Vatican criticizes conversion therapy, features gay Catholic testimony in 'historic' report
The report says conversion therapy has caused profound suffering and marks the first Vatican publication to include detailed LGBTQ+ testimonies.
- On Tuesday, May 5, the Vatican released a report including testimony from two married gay Catholics and acknowledging the church's role in the 'solitude, anguish, and stigma' experienced by LGBTQ+ Catholics and their families.
- The report stems from Pope Francis's Synod on Synodality, a listening initiative convened by theologians to study controversial issues; Pope Leo XIV inherited the effort after becoming head of the Catholic Church in 2025.
- Remarkably, the report includes detailed testimonies from LGBTQ+ Catholics for the first time in any official Vatican publication, featuring men from the United States and Portugal, both previously subjected to so-called 'conversion therapy.'
- Marianne Duddy-Burke, DignityUSA's executive director, said the recognition that 'top-down trying to dictate behavior and morality on the basis of dogma isn't working' was significant, while Yunuen Trujillo called it a 'historic document.'
- While the document does not alter Catholic teaching on sexuality or marriage, implementation challenges remain; Trujillo noted it might take time for LGBTQ+ Catholics to feel the impact and observed the report focuses only on lesbians, gay and bisexual people.
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52 Articles
Associated Press News
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Vatican report highlights 'profound suffering' of LGBTQ+ Catholics
A new report from the Vatican has highlighted the “pain” and “profound suffering” experienced by LGBTQ+ Catholics, particularly in the context of conversion therapy, for the first time ever. The historic Synod report, which was released on 5 May, includes testimonies from two gay Catholic men – one from the United States and one from Portugal – in same-sex marriages who had undergone the so-called ‘conversion therapy’. The man from the US told o…
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Synod report condemns ‘devastating effects’ of conversion therapies for homosexual persons
A Vatican synod study group’s 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. The Vatican’s General Secretariat of [...]
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