Updated on June 23, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Robert McElroy lauded Pope Leo XIV’s downplaying of sexual sin and the Synod on Synodality’s final report on “doctrinal, pastoral and ethical questions” which suggested that homosexual relationships may not be sinful.
The archbishop of Washington, D.C.’s remarks came during a homily at a Mass for Father James Martin’s pro-LGBT Outreach Conference at the Jesuit-run Georgetown University.
During his June 20 homily, McElroy failed to mention the Church’s teaching on same-sex “marriage” and accused the Church of “frequently wounding” the so-called “LGBT community” through “judgmentalism and exclusion.”
The prelate expressed hope for the future of Catholics who identify as “LGBT,” based on Pope Leo’s April remarks that the Church’s moral focus shouldn’t be so concerned with sexuality but on supposed “greater and more important issues – such as justice, equality between men and women, and freedom of religion.”
To that end, McElroy also cited a Synod on Synodality report, published in May, which scandalously endorsed the testimony of a same-sex “married” man without qualification that “sin, at its root, does not consist in the (same-sex) couple relationship” but in “a lack of faith in a God who desires our fulfillment.”
“When Pope Leo points to the comparative importance of economic justice, war and peace, immigration and racism as key elements of the Christian moral life, he is rejecting this false reductionism that concentrates moral obligations within the sexual realm,” he said.
News: Cardinal Robert McElroy, Archbishop of Washington, celebrated Mass for 500 participants (some pictured here) at the @OutrchCatholic conference for LGBTQ Catholics at @Georgetown today. We will post his homily, which moved many to tears, later. So grateful for His Eminence. pic.twitter.com/LbMq8o4qwT
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) June 21, 2026
The Pontiff’s comments came on a return flight from his trip to Africa when a reporter asked about the Church in Germany issuing formalized “blessings” for homosexual “couples.” While Leo said the Vatican had objected, he added that the impromptu “blessings” of homosexual “couples” and those in adulterous unions, as outlined in Fiducia Supplicans, were still permitted before minimizing sexual sin.
“We tend to think that, when the Church is talking about morality, the only issue of morality is sexual. In reality, I believe there are much greater and more important [moral] issues, such as justice, equality of freedom for men and women, freedom of religion, that would all take priority before that particular issue,” the Pope said at the time.
READ: Cdls. McElroy, Cupich send letter of ‘encouragement’ to Fr. James Martin’s pro-LGBT conference
While it’s true that Catholics have moral obligations outside the sexual realm, McElroy and Leo’s comments are downplaying the Church’s constant teaching on homosexuality and same-sex “marriage.”
The Catholic Church teaches that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to the natural law” and that the homosexual inclination is “objectively disordered.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear that homosexual activity can never be approved and repeats that “(h)omosexual persons are called to chastity.” Homosexual acts are mortal sins; therefore, anyone who commits these sins and does not repent through the sacrament of Confession is in danger of hell.
Furthermore, as a “sin that cries to heaven,” homosexual activity is a much more serious offense than any supposed sin McElroy compared it with, except perhaps “economic justice” as depriving workers of their just wages is also a “sin that cries to heaven.”
The cardinal then turned to the synod report, which he said applies the “pastoral theology of Pope Francis in an integrated way with Catholic teaching and practice.”
“In its anthropology, the report is pathbreaking: ‘Every person is a singularity whose wholeness and uniqueness is constituted in relation to the other, to society and to culture,'” McElroy said.
“This focus on singularity reflects the preciousness spoken of in today’s Gospel about the sparrow (Matthew 10 26:31). How much greater is each of us in our singularity in the eyes of God, who understands the folds of our heart and revels in the diverse beauty of our humanity,” he added. “Seen in this light, the call to holiness is a personal encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ which envelops the whole of our lives and calls us to walk together in the life of the Church – unique yet formed together in Jesus Christ.”
READ: New DC Cardinal McElroy has long record of promoting LGBT ideology, downplaying abortion
While the faithful with same-sex attraction are indeed called to holiness like any other person, the cardinal again failed to mention that those in same-sex “relationships” or those who identify as “transgender” would need to repent of grave sins related to such lifestyles.
The pro-LGBT synod report notably relied on testimony from two friends of Fr. Martin with same-sex “partners.”
Earlier in his homily, McElroy briefly noted the need for the faithful to conform their hearts to the virtues of Jesus Christ, including chastity, and to reject sin “in every dimension.”
However, the archbishop of D.C. did not clearly profess the need for Catholics with same-sex attraction to live chaste lives. Additionally, by praising the synod report that suggested these relationships may not be sinful later in the homily, it would appear that he was not calling the congregation in same-sex “relationships” to abandon their sinful lifestyles.
The Outreach Conference featured several other heretical speakers, including Father James Keenan, S.J., who previously testified against a proposed constitutional amendment in Massachusetts that would have defined marriage as a stable union between a man and a woman, on the erroneous grounds that it was “contrary to Catholic teaching on social justice.”
WATCH: Young Catholics pray Rosary to protest Fr. James Martin’s pro-LGBT conference
Sister Nancy Corcoran, CSJ, who has called the Church’s teaching on transgenderism “wrong” and “awful,” and praised the blasphemous “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” also spoke at the conference. Other notable speakers included “transgender” activist “Michael” Sennett and Kerry A. Robinson, the president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA.
This story is developing…