Between Mercy and Doctrine: Pope Francis's Unfinished LGBTQ+ Story

How one pope's words both challenged and reinforced church exclusion

Pope Francis, 2021. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Published: April 21, 2025 | Last Updated: April 21, 2025

Pope Francis died on Easter Monday, April 21, at 88, leaving behind a polarizing legacy on LGBTQ+ engagement. His approach to queer rights oscillated between moments of apparent empathy and deeply rooted institutional resistance.

In 2013, his famous "Who am I to judge?" comment about gay priests signaled a potential shift. Yet, in 2015, he strongly opposed Argentina's gender identity law, calling it "a move by the devil" to destroy the traditional family. During his 2015 U.S. visit, he met privately with Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses, a gesture that deeply disappointed LGBTQ+ advocates.

In 2020, Francis cautiously supported civil unions for same-sex couples, an unprecedented stance for a pope. However, he simultaneously maintained the church's opposition to same-sex marriage and adoption. His 2021 statement that transgender people should not be accepted into seminaries further underscored the limits of his apparent progressivism.

Globally, Francis's rhetoric created a complex landscape. While condemning discrimination, he consistently reinforced doctrinal barriers. In 2019, he described gender theory as "a global war" against the family, despite earlier calls for compassion toward LGBTQ+ individuals.

Cardinal Kevin Farrell's announcement of Francis's death spoke of "universal love" – words that rang differently for LGBTQ+ communities who experienced this love as fundamentally conditional. His papacy offered glimpses of potential progress, only to retreat behind traditional doctrinal lines.

In early 2023, Francis took a notable stand against the criminalization of homosexuality. During interviews with the Associated Press and in an in-flight press conference, he forcefully condemned laws that criminalize LGBTQ+ individuals. He called such laws "unjust" and urged bishops supporting these legislations to undergo a "process of conversion."

Francis argued that while the church maintained its position on sexual acts outside marriage, criminalizing people for their sexual orientation was fundamentally wrong. "Persons with homosexual tendencies are children of God," he stated, emphasizing that condemning them was itself a sin.

The pope’s complicated relationship with LGBTQ+ issues was starkly illustrated just months before his death, when he was quoted using a vulgar term about gay men (“faggotness”) while reaffirming the church's ban on gay priests. After a media uproar, he apologized, with Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni noting that Francis "never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms."

Natalia Imperatori-Lee, chair of religious studies at Manhattan College, captured the essence of Francis's legacy: "More than the offensive slur uttered by the pope, what is damaging is the institutional church's insistence on 'banning' gay men from the priesthood as if we all do not know (and minister alongside) many, many gifted, celibate, gay priests."

As the Catholic Church prepares for new leadership, LGBTQ+ Catholics are left to reflect on a legacy of incremental acknowledgment and systemic exclusion – a pontificate that opened conversations while maintaining structures of fundamental inequality.