Pope Francis Was a Champion, if an Imperfect One, for L.G.B.T.Q. People

Posted by the New York Times April 21, 2025.

As soon as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, was elected pope in 2013, he made his first big decision: taking the name of Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi. In doing so, he signaled a desire to cast his lot with the poor and those on the margins. Few could have predicted that he would do more for one globally marginalized group — L.G.B.T.Q. people — than all his modern predecessors combined.

An obvious example of his approach was the story of Sister Jeannine Gramick. Her saga began in 1999, during the papacy of St. John Paul II. That year, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later to become Pope Benedict XVI, barred Sister Gramick and the Rev. Robert Nugent, two Americans, from ministering to “homosexual persons.” Father Nugent died in 2014. But Pope Francis called Sister Gramick, who for years was under pressure by the Roman Catholic hierarchy, a “valiant woman” and met with her in 2022, as well as last year in the company of transgender Catholics.

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