Pope’s Next Consistory Will Have a Number of LGBTQ-Positive New Cardinals

Pope Francis has named 21 new cardinals, a number of whom have LGBTQ-positive records, to be elevated at a December consistory.

The pope announced the cardinals-designate at Sunday’s Angelus, drawing heavily from the Global South with only a few European or North Americans named. Overall, those who had public records on LGBTQ+ issues were largely welcoming. These include the following clergy and prelates:

Father Timothy Radcliffe, OP: A theologian and former Master of the Dominican Order (top worldwide leader), Radcliffe has an LGBTQ+ record dating to the 1990s. Most recently, he has served as spiritual assistant to the Synod on Synodality’s General Assembly, where he has broached LGBTQ+ topics at least twice. Previously, in 2016, Radcliffe said Catholics should focus less on what others were “doing in bed” and more on helping people find God along their own path, though he also objected to marriage equality. In 2014, conservative Catholics boycotted a conference at which he spoke because of the priest’s LGBTQ+ pastoral work. Radcliffe responded with these words about same-gender love: “Certainly it can be generous, vulnerable, tender, mutual and non-violent. So in many ways, I would think that it can be expressive of Christ’s self-gift.” In 2013, he wrote an essay about “A New Way of Being Church” in view of Pope Francis’ leadership. Suggesting the pope had opened up a new path on LGBTQ+ issues, Radcliffe commented, “If we dare to really see people, in their dignity and humanity, then we shall discover the right words to say. Who knows where this will take us?” In 2012, he wrote an op-ed opposing marriage equality, but added, “This is not to denigrate committed love of people of the same sex. This too should be cherished and supported, which is why church leaders are slowly coming to support same-sex civil unions. The God of love can be present in every true love.” In 2006, Radcliffe called on the church to “stand with” gay people by “letting our images be stretched,” which means, “watching ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ reading gay novels, living with our gay friends and listening with them as they listen to the Lord.” In 2005, Radcliffe defended gay priests after a Vatican instruction barring gay men from entering seminary was released, saying, “I have no doubt that God does call homosexuals to the priesthood, and they are among the most dedicated and impressive priests I have met.” Radcliffe later said in 2019 that “despite my reservations” Catholics “should be grateful” to author Fréderic Martel for his book on homosexuality at the Vatican. In 2017, Radcliffe called for the church to better accompany people living with HIV/AIDS.

Archbishop Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera of Guayaquil, Ecuador: In 2023, responding to the release of Fiducia Supplicans, the archbishop told an interviewer: “The catechism is very clear, we must respect [gay people], we must welcome them. We cannot despise them. And the reason is simple, first, because they are people, they are human beings with all the rights, and from faith we know that they are children of God. So how can we marginalize them?”

Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan, Philippines: As president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, the bishop gave a brief statement affirming Fiducia Supplicans as “clear in its content and intent,” saying it “does not require much explanation.” Previously, in that same role in 2021, David published a letter defending Pope Francis’ support of civil unions for same-gender couples, saying the pope is “not out to destroy our morals and orthodoxy,” but that he “valued being kind and compassionate more than being right and righteous.” In 2019, as vice president of the Philippines’ bishops’ conference, David said the conference supported the since-failed SOGIE (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression) Equality Bill, which would have enhanced non-discrimination laws, as a “Christian imperative.” David underscored at the time that the Philippines’ bishops had long supported protections and recognition of LGBTQ+ people in the highly-Catholic nation. David was chosen by the Philippines’ bishops as one of their representatives to the 2023 and 2024 Synod assemblies.

Archbishop Jaime Spengler of Porto Alegre, Brazil: In 2023, as president of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops, the archbishop condemned the “consequences of exacerbated moralism” in the church that lead to exclusion, and instead advocated greater welcome. He said of Fiducia Supplicans, in part: “‘I ask a very simple question, which guides me and also guides action: are they people? If they are people, they deserve our respect too. And when they approach asking for a blessing, I imagine they are also looking for a word of comfort, hope and perhaps even the desire to face their own situation. We can’t deny it! Now, we also cannot agree, so to speak, with behavior that goes against what are fundamental values ​​for us: respect for others, respect for one’s own body, respect for one’s own individuality. . .Even in the face of these controversial issues, I would say, we are encouraged to think and seek solutions in an even more radical way in the sense of construction, of understanding, that can meet every authentically human need.”

Archbishop Jean-Paul Vesco of Alger, Algeria: After North Africa’s bishops broke with the continent’s bishops more broadly and affirmed Fiducia Supplicans in 2024, Vesco explained that the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar’s (SECAM) harsh rejection of blessings, specifically against same-gender couples, was “not what we intended to convey to our dioceses.” Indeed, it was later reported that SECAM issued its letter before even receiving feedback from North African bishops

Archbishop Roberto Repole of Turin, Italy: In 2022, the Turin archdiocese led by Repole granted a priest permission to celebrate confirmation for a transgender man who had undergone a legal gender transition. This allowance creatively interpreted a 2003 directive from the Italian Episcopal Conference that disallows changing baptismal records for trans people. by celebrating the sacrament under the person’s chosen name while noting the dead name alongside information about the legal change. This allowance preceded 2023 guidance from the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith opening sacraments to trans people more broadly.

Archbishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo, Japan: In 2023, Kikuchi contributed to a volume of essays titled LGBT and Christianity, which was promoted by the Catholic HIV/AIDS Desk, a Japanese organization that educates about the virus and counters discrimination with the support of the nation’s episcopal conference. The book was edited by a gay United Church of Christ pastor. In addition, the Tokyo archdiocese supports and promotes the LGBT Catholic Japan group, including its monthly Masses. Kikuchi has been head of Caritas International since 2023.

Two other prelates named by Pope Francis did not have public LGBTQ+ records, but are fairly progressive. In Peru, Archbishop Carlos Gustavo Castillo Mattasoglio of Lima, is known to be friendly to liberation theology and his appointment as Lima’s archbishop was viewed by many as a direct rebuke to his highly conservative predecessor. And in Chile, Archbishop Fernando Natalio Chomali Garib of Santiago, harshly criticized the church and called for its reform in a letter about clergy sexual abuse, saying the church had become “a cause of scandal, of profound questioning, of much distrust and little credibility.”

Two cardinals-elect had somewhat negative records on LGBTQ+ issues. They are:

Archbishop Ignace Bessi Dogbo of Abidjan, Ivory Coast: In 2023, as his term as president of the Episcopal Conference of Cote d’Ivoire concluded, the archbishop preached to his fellow bishops at their assembly that, “Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender populations need to be healed, not presented as a canon of behavior to be embodied.” The communique from that assembly likewise took up LGBTQ+ issues in very negative terms.

Archbishop Francis Leo of Toronto, Canada: Newly appointed in 2023, the archbishop issued a pastoral letter on June 1st emphasizing devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which has been used by anti-LGBTQ+ activists in Canada and elsewhere to refute Pride Month. Leo, however, has not curtailed Catholic schools in the archdiocese from celebrating Pride.

The other prelates named as cardinal-designate do not have any known public record on LGBTQ+ issues. They are: Archbishop Angelo Acerbi, a former nuncio who spent decades in the Vatican diplomatic corp; Archbishop Vicente Bokalic Iglic of Santiago del Estero, Argentina, who served as an auxiliary bishop of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio in Buenos Aires; Archbishop Ladislav Nemet of Belgrade, Serbia; Bishop Paskalis Bruno Syukur, OFM, of Bogor, Indonesia; Archbishop Dominique Joseph Mathieu, OFM Conv., of Tehran, Iran; Archbishop Rolandas Makrickas, Coadjutor Archpriest of the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major; Bishop Mykola Bychok of the Eparchy of Saints Peter and Paul of Melbourne of the Ukrainians; Fr. Fabio Baggio, Undersecretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section for the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development; and Msgr. George Jacob Koovakad, who is a curial official responsible for papal trips. Also included was Bishop Baldassare Reina, auxiliary bishop of Rome, who was recently named Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome.

When the December 8th consistory occurs, Pope Francis will have appointed nearly 80% of the voting members of the College of Cardinals. It seems now that promoting a welcoming church and even LGBTQ+ ministry has become not a disqualifying, but an almost necessory factor to becoming a cardinal.

–Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, October 7, 2024

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