Cardinal McElroy says Church “wounded” LGBT people, points to Pope Leo XIV and Synod as signs of a new pastoral path forward.
Newsroom (23/06/2026 Gaudium Press ) Cardinal Robert McElroy has said that the Catholic Church has “frequently wounded the LGBT community through judgmentalism and exclusion,” while pointing to recent developments under Pope Leo XIV and the Synod on Synodality as evidence of a shifting pastoral approach.
The Archbishop of Washington made the remarks during a homily on 20 June at the Outreach Conference, held at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. The annual gathering brings together clergy, theologians and laypeople engaged in ministry with LGBT Catholics. In his address, Cardinal McElroy framed his comments within what he described as a broader transition in the Church’s pastoral vision, shaped by both papal leadership and the synodal process initiated under Pope Francis.
Speaking to conference delegates, McElroy identified two developments he believes are reshaping Catholic engagement with questions of sexuality and pastoral care. The first was a recent statement by Pope Leo XIV during an April visit to Africa, in which the pontiff said that “the unity or division in the Church should not revolve around sexual matters.” The Cardinal suggested that this marked a notable recalibration in emphasis.
“Too often, both in magisterial statements and on the popular level, sexual sins have been condemned with an ardour that effectively places them, in the eyes of many believers, at the core of the moral obligations of Christians,” McElroy said. By contrast, he noted that Pope Leo had highlighted “the comparative importance of economic justice, war and peace, immigration and racism as key elements of the Christian moral life.”
For McElroy, the Pope’s remarks signal an attempt to reposition sexual ethics within a wider moral framework, reducing what he sees as an imbalance that has shaped Catholic discourse in recent decades. His intervention reflects a longstanding concern that issues of sexuality have assumed a disproportionate prominence at the expense of other social and moral priorities central to Church teaching.
The second development highlighted by the Cardinal was the May publication of the report from Study Group 9, one of several working groups established during the Synod on Synodality. Describing the document as “pathbreaking,” McElroy emphasised what he called a new anthropological approach emerging from the synodal process.
According to the Archbishop, the report advances a vision of pastoral theology in which lived human experience plays a constitutive role in shaping doctrine. “Pastoral practice […] proceeds from the conviction that the concrete situations in which people find themselves are constitutive dimensions of how doctrine should be formed in the light of the kerygma,” he said.
He stressed that this perspective represents a significant departure from more traditional approaches that treat pastoral care primarily as the application of fixed principles to individual circumstances. “Pastoral practice is not the understanding of how to apply an already formed and often reified set of principles to concrete situations,” McElroy said, repeating the point for emphasis. Instead, he argued, pastoral theology itself becomes a source for the development of doctrine, rooted in engagement with the real lives of the faithful.
The Cardinal linked this approach directly to the legacy of Pope Francis, describing it as “the most important legacy” of the late pontiff’s efforts to reform Catholic pastoral theology. Francis, he suggested, sought to reposition pastoral practice as a “core element” in the formation and understanding of Church teaching.
McElroy’s homily followed a written message issued on 19 June welcoming participants to the conference. In the letter, he described the gathering as taking place at a decisive moment in the life of both the Church and the United States. “I am delighted to welcome you to the 2026 Outreach Conference here in Washington,” he wrote, adding that “the Holy Spirit will be profoundly present in our meetings and discussions at this key time in the history of our Church and our nation.”
He characterised the conference as part of a continuing trajectory from the pontificate of Francis into that of Pope Leo XIV. “The pastoral foundations laid by Pope Francis for authentic ministry to and with the LGBT community are being deepened and refined by Pope Leo,” McElroy wrote. He also pointed to the Study Group 9 report as placing LGBT ministry “within a new paradigm” that integrates “the experience of faith-filled and diverse disciples” into the Church’s understanding of holiness.
In doing so, the Cardinal invoked the phrase “Todos, Todos, Todos,” widely associated with Pope Francis after World Youth Day in Lisbon in 2023, where it was used to emphasise the Church’s openness to all. McElroy said this vision represents “the true pathway” for the Church moving forward.
The Outreach Conference itself has grown into one of the most prominent annual events focused on Catholic ministry with LGBT people in the United States. Its programme includes liturgies, keynote addresses, workshops and panel discussions addressing theology, parish outreach, mental health, Scripture and the experiences of transgender Catholics. The 2026 gathering began on 19 June and concludes on 21 June.
Keynote speakers include Kerry Robinson, president and chief executive of Catholic Charities USA, and Jesuit moral theologian Fr James Keenan. The conference opened with a Mass celebrated by Fr James Martin, whose ministry to LGBT Catholics helped inspire the Outreach initiative, and will close with a commissioning service.
Outreach emerged from work connected to Fr Martin’s 2017 book Building a Bridge, which called for greater dialogue between Church leaders and LGBT Catholics. Since its formal launch in 2022, the organisation has hosted conferences, published articles and facilitated discussions aimed at fostering pastoral accompaniment and inclusion.
Previous Outreach events received messages of support from Pope Francis, who repeatedly affirmed the importance of welcoming ministry and insisted that God “does not disown any of his children.” In that context, McElroy’s remarks this week suggest a continuity of emphasis, alongside what he described as an evolving pastoral framework under Pope Leo XIV.
For Cardinal McElroy, the convergence of papal leadership and synodal reflection now offers an opportunity for a renewed approach—one that places dialogue, lived experience and inclusion more centrally within the Church’s pastoral mission.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from advaticanum.com
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