Many LGBTIQA+ Catholics have found parishes and faith communities where they are genuinely welcomed and included. Others have had deeply painful experiences — of homophobia, transphobia, ignorance, and discrimination in Church contexts – and some have left the Church as a result. Both realities are true, and both deserve to be named honestly.
LGBTIQA+ Catholics often encounter anti-gay and anti-trans language from other Christians or within their own families, causing lasting harm. At the same time, some within LGBTIQA+ communities question why anyone would want to belong to a Church that has caused so much harm – and that scepticism is understandable and deserves to be taken seriously. Church teaching on sex and sexuality must always be read alongside Church teaching on God’s love for all, human flourishing, relationships, and the primacy of conscience. Taken together, these teachings offer a much richer and more compassionate framework than is sometimes presented. For those who find meaning, identity, and spiritual home in both their faith and their LGBTIQA+ identity, that experience is real and valid – and they are not alone.
The Church’s teaching on conscience is clear and longstanding. Dignitatis Humanae (#3), from the Second Vatican Council, states that people “must not be forced to act contrary to their conscience. Nor must they be prevented from acting according to their conscience, especially in religious matters.”
Gaudium et Spes (#16) goes further: “Deep within their conscience a person discovers a law which they have not laid upon themselves but which they must obey… conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary. There they are alone with God whose voice echoes in their depths.” This teaching is found throughout Catholic tradition – in Thomas Aquinas, in Cardinal John Henry Newman, and reaffirmed by Pope Benedict XVI.
Cardinal Newman wrote that conscience is “a messenger from God… the aboriginal Vicar of Christ, a prophet in its information.”
He also famously wrote: “I shall drink to the Pope, if you please, still, to conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards.”
Pope Francis’s 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia includes a strong endorsement of the primacy of conscience (paragraph 303), and cautions against approaches to moral teaching that “see everything as black and white,” warning that these can “close off the way of grace and of growth, and discourage paths of sanctification which give glory to God” (paragraph 305).
It is Catholic teaching that one must follow their informed conscience – formed through prayer, study, and the careful application of Catholic teaching and gospel wisdom to specific and complex decisions. For LGBTIQA+ Catholics whose God-given identity is a gift to be celebrated, invoking the primacy of conscience to navigate the tensions between Church teaching on sexuality and their own experience of self, love, and relationship is not a departure from Catholic teaching. It is an expression of it. A wise and trusted pastoral guide can be a valuable companion in navigating this territory.
Acceptance Perth respects the conscience decisions of LGBTIQA+ Catholics as taught by the Church. Our community welcomes all gender and sexually diverse individuals, couples, and their children. We welcome families of LGBTIQA+ Catholics and others who wish to support, learn with, and celebrate with us. We welcome those who are discovering, questioning, or transitioning. And we welcome those finding their way back to the Church after time away – you are welcome to journey with us, without conditions or expectations.
As Pope Francis said: “Who am I to judge?”
Sources:
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/conscience-takes-priority-over-church-teaching-says-catholic-catechism-1.3518377
https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/conscience-still-aboriginal-vicar-christ-now-adults
