Pope Francis created a 'seismic shift' toward acceptance, LGBTQ Catholics say

LGBTQ Catholics and theologians said Pope Francis' legacy teaches that change can happen when leaders are willing to listen.

In July 2013, Pope Francis posed a question that marked a radical shift in the Catholic Church’s treatment of gay people. 

“If a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge him?” he asked reporters in 2013. “Who am I to judge?” 

Francis died early Monday, the day after Easter, and LGBTQ Catholics and theologians recalled the comment as one of the first Francis made that promoted acceptance of queer people. It was a dramatic departure from the way the previous figureheads of the Holy See and church doctrine had often spoken about gay people, describing homosexuality as “an intrinsic moral evil” and an “objective disorder,” and the relatively accepting tone would go on to become a major theme of Francis’ papacy and, now, his complex legacy. 

Francis would go on to urge parents not to condemn their gay children and approve priests' blessing same-sex unions. However, “he wasn’t perfect” in the eyes of LGBTQ Catholics, said Jason Steidl Jack, an assistant teaching professor of religious studies at St. Joseph’s University, New York. Just after the “Who am I to judge?” remark, Francis said homosexuality is still a sin under Catholic doctrine. He also referred to gay people with slurs on at least two occasions, Steidl Jack said, and spoke negatively about what he called “gender ideology.” He also said blessings of same-sex couples couldn’t resemble traditional marriage vows.

But what made Francis’ papacy historic is that, unlike his predecessors, he met with LGBTQ people from around the world and listened to their stories.