A Vatican synod study group\u2019s final report includes testimony from two men in civil marriages with other men and calls for a listening-based approach to difficult doctrinal and pastoral questions.<\/p>\n
The Vatican\u2019s General Secretariat of the Synod published Tuesday the testimonies of two men in civil marriages with other men who describe from personal experience the tensions and wounds that have marked their life of faith within the Church.<\/p>\n
It is the first time a Vatican text has given voice to this group in such detail. One testimony is from a man in Portugal who said he suffered a deep wound when a spiritual director suggested he could have been married to a woman to \u201cfind peace\u201d and \u201cuse my gifts,\u201d minimizing the affective dimension of marriage.<\/p>\n
The man said the suggestion was painful because \u201cit was a suggestion to harm a woman by robbing her of the chance to be completely loved and desired, all to fulfill a social expectation.\u201d From that point, he said, he began excluding his relationship and affective life from his prayer.<\/p>\n
The Synod also published the testimony of a U.S. Catholic man in a civil marriage with another man, an immigrant, and active in parish life. \u201cMy sexuality isn\u2019t a perversion, disorder, or cross; it\u2019s a gift from God,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI have a happy, healthy marriage and am flourishing as an openly gay Catholic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both testimonies are written in English and are published on the Synod website as annexes to the final report of Study Group 9, titled \u201cTheological Criteria and Synodal Methodologies for Shared Discernment of Emerging Doctrinal, Pastoral, and Ethical Issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the testimonies recalls the author\u2019s experience with Courage, a Catholic apostolate that supports people with same-sex attraction who seek to live chastely according to Church teaching. Pope Leo XIV received members of Courage at the Vatican on Feb. 6.<\/p>\n
The man wrote that he went to the group at the suggestion of a therapist he had met to deal with his \u201ccondition.\u201d He added: \u201cI tried in vain to date a Catholic woman, but our relationship failed when my family faced a crisis. The time had come to be honest with myself, God, and others.\u201d<\/p>\n
What the Catholic Church teaches about homosexuality<\/p>\n
Catholic teaching on homosexuality is summarized in three articles of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Nos. 2357, 2358, and 2359.<\/p>\n
In these articles, the Church teaches that homosexual persons “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.\u201d<\/p>\n
Homosexuality as a tendency is \u201cintrinsically disordered\u201d and \u201cconstitutes for most of them [homosexuals] a trial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grounded in Scripture, tradition has always taught that \u201chomosexual acts are intrinsically disordered\u201d and \u201cdo not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity\u201d and therefore \u201cunder no circumstances can they be approved.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHomosexual persons are called to chastity,\u201d and through \u201cthe support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Presented to Pope Leo for study<\/p>\n
The 32-page report, published first in Italian and presented in English as a working translation, is not a definitive doctrinal proposal. Rather, it outlines a methodological shift and will now be presented to Pope Leo XIV for study.<\/p>\n
Drawing from the testimonies, the Synod study group says the first account describes \u201cthe devastating effects of reparative therapies aimed at recovering heterosexuality\u201d and \u201ccontradictory advice\u201d such as suggestions to marry a woman in order to \u201cfind peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report proposes a new approach based on listening and dialogue for addressing \u201cemerging doctrinal, pastoral, and ethical issues,\u201d including the experience of \u201cpeople of faith with same-sex attractions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The text is rooted in what it calls the \u201cprinciple of pastorality,\u201d which stresses that Christian proclamation must take into account concrete persons and their lived experience. It proposes a change in approach to some of the most delicate questions in the life of the Church.<\/p>\n
The report does not seek to offer total solutions but to open a path of discernment. Instead of speaking of \u201ccontroversial\u201d issues, as the subject of the report was originally announced, it proposes calling them \u201cemerging\u201d issues, understood as experiences that prompt the Church to rethink how to live and transmit the Gospel in diverse contexts.<\/p>\n
The document explicitly recognizes the difficulty of harmonizing doctrine and pastoral practice. It says testimonies received by the study group show \u201chow arduous it is for individuals and Christian communities to reconcile \u2018doctrinal firmness\u2019 with \u2018pastoral welcome.\u2019\u201d It adds that polarized positions often result in \u201cprofound suffering, personal lacerations, and experiences of marginalization or \u2018double lives\u2019\u201d for believers with same-sex attraction.<\/p>\n
In this context, the report proposes a method based on three steps within what it calls \u201cconversation in the Spirit\u201d: listening to ourselves, paying attention to reality, and summoning various forms of expertise.<\/p>\n
The text says this dynamic of listening seeks to foster a synodal Church in which the people of God actively participate in discernment.<\/p>\n
The report also stresses the importance of paying attention to those living on existential, social, and cultural \u201cperipheries.\u201d It cites other examples of \u201cemerging issues,\u201d including the rise of adult catechumens in some local Churches, which it says calls for rethinking pastoral structures.<\/p>\n
In addition to the testimonies of two homosexual persons, Study Group 9 includes an experience of active nonviolence, as witnessed by a Serbian youth movement that helped bring about the peaceful fall of President Slobodan Milo\u0161evi\u0107 on Oct. 5, 2000, drawing inspiration in part from the first Christians.<\/p>\n
The Synod also published the final report of another study group, Study Group 7, on criteria for selecting candidates for bishop.<\/p>\n
That report says bishops should be evaluated not only for moral integrity, doctrinal orthodoxy, pastoral sensitivity, leadership ability, and capacity to administer Church goods but also for \u201csynodal competencies.\u201d It quotes Pope Leo XIV as saying that a bishop\u2019s duty is \u201cto build communion among its members and with the universal Church by fostering the variety of gifts and ministries given for its own growth and for the spread of the Gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report also asks the dicasteries of the Roman Curia to review their procedures in a more synodal spirit and proposes regular independent evaluation of the processes for selecting bishops.<\/p>\n
This story was updated at 5:56 p.m. ET on May 6, 2026, to include the teachings of the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding homosexuality and homosexual tendencies.<\/p>\n
This story\u00a0was first published\u00a0by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.<\/p>\n