he would not pass judgment on gay or lesbian people for their sexual orientation while making brief remarks to reporters in July of that year.

“If someone is gay, and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” he said.

September, 2013: Vision for a new church

Pope Francis expanded on his July comments in September, 2013, further detailing desire to find a "new balance" in the Catholic Church. He called for greater involvement of women in leadership, and a less condemnatory approach towards gay people, divorcees, and those who have had an abortion.

"I used to receive letters from homosexual persons who are 'socially wounded', because they tell me that they feel like the church has always condemned them. But the church does not want to do this," he told an Italian Jesuit journal, translated by The Guardian.

"A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: 'Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?' We must always consider the person," he continued.

The pope also seemingly addressed his previous anti-LGBTQ+ comments, noting that while he has "never been a right-winger," he had "an authoritarian and quick manner of making decisions" when he was younger, which led to "serious problems."

2013: Advocate Person of the Year

Following condemnations of the LGBTQ+ community from previous popes, The Advocate's staff at the time were so moved by Pope Francis' shift that they named him our 2013 Person of the Year.

October, 2014: Bishops veto Francis' gay-friendly doctrine

In 2014's synod on the family, Pope Francis put forth a document which contained a section titled “welcoming homosexual persons.”

“Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community: are we capable of welcoming these people, guaranteeing to them a fraternal space in our communities?” it read. “Often they wish to encounter a church that offers them a welcoming home. Are our communities capable of providing that, accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony?”

Bishops then scrapped the language about LGBTQ+ “gifts and qualities” and the church offering “precious support.” The section was changed to “pastoral attention to people of homosexual orientation,” and said there could not be "even a remote” comparison between gay relationships and heterosexual marriage.

“Nevertheless, men and women of homosexual tendencies must be welcomed with respect and sensitivity," it said.

December, 2014: Parents should stand by their gay children

Following the synod on family, Pope Francis told La Nacion that parents should support their gay or lesbian children, and that the Church should offer them resources.

“The synod addressed the family and the homosexual persons in relation to their families, because we come across this reality all the time in the confessional: a father and a mother whose son or daughter is in that situation. This happened to me several times in Buenos Aires," he said.

While same-sex marriage was not discussed during the synod, Francis added: “What we did talk about was of how a family with a homosexual child, whether a son or a daughter, goes about educating that child, how the family bears up, how to help that family to deal with that somewhat unusual situation."

“We have to find a way to help that father or that mother to stand by their son or daughter," he said.

January, 2015: Children need heterosexual parents

Just days after Rome's LGBTQ+ pride march, Pope Francis told an audience of 25,000 at the diocese that differences between men and women are fundamental and "an integral part of being human." He said that heterosexual marriages ensure happiness between man and woman, which is essential to good parenting.

"What great richness this diversity is, a diversity which becomes complementary, but also reciprocal. It binds [man and woman], one to the other," he said. Children mature seeing their father and mother like this; their identity matures being confronted with the love their father and mother have, confronted with this difference."

February, 2015: Compared transgender people to nuclear weapons

Pope Francis likened transgender people to nuclear weapons in 2015, as he believed both fail to "recognize the order of creation."

"Let's think of the nuclear arms, of the possibility to annihilate in a few instants a very high number of human beings. Let's think also of genetic manipulation, of the manipulation of life, or of the gender theory, that does not recognize the order of creation," he said in Pope Francis: This Economy Kills.

"With this attitude, man commits a new sin, that against God the Creator. The true custody of creation does not have anything to do with the ideologies that consider man like an accident, like a problem to eliminate," he continued.

March, 2015: Lunch with gay and transgender inmates

Pope Francis had lunch at an Italian prison one weekend in 2015, and LGBTQ+ inmates were invited to attend. The lunch was not originally scheduled during his visit to Giuseppe Salvia Detention Center in Poggiorale, but Francis reportedly insisted.

Around 90 inmates attended the lunch, including 10 inmates from a section of the prison reserved for gay and transgender inmates and inmates who are living with HIV.

August, 2015: Francis pens letter praising gay children's book

A children's book depicting same-sex relationships in animals caused quite a stir in Italy in 2015. Piccolo Uovo (Little Egg) made waves by showing gay penguins, lesbian rabbits, a single-parent hippo, a mixed-race dog couple, and kangaroos that adopted polar bear cubs all raising happy families.

The book was banned in Venice, causing an uproar from other Italian authors. Piccolo Uovo author Francesca Pardi penned a letter in July seeking support from the Catholic church, which the pope personally responded to.

The contents of Francis' letter were kept private, and the Vatican assured at the time that it did not support "gender theory," but Pardi said she was moved when she received it.

“It’s not that I think that he’s for gay families, because there’s the Catholic doctrine, but we mustn’t think that we don’t have rights,” she told The Guardian.

October, 2015: Meeting with homophobic clerk Kim Davis

After refusing to meet with LGBTQ+ Catholics during his 2015 visit to the United States, Pope Francis secretly met with anti-gay Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples despite being legally required to. Francis gifted Davis and her husband blessed rosaries, and reportedly thanked her for her "courage."

October, 2015: Meeting with same-sex couple

A day before visiting Kim Davis, Pope Francis met with a longtime friend of his, who had been in a same-sex relationship for 19 years as of 2015. Yayo Grassi brought his partner Iwan Bagus and several other friends to the Vatican Embassy after receiving an invitation from Francis personally.

The Vatican reminded that because the pope meets with many people, none of the encounters are meant to be taken as endorsements of certain beliefs.

“Obviously he is the pastor of the church and he has to follow the church’s teachings,” Grassi told CNN at the time. “But as a human being he understands all kinds of situations, and he is open to all kinds of people, including those with different sexual characteristics.”

October, 2015: Another disastrous synod

After the Vatican cut ties with a Polish priest who came out as gay ahead of a synod in 2015, Pope Francis did not make any public comment, but he later criticized the results of the synod, in which conservative bishops refused to take a more welcoming attitude to LGBTQ+ people.

Francis accused those bishops of casting judgement, "sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families."

April, 2016: Breakthrough paper urged acceptance... without official changes

Pope Francis penned a paper in 2016 that called on the church to be more accepting of those in "irregular" unions, such as same-sex couples and those who have been divorced. While it did not officially change church doctrine, it downplayed the idea of "living in sin" and condemned "unjust discrimination."

“A pastor cannot feel that it is enough simply to apply moral laws ... as if they were stones to throw at people’s lives,” he wrote. “There is no stereotype of the ideal family, but rather a challenging mosaic made up of many different realities, with all their joys, hopes and problems. Every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration.”

June, 2016: Christians should apologize to gay people

Pope Francis said in 2016 that Christians owe an apology to LGBTQ+ people and other groups who have been oppressed by the church. These comments may be some of his most famous, but what many don't know is that they came after he was asked if Christians hold any responsibility for the tragic Pulse Nightclub shooting.

“I repeat what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: that they must not be discriminated against, that they must be respected and accompanied pastorally,” he said during a press conference. "The Church must ask forgiveness for not behaving many times – when I say the Church, I mean Christians! The Church is holy, we are sinners!”

October, 2016: Mixed messages on transgender people

The pope once again slammed "gender theory" in multiple conversations at the beginning of October, 2016, comparing its supposed teachings to "indoctrination."

"It is one thing for a person to have this tendency, this option and even to have a sex change, but it is another thing to teach this in schools in order to change mentalities," he said. "This I call ideological colonization."

While he said that Jesus would not turn away from transgender people, he still called them a "problem."

"Please, don't say, 'The pope will bless transgender people,' OK? I want to be clear," he said. "It is a moral problem. It is a problem. A human problem. And it must be resolved the best one can — always with the mercy of God, with the truth" and "always with an open heart."

July, 2017: Congratulated gay couple who baptized their children

A standard celebratory message was sent from the Vatican to a gay Brazilian couple who baptized their three adopted children in the Roman Catholic church. The letter is available to those who request it, and the couple was excited to not be denied.

“Pope Francis wishes you happiness, invoking for your family the abundance of divine graces in order to live steadfastly and faithfully as good children of God and of the church,” wrote Monsignor Paolo Borgia of the Vatican Secretariat of State in Portuguese.

September, 2017: Denigrated same-sex marriage, but supported civil unions

In the book Politics and Society, a series of 12 conversations between the pope and French sociologist Dominique Wolton, Pope Francis again voiced his opposition to marriage for gay couples, instead upholding civil unions.

“Marriage between people of the same sex? ‘Marriage’ is a historical word," he said. "Always in humanity, and not only within the Church, it’s between a man and a woman ... we cannot change that. This is the nature of things. This is how they are. Let’s call them ‘civil unions.’ Lets not play with the truth."

He then disparaged transgender people, again, before he concluded:

"It’s true that behind it there is a gender ideology. In books also, children are learning that they can choose their own sex. Why is sex, being a woman or a man, a choice and not a fact of nature? This favors this mistake," he said. "But let’s say things as they are: Marriage is between a man and a woman. This is the precise term. Lets call unions between the same sex ‘civil unions’.”

October, 2017: Denounced gender-affirming surgery

Pope Francis voiced his opposition to "the biologic and psychological manipulation of sexual difference" while addressing the Pontifical Academy for Life's general assembly in Rome.

"The biological and psychical manipulation of sexual difference, which biomedical technology allows us to perceive as completely available to free choice — which it is not — thus risks dismantling the source of energy that nurtures the alliance between man and woman and which renders it creative and fruitful," he said.

May, 2018: "God made you like this"

When speaking to a survivor of clerical sexual abuse, Pope Francis told him that God made him gay and loved him as he is. Juan Carlos Cruz told Spanish newspaper El País, translated by The Guardian, exactly what Francis had said while discussing his sexuality, and the abuse he suffered from a prominent clergyman in Chile.

“He told me, ‘Juan Carlos, that you are gay does not matter. God made you like this and loves you like this and I don’t care. The pope loves you like this. You have to be happy with who you are,’” Cruz recalled.

June, 2018: Vatican uses 'LGBT' for the first time

The Roman Catholic Church used the term "LGBT" for the first time in an official Vatican document, and when inviting an LGBT-friendly priest to speak at a major conference.

Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the secretary general of the Vatican's synod office, said his office decided to make the change after a March pre-synodal meeting with young people, who used the term. He said his office was "diligent" about respecting the young activists' work.

2018: Cracking down on gay clergymen

June, 2019: Vatican rejects transgender identities

Shortly after using LGBT for the first time, the Vatican officially denounced the T.

A document from the Vatican department overseeing Catholic education stated that the idea gender is a spectrum is “nothing more than a confused concept of freedom in the realm of feelings and wants.”

It also lamented “calls for public recognition of the right to choose one’s gender, and of a plurality of new types of unions, in direct contradiction of the model of marriage as being between one man and one woman, which is portrayed as a vestige of patriarchal societies.”

September, 2019: Meeting with priest who ministers to LGBTQ+ Catholics

Pope Francis met with the Rev. James Martin, an American Jesuit priest who ministers to LGBTQ+ Catholics, after he received condemnation for publishing a book about "building a bridge" with the queer community. Martin called the meeting "one of the highlights of my life." "His time with me, in the middle of a busy day in a busy life, seems a clear sign of his deep pastoral care for LGBT Catholics and LGBT people worldwide," he tweeted at the time.

November, 2019: Compared homophobic politicians to Hitler

Pope Francis starkly condemned homophobic lawmakers, saying that persecution against certain groups is often comprised of "actions that are typical of Nazism."

"These are actions that are typical of Nazism, that with its persecution of Jews, gypsies, people with homosexual orientation, represent an excellent model of the throwaway culture and culture of hatred," he said during a press conference.

"When I hear a speech [by] someone responsible for order or for a government, I think of speeches by Hitler in 1934, 1936," he continued. "These actions are typical, and represent 'par excellence' a culture of waste and hate. That is what was done in those days and today it is happening again."

October, 2020: The first pope in history to endorse same-sex civil unions

Pope Francis became the first pontiff to officially endorse same-sex civil unions in comments for the 2020 documentary Francesco. While he had always endorsed civil unions as an alternative to same-sex marriage, he had not yet come out publicly in favor of civil unions as pope.

“Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God,” Francis said. “You can’t kick someone out of a family, nor make their life miserable for this. What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered.”

October, 2020: The first pope in history to endorse same-sex civil unions

Despite supporting same-sex unions just months earlier, Pope Francis signed off on a Vatican decree that prevented priests from blessing same-sex relationships. It said that "illicit" same-sex unions are “not ordered to the Creator’s plan," and that God “cannot bless sin.”Francis would later reverse this decision in 2023.

January, 2022: Further support of gay youth

While speaking about how parents must stand by their children during difficult times, including through illness or accidents, Pope Francis said parents should also support "children with different sexual orientations."

"Never condemn your children," he said during his general audience address. "God does not promise us we will never have fear. But with his help, it will not be the criteria of our decisions."

May, 2022: Message to LGBTQ+ Catholics

"God is Father and he does not disown any of his children," Pope Francis said in a later conversation with Rev. James Martin. Martin asked the pope about LGBTQ+ issues, and published the text of the questions and answers in English without comment on his website, Outreach."The church is a mother and calls together all her children," Pope Francis said.

May, 2022: Appointed pro-LGBTQ+ cardinal as head of Italian Bishops’ Conference

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna was named president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference by Pope Francis in 2022. Zuppi has a long history or pro-LGBTQ+ actions, including writing the prologue to a book on homosexuality under Francis' governance, and the preface to Rev. James Martin's book.

He also supports Community of Sant’Egidio, a Catholic association dedicated to social service, including HIV/AIDs outreach.

August, 2022: Meeting with transgender guests in Rome church

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Blessed Immaculate Virgin community in the Torvaianica neighborhood outside of Rome welcomed transgender people who were seeking assistance. The pope reportedly met with such groups on at least four separate occasions between April and August.

January, 2023: "Homosexuality is not a crime"

Pope Francis said, “Homosexuality is not a crime,” calling laws across at least 70 countries that criminalize same-sex relationships “unjust” in an interview with the Associated Press.

The Pope also called for the church to play an active role in opposing such laws, going so far as to say that bishops who support criminalization and discrimination laws must undergo “a process of conversion” and welcome LGBTQ+ people into the church.

"It’s also a sin to lack charity with one another," he said.

February, 2023: Further denunciation of anti-LGBTQ+ laws

Pope Francis again spoke out against laws criminalizing homosexuality, telling reporters in February that such policies are "unjust." He also repeated previous comments that parents should never throw their gay children out.

"To condemn someone like this is a sin," he said. "Criminalizing people with homosexual tendencies is an injustice. People with homosexual tendencies are children of God. God Loves them. God accompanies them."

August, 2023: "There is room for everyone in the church"

Pope Francis told a gathering of hundreds of thousands of young people in Portugal that everyone is welcome in the church, leading the crowd in a chant of "Todos!" which translates to "everyone" in Portuguese.

"There is room for everyone in the church, and, whenever there is not, then, please, we must make room, including for those who make mistakes, who fall, or struggle," he said. "The Lord does not point a finger, but opens wide his arms: Jesus showed us this on the cross. He does not close the door, but invites us to enter; he does not keep us at a distance, but welcomes us."

October, 2023: Meeting with LGBTQ+ Catholic leaders

Pope Francis met with several Catholic LGBTQ+ leaders in October, such as DignityUSA and New Ways Ministry. This included Sister Jeannine Gramick of New Ways Ministry, who was previously shunned by bishops and the former pope for ministering to LGBTQ+ Catholics.

New Ways Ministry said in a statement that the meeting "is remarkable because it reflects the steady acceptance of Catholic officials to LGBTQ+ issues and ministry."

October, 2023: Opened the door for same-sex blessings

Pope Francis responded to five Dubiaresponded to five Dubia ("doubts") that were sent to him in July 2022 by five cardinals. The questions in Italian and the pope's responses in Spanish were published by Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

While he remained firm that same-sex unions are not marriages, he noted that "in our relationships with people, we must not lose the pastoral charity, which should permeate all our decisions and attitudes."

"Therefore, we cannot be judges who only deny, reject, and exclude," Francis wrote. "Pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of blessing, requested by one or more persons, that do not convey a mistaken concept of marriage. For when a blessing is requested, it is expressing a plea to God for help, a supplication to live better, a trust in a Father who can help us live better."

October, 2023: Finally recognized trans people

The Vatican said in an October statement that under certain circumstances, it is permissible for transgender people to be baptized as Catholics, serve as godparents, and be witnesses at weddings — even if they had undergone gender-affirming surgery. This also included creating an avenue for the children of same-sex couples to be baptized.

While it did not mark formal doctrine change, it was the first time Francis opened the door to transgender Catholics.

November, 2023: Transgender women invited as lunch guests

Pope Francis met with a group of transgender women in November, inviting them to the Vatican auditorium as his guests for lunch in honor of the church’s World Day of the Poor. Many of the women were Latin American migrants in sex work.

“Before, the church was closed to us. They didn’t see us as normal people, they saw us as the devil,” said Andrea Paola Torres Lopez, a Colombian transgender woman known as Consuelo, told AP. “Then Pope Francis arrived and the doors of the church opened for us.”

November, 2023: Removed anti-LGBTQ+ church leaders

Pope Francis removed some of the most vitriolic anti-LGBTQ church leadership in November, including Bishop Joseph Strickland of Texas, who also spread conspiracy theories about COVID-19, as well as Cardinal Raymond Burke, who continually challenged Francis' LGBTQ+ acceptance by submitting Dubia. Francis' actions included stripping the men of their titles and Vatican-funded homes.

December, 2023: Formally approved blessings for same-sex couples

The Pope released a document in December formally approving priests to bless same-sex couples, so long as the blessing does not resemble a wedding. However, the document states such requests should not be denied outright, and can be permitted if the blessing does not take place as part of regular church activities.

In other words, the new ruling offers “the possibility of blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex” although it leaves the decisions to “the prudent and fatherly discernment of ordained ministers.”

January, 2024: Calls for ban on surrogacy

Francis called for a ban on the "deplorable" practice of surrogacy, saying he hopes that countries will “prohibit this practice universally.”

“I deem deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs,” he said. “A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract.”

January, 2024: Sexual pleasure is a 'gift from God'

Pope Francis said in a Vatican address focused on "the demon of lust" that sexual pleasure is "a gift from God" and should be "disciplined with patience." He also warned against pornography, which he added brings "satisfaction without relationship" and could potentially lead to addiction.