An inclusive papacy: Pope Francis’ gender equality legacy

When Pope Francis died on Monday, April 21, he left big shoes to fill for sustaining progressiveness in the Catholic Church.

Members of the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer+) community, on many occasions, found an ally in Francis as he made statements that resonated with their advocacy for gender equality. 

Francis found ways to make the Church more welcoming to the LGBTQ+ community while not changing Church teachings.

His legacy leaves the community, typically shunned by the Church’s conservative side, hoping that the next pope will continue to foster a safe space for queer Catholics.

Here’s a list of memorable quotes and actions that Pope Francis made in shifting the Catholic Church to be more accepting of the community.

‘Who am I to judge?’

In the first months of his papacy, Pope Francis set the tone for his leadership when it came to accepting the community.

In an interview with reporters in July 2013, Francis said that while the Catholic Church’s position on homosexual acts is that these are sinful, homosexual orientation was not.

“If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?” Francis said.

This quote was what several Filipino gender rights groups remembered in tributes after his passing.

Support for same-sex civil unions

In October 2020, Pope Francis voiced support for same-sex couples to be in civil unions. 

“What we have to create is a law of civil union, they have the right to be legally protected. I have defended that,” he said in Evgeny Afineevsky’s documentary Francesco.

His stand opposing gay marriage, meanwhile, remained unchanged. It is the official stand of the Catholic Church that marriage is between a man and a woman.

In the same documentary, the Pope was seen on a phone call with gay parents who were ashamed to bring their children to church. He invited them to continue going to church regardless of others’ judgments.

Transgender people can be baptized, serve as godparents

In October 2023, the Vatican’s doctrinal office said that transgender people can be godparents at Roman Catholic baptisms, witnesses at religious weddings, and can also receive baptism.

A person in a same-sex relationship may also be a witness at a Catholic wedding, since there is no Church legislation that bans it.

In a meeting with a transgender person a few months before the statement, the Pope said: “Even if we are sinners, He (God) draws near to help us. The Lord loves us as we are, this is God’s crazy love.”

Approval of blessings for same-sex couples

In a landmark ruling Fiducia Supplicans (Supplicating Trust), Pope Francis in December 2023 formally approved blessings for same-sex couples administered by Catholic priests.

The ruling notably ruffled feathers, even among the Pope’s subordinates. Bishops in some countries, particularly in Africa, expressed various degrees of dissent.

The Vatican needed to reiterate that the approval did not amount to support for gay sex or marriage.

Pope Francis said that he saw “hypocrisy” in criticism of his decision.

“Nobody gets scandalized if I give my blessings to a businessman who perhaps exploits people, and this is a very grave sin. But they get scandalized if I give them to a homosexual,” he told Italian Catholic magazine Credere. “This is hypocrisy.”

Women in key posts

Francis appointed around 20 women to high positions in the Vatican, which is unprecedented. Some of these include his February 2025 appointment of Sister Raffaella Petrini as the President of the Governorate of Vatican City State, equivalent to the governor of the Vatican.

He also picked Sister Simona Brambilla to lead the Vatican’s Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Petrini and Brambilla became the first women in these roles.

Francis included women in the 2024 synod, a global meeting of the Church, and granted voting rights for 57 women out of a total of 368 attendees.

Since the beginning of his papacy, the Pope had always referred to the Church as a woman, and highlighted the role of women in society.

Some inconsistencies

Though he had his list of breakthroughs, the Pope was not an unapologetic ally of the LGBTQ+ community through and through. Some of his statements remained aligned with the Church’s conservatism.

For instance, in a 2019 document, the Vatican rejected gender fluidity, or the idea that people can choose which gender they identify with.

The document, called “Male and Female He Created Them,” argues that gender ideology posed a threat to traditional families and ignored the natural differences between men and women.

In 2024, the Pope said that gender ideology is an “ugly ideology of our time.”

The Vatican also reaffirmed its opposition to gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy. – Rappler.com