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Late Pope Francis He sought to make the Catholic Church welcome transgender and LGBTQ people, often causing mixing among traditional conservative Catholics, even while he remained a determined critic of what he called a “dangerous” gender ideology.
Although the official documents held traditional Catholic teachings about gender and sexuality, papal procedures often told a different, ambiguous story.
“Being homosexual is not a crime“Francis once told the Associated Press in 2023. It was the first time Pope addressed the legal side of homosexual laws around the world, and LGBTQ activists praised him for that.
Pope Francis dinner with transgender women for the Vatican Lunch
Pope Francis has a brief and friendly conversation with Laura Esquivel, a 56-year-old transgender paragwin, on the audience on March 27, 2024 at the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican. This is the third time Laura met the Pope. (Stefano Pitrelli/Washington Post via Getty Images)
Francis also called the criminalization of homosexuality “unjust”, adding that Some Catholic bishops In other countries, there may be advocates of prohibitions for cultural reasons.
“These bishops must have a conversion procedure,” he said. “Tenderness, please, as God has for each of us.”
Also in 2023, the controversial Vatican document Fiducia Modlicani-Demclaration of Dicaster for the Dadutrine of the Faith (DDF)-the guidelines for the priests bless the same-sex couples. The blessings are intended for individuals, not the union itself, according to Pope Francis.
The document says, “It should not be predicted or promoted to the ritual for blessing of couples in an irregular situation.”
“At the same time, one should not prevent or prohibit the closeness of the Church in any situation in which they could seek God’s help with a simple blessing,” he writes.
Pope Francis: ‘Gender Ideology’ is one of the ‘most dangerous ideological colonizations’
Pope Francis welcomes Cardinals as he unexpectedly appears during the Mass of Palm Sunday in St. Peter Square in the Vatican, April 13, 2025. (Yara Nardi/Reuters)
Francis further expressed concern among the conservatives when in 2023 the Vatican ruled transgender people could be baptized and become godparents, provided that their participation would not cause “confusion” or scandal.
In March of that year, Pope Francis hosted a group of transgender women – many of whom are sex workers or migrants from Latin America – to the Vatican lunch for Catholic Church “World Poor Day
Pope and transgender women have created a close relationship since the Pope has come to their aid during the Pandemia Coid-19, when they were unable to work. They met for VIP visits with a monthly Papa And he received a cure, money and shampoo every day, according to the Associated Press.
Pope Francis warns the Church cannot become a ‘progressive’ or ‘conservative’ political party ‘
Pope Francis visits St. Peter’s Square in his Popemobile after being at the end of Sunday, 2025. (Andrew Medichini/AP)
In the meantime, Pope Francis called gender ideology “One of the most dangerous ideological colonizations,” in an interview with the Argentine newspaper La Nación in March 2023.
“All humanity is the tension of the difference. It is to grow through the tension of the differences,” Pope said. “The issue of gender is the dilution of differences and making the world the same, all boring, all equally, and it is contrary to the human vocation.”
Papa At that time, the increase in gender fluidity attributed to well -intentioned people who “do not distinguish what respect for sexual diversity or various sexual preferences of what is already an anthropology of gender, which is extremely dangerous, because it removes differences and erases humanity, wealth of humanity, and personal, and social, and sociality.”
Fox News Digital, Timothy HJ Nerozzi, contributed to this report.
