Pope’s message on LGBTQ+ anniversary hailed as hope of same sex marriage

Tasmanian Catholic and gay activists are hailing a message from the Pope to a LGBTQ+ group in Australia. Find out why.

Pope Francis gestures during the weekly general audience on August 8, 2023 at Paul-VI hall in The Vatican. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP)

The Pope’s message of congratulations to an Australian LGBTQ+ group celebrating its 50th anniversary has given Tasmanian activists hope that same-sex couples may one day marry in the Catholic Church.

Acceptance, the world’s second oldest LGBTQ+ Catholic organisation, say it “reinforces his genuine concern for those marginalised in the Church”.

Acceptance Perth co-ordinator Angela Han said the greeting from Pope Francis was “a significant milestone for Acceptance in Australia and the wider LGBTQ+ Catholic community”.

“It reflects a message of welcome, inclusivity, compassion and acceptance, affirming the important role Acceptance has played in supporting LGBTQ+ people of faith over the past five decades,” she said.

Dr Trish Hindmarsh, a former head of Catholic Education in Tasmania and Concerned Catholics Tasmania committee member said it was significant that Pope Francis “practices the dialogue that he preaches as a vital way to renew the Church”.

She said in 2015 he invited 50 advocates for LGBTIQ people to the Vatican “to dialogue with him”.

“The Pope prays, researches, reflects and invites open conversation.

“He draws on both global cultures and Christian faith in seeking the path to truth, and teaches that LGBTIQ people are children of God, no less.”

Dr Hindmarsh said changes in Catholic doctrine have usually followed pastoral care practised on the ground.

“For example, the blessing of gay unions by priests and support for LGBTIQ rights is growing in Catholic communities.

“Many hope this will lead to change in the doctrine that still states in the Universal Catechism that homosexuality is an ‘aberration of nature’.

“I believe and hope that if that happened, same-sex, monogamous, lifelong commitment in love could be recognised by the Catholic Church as a relationship able to be graced through the Sacrament of Marriage, which the Church has always offered to sincere heterosexual Catholic couples as a sacred celebration of their union.”

Equality Tasmania spokesperson Rodney Croome said the Pope was recognising the “resilience, inner-strength and faithfulness that has carried LGBTIQA+ Catholics through the last half century of rejection, misunderstanding, discrimination and sometimes hate”.

“The message from the Pope to LGBTIQA+ Catholics, and to all LGBTIQA+ people, is that he values who we are and that change is possible,” he said.

“The Pope’s message gives me hope the Church will support the decriminalisation of LGBTIQA+ people in Africa and Asia, end the unscientific, unbiblical and deeply-damaging Catholic doctrine that same-sex relationships are ‘disordered’, and ultimately marry same-sex couples.”