Please Vote: The Best and Worst Catholic LGBTQ+ News of 2023

When The National Catholic Reporter named New Ways Ministry’s Sister Jeannine Gramick “Newsmaker of the Year” earlier this month, the article announcing this decision emphasized that 2023 has witnessed”extraordinary, if tentative, movement” in “how the Catholic Church includes and ministers to its LGBTQ members. Things have happened in the past 12 months that would have once seemed the work of a novelist untethered from reality.”

We couldn’t agree more.

But that is not the whole story.

Yes, 2023 has seen some incredible positive advances in the relationship between the Catholic Church and its LGBTQ+ members. Yet, there have also been some difficult, negative developments to remind us that more work is still very much needed.

As is Bonding 2.0’s tradition, during this last week of the year, we ask you, our readers, to vote for what you think have been the best and worst Catholic LGBTQ+ news events of 2023. We have selected 15 nominees under each heading, and we ask you to vote for the five that you think are the best and for the five you think are the worst.

The deadline for voting is Thursday, December 28th, 12:00 noon, Eastern U.S. time. So don’t delay! Cast your votes now! The two polls are at the end of this post.

After we tally the results, we will post a list of the top ten worst events on Friday, December 29th, and the top ten best events on Saturday, December 30th.

If you want to nominate an event for either list that is not mentioned in the polls, please add them in the “Comments” section of this post.

Thanks for your help!

Best News of 2023 (Please select no more than five)(Required)

Sister Jeannine Gramick, pioneer of LGBTQ+ Catholic ministry, meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican for a 50-minute conversation, joined by her New Ways Ministry colleagues.

Pope Francis approves the blessing of same-gender couples in the church as a pastoral accommodation.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith instructs church leaders to allow transgender people to be baptized and to serve as godparents.

Pope Francis continues to model greater openness to transgender people, telling a transgender youth, “God loves us as we you are,” telling transgender women they are “daughters of God,” and invites a group of transgender people to a luncheon at the Vatican.

Germany’s Synodal Way issued strong positive recommendations for greater pastoral care for LGBTQ+ people, including blessing same-gender couples and opening all aspects of church life to transgender and intersex people.

Pope Francis states that, “Being homosexual is not a crime,” but rather is a “human condition,” the strongest statement by any pontiff against anti-LGBTQ+ criminalization laws. He later adds that criminalizing gay people is a “sin” and an “injustice.”

Catholic higher education becomes more transgender inclusive as historically-single-gender institutions, like the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, formalize admissions policies to welcome transgender students.

The Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, releases a remarkably positive framework for gender issues, organized around principles like respect for human dignity, collaborative discernment, and a case-by-case approach.

Pope Francis greets three leaders of the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics after a Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

Catholics in Cleveland, San Francisco, Worcester, and other dioceses continue to protest LGBTQ-negative diocesan policies for schools and parishes.

6,000+ Catholic sisters issue a statement of solidarity with transgender and nonbinary people for Trans Day of Visibility.

Catholics in India and Pakistan emerge as supporters of LGBTQ+ people, particularly of transgender folks.

Sister Jeannine Gramick is named “Newsmaker of the Year” by the National Catholic Reporter, which cites 2023 as a year where LGBTQ+ people and issues became more central in church discussions.

Bishops and other Catholic leaders around the globe continue to call for changes in church teaching and language regarding LGBTQ+ people.

Calls for LGBTQ+ inclusion and justice continue to be prominent in the Synod on Synodality process, appearing in most of the Continental Stage reports and the first General Assembly’s working document.

Other for Best News

Worst News of 2022 (Please select no more than five)(Required)

The General Assembly of the Synod’s report in October gives short shrift to LGBTQ+ issues in contrast to the widespread support for inclusion in previous stages.

Although a sizable number of LGBTQ-positive church leaders were named delegates to the Synod on Synodality’s first general assembly, no openly LGBTQ+ people were selected.

In the 303 Creative case, the U.S. Supreme Court allows for broad exemptions to non-discrimination laws, paving the way for religious-based discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, and possibly other marginalized groups.

The U.S.Conference of Catholic Bishops issues a strongly-restrictive doctrinal note about gender-affirming healthcare. While the note is advisory, the USCCB votes to revise its Ethical and Religious Directives, leading likely to a ban on gender transitions at Catholic hospitals.

Diocesan policies which restrict LGBTQ+ students and teachers in Catholic schools from expressing their gender continue to proliferate across the U.S..

The U.S. bishops’ conference lobbies against proposed federal regulations to stop discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, including by social service and healthcare agencies. In addition, the Conference endorses federal legislation to restrict transgender student athletes.

Despite Pope Francis’s declaration against laws which criminalize LGBTQ+ people, bishops in Ghana, Uganda, Malawi, and elsewhere continue supporting such legislation.

A conservative Catholic group invested $4 million dollars to potentially out gay priests based on their private digital data.

A member of the Boston Archdiocese’s Gender Commission resigns over concerns about transparency and the absence of transgender people in the consultation.

Vile anti-transgender rhetoric continues to be issued by Catholic leaders, including the archbishop of Denver saying that transgender equality was causing decline in church attendance; the archbishop of Oklahoma City comparing transgender identities with substance abuse; and a Vatican cardinal saying that transgender civil rights are “demonic.”

In a discussion of the U.S. bishops’ anti-trans healthcare guidelines, a bishop who helped shape the document misrepresents the extent of participation by Sister Luisa Derouen, a nun long involved in compassionate transgender ministry. Bishop Michael Olson said the committee had done extensive consultation, but Derouen said her interaction with Olson, which happened three years ago, “was minimal and he was not grasping what I was trying to say.”

A Michigan Catholic hospital denies a 14-year old trans girl the ability to access treatment for ADHD because of her gender identity.

Saint Mary’s College in Indiana reverses an update to its non-discrimination policy that would have allowed transgender women to be admitted as students.

An outstanding student at a Missouri Catholic school was expelled after his parents spoke out against recent LGBTQ-negative actions being carried out there, such as the pastor removing books from the library that featured LGBTQ+ characters and banning the language app Duolingo for its translations of the words “gay” and “lesbian.

Many diocesan anti-LGBTQ policy directives are shown to be, in part, simple copies of one another in language and thought, according to an analysis on Bondings 2.0.

Other for Worst News

Please Vote: The Best and Worst Catholic LGBTQ+ News of 2023

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