VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis met with the leaders of a network of heterodox, pro-LGBT activist groups after his weekly papal audience in St. Peter’s Square.
On October 25, Francis spoke to the co-chairs of the “Global Network of Rainbow Catholics” (GNRC), a coalition of dissenting, pro-LGBT, self-professed Catholic groups from across the world, following his Wednesday audience.
Among the North American members of the coalition are DignityCanada, DignityUSA, New Ways Ministry, and Fortunate Families.
The executive director of DignityUSA, Marianne Duddy-Burke, told the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) after the meeting that the pope talked to them for “several minutes” and was “incredibly gracious.” Duddy-Burke called the meeting “a big day for LGBTQ Catholics.”
“I was in tears,” she told NCR. “We have great hope for what he is trying to do to make the church more inclusive.”
Duddy-Burke said she handed Francis a t-shirt with the print “todos, todos, todos” (Spanish for “everyone, everyone, everyone”) in reference to the pope’s frequent statement that “everyone” is “welcome” in the Church.
In addition to Duddy-Burke, Francis met with Christopher Vella, the other co-chair of the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics and the coordinator of Maltese pressure group Drachma LGBTI, and Ruby Almeida, GNRC’s media officer, who chairs LGBT activist groups in the U.K. and India. Vella is in a homosexual “marriage.”
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According to a Facebook post by the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics, Francis told the pro-LGBT leaders to “go ahead” (“andate avanti”) with their work, seemingly encouraging their dissent from Catholic moral teaching.
The DignityUSA leader is known for supporting so-called “transgender rights,” including mutilating surgeries for people who are confused about their sex. In a recent statement regarding laws in the U.S. that ban transgender surgeries for children in some states, Duddy-Burke said that she wants to see “stronger, moral leadership” from Joe Biden, who should be “champion for the trans community.”
This past summer, pro-LGBT activist priest Father James Martin was the first to invite Duddy-Burke to speak inside a Catholic church in more than 30 years, according to NCR.
DignityUSA openly calls for changing Catholic teaching on sexuality. In its mission statement, the organization states that “We work for the development of sexual and gender theology leading to the reform of [the Catholic Church’s] teachings and practices regarding human sexuality, gender identities[.]”
It furthermore asserts “that gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex persons” can express their “sexuality physically, in a unitive manner that is loving, life-giving, and life-affirming,” ignoring the fact that only intercourse between a man and woman can create new life and be “life-giving” and that sin cannot be “loving.”
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The Catholic Church teaches that homosexuality is gravely sinful, disordered, and an “intrinsic moral evil,” in accordance with Sacred Scripture and Tradition.
Francis has been promoting heterodox, pro-LGBT personalities throughout his pontificate, and especially in the past few weeks. On October 17, he met with the co-founder of New Ways Ministry, Sister Jeannine Gramick, who has a history of LGBT and abortion activism and was previously condemned and censured by the Vatican. In 2021, it became public that Francis had written two letters that praised the heretical, pro-LGBT group New Ways Ministry.
On September 29, the pope personally met with the infamous Fr. James Martin again, whom he also made a voting member at the Synod on Synodality.
The pope has furthermore written a note to the executive director of Fortunate Families, another dissident organization that is part of the “Global Network of Rainbow Catholics,” thanking him for their “ministry.”
READ: Pope Francis to clergy: Decide for yourselves whether to ‘bless’ homosexual unions
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