By AC Wimmer

Just days after organizers of the second session of the Synod on Synodality in October said topics were not the focus of discussions, two prominent participants have publicly weighed in on the question of Catholics identifying as LGBTQ.

Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe and Jesuit Father James Martin on Sept. 19 published personal reflections on pastoral approaches to Catholics experiencing same-sex attraction.

Radcliffe, who served as a spiritual assistant at the 2023 synod assembly, has courted controversy in the past with statements on same-sex attraction. He wrote in the Sept. 19 edition of L’Osservatore Romano, the newspaper of the Holy See, about being on “the synodal path with gay Catholics.”

The 79-year-old Dominican wrote that same-sex “desires,” like all desires, are “God-given” and need to be “educated” rather than denied. Radcliffe praised “mature gay Catholics” in “committed relationships.”

“Church teaching is already developing as it is refreshed by lived experience: gay people are no longer seen only in terms of sexual acts but as our brothers and sisters who, according to Pope Francis, can be blessed,” Radcliffe added.

`;
}
(function() {
const most_read_url = ‘/most-read-api’;
var historyList = document.getElementById(‘mostread-hT6Vns5mDS’);
fetch(most_read_url).then((result) => {
var json_result = result.json();
json_result.then((data) => {
historyList.innerHTML = ”;
data.forEach((item, i) => {
var html = render(i, item.url, item.title);
historyList.innerHTML += html;
if ((i + 1) >= 5) {
return false;
}
});
});
}).catch((err) => {
console.error(err);
});
})();