LGBTQ Catholics hope Pope Leo XIV continues Francis' legacy of acceptance

Many LGBTQ Catholics viewed Pope Francis as a pioneer for acceptance. Now, with Pope Leo XIV, they hope he will continue this path of progress.

In the eyes of many LGBTQ Catholics, the late Pope Francis created a “seismic shift” toward acceptance. Now, as the world welcomes the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, these lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer faithful say they hope he will continue to move in the same direction.

Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of the LGBTQ Catholic advocacy group DignityUSA, was in Rome on Thursday when Cardinal Robert Prevost, a 69-year-old Chicago native who holds both U.S. and Peruvian citizenship, became the new pontiff.

“I was actually quite excited to see that Cardinal Prevost had been elected as Pope Leo XIV and thrilled that he took the name of a pope rooted in social justice. I think what a clear signal to a hurting world that that’s where his energy is going to be focused,” she told NBC News in an interview Friday. “I also found a lot of hope in his remarks from the balcony … where he talked about God’s all-inclusive love without any condition, and where he talked about being a church for all of God’s people.”

Jason Steidl Jack, a gay Catholic and an assistant teaching professor of religious studies at St. Joseph’s University, New York, described his reaction to the election of Pope Leo, the first-ever American to lead the Holy See, as “cautiously optimistic.”

“I do see him continuing Pope Francis’ legacy, especially of dialogue and synodality,” Steidl Jack said, describing synodality as “this idea of journeying together” and “listening to one another.” However, he said the new pope’s election “doesn’t assuage all of the fears that I have as an LGBTQ Catholic.”