Vatican Synod Report Includes Testimony From Men in Same-Sex Unions

The Vatican’s General Secretariat of the Synod released a 32-page report prepared by Study Group No. 9 earlier this month. The report contains testimony from two men in same-sex unions who state that the Church’s teaching on homosexuality has caused them harm.

The study group was originally tasked with examining issues considered controversial within the Church. According to the report, the group later decided to reframe those issues as emerging, which allowed discussion of same-sex unions in terms comparable to marriage between a man and a woman.

Murray, pastor of St.

Joseph’s Church in New York City, said the report amounts to a full-fledged endorsement of the homosexual lifestyle. He questioned why the Synod would publish interviews with individuals who reject Catholic teaching on marriage. Bishop Joseph Strickland, bishop emeritus of Tyler, Texas, described the report as an emergency in the Church and a direct assault on Catholic moral doctrine.

He stated that the Church belongs to Jesus Christ and should not seek acceptance from the modern world. Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan said the report advances the Church toward total moral relativism. He also noted that the Secretariat of the Synod has promoted what he called propaganda of a global sexual ideology.

Catholic journalist Phil Lawler stated that the report carries no magisterial authority and therefore does not change Church teaching. German Cardinal Gerhard Müller said the synod groups are skeptical of central Catholic tenets and seek to build a form of Christianity conformed to the world.

The report’s authors argue that engaging with lived experience promotes a living encounter with Jesus in diverse cultural contexts. They present the inclusion of the testimonies as a step toward openness to different situations of life.