Fr. James Martin, a New York-based Jesuit priest and author, following a meeting with Pope Leo XIV, shared on X that he was pleased to learn that Pope Leo XIV was apparently inclusive and welcoming towards the LGBTQ+ community.
Them reports Martin has been a long-time proponent of LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Catholic Church, publishing the 2017 book Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity; and founding Outreach, an LGBTQ+ Catholic Ministry.
Martin and Pope Leo met on September 1, with Martin learning from the Pope that his approach to LGBTQ+ inclusion was 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 welcome, and more inclusive,” according to Martin’s article for Outreach.
Affirming Martin’s confidence in Pope Leo is his stance on assisting with peace and unity in locations like Ukraine, Gaza, and Myanmar, as well as Pope Leo’s aspiration to follow in Pope Francis’s vision of LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Catholic Church.
Them reports that, since ascending to the papacy in May, the Pope’s actions have reflected his positive comments towards the LGBTQ+ community by announcing that the Catholic Church will continue to allow blessings for same-sex couples (which are not equivalent to marriage rites), and in October, Leo will also receive representatives from the pro-LGBTQ+ Catholic group, We Are Church, for the first time.
However, Pope Leo XIV said in May 2025 that marriage is “between a man and a woman.” His views on the LGBTQ+ community have shifted over time. In 2012, before becoming pope, he criticized Western media for cultivating “sympathy” for “the homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprising same-sex families and their adopted children” while speaking at the Synod on the New Evangelization, according to Them. But in 2023, when asked by Catholic News Service whether his stance had changed under Pope Francis’ leadership, he said there had been “a development in the sense of the need for the church to be open and be welcoming.”
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