(LifeSiteNews) — An avowed homosexual Jesuit priest who is known for his pro-LGBTQ activism within the Catholic Church praised Pope Leo XIV for continuing Pope Francis’ “welcoming overtures and advances” to homosexuals, lesbians, transgender and non-binary people.
Fr. Bryan Massingale, a theology professor at Jesuit-run Fordham University in New York City who is proudly openly gay, said in a recent video interview that he is relieved that Pope Leo will continue Pope Francis’ LGBTQ trajectory.
“There was a fear after Pope Francis died that a future pope would come in and undo the welcoming overtures and advances that had taken place under Pope Francis’ papacy,” Massingale said in an interview with Spectrum News NY1.
“And one of the first things Pope Leo did was he said, ‘No, I have no intention of going backwards when it comes to the LGBTQ community,” the Jesuit added.
Homosexual Jesuit praises Pope Leo – He won’t go backwards on LGBTQ issues pic.twitter.com/seXwDG4mmf
— Sign of the Cross (@CatholicSOTC) July 10, 2026
In an August 6, 2020, article that appeared in U.S. Catholic, Massingale asserted that for Catholic parishes to have “credibility as the church of Jesus Christ” they must offer “extravagant welcome” to “LGBTQ Catholics.”
During an interview within the 2021 film “Wonderfully Made” — created by Jewish filmmaker Yuval David, a homosexual “married” to a Catholic man, Mark McDermott — Massingale described his “dream of a church where two men and two women can stand before the Church, proclaim their love and have it blessed in a sacrament of marriage,” contravening the clear teaching of the Church on the nature of sexuality and, indeed, marriage.
A priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Massingale has written frequently for U.S. Catholic magazine as well as for the well-known dissident publication National Catholic Reporter. His work has been praised by infamous pro-LGBT Father James Martin, S.J.
The Catholic Church condemns homosexual acts
“Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church states.
The Catechism is equally clear on what constitutes a family, stating, “A man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children, form a family. This institution is prior to any recognition by public authority, which has an obligation to recognize it.”
The term “domestic church” is merely another word for family, the Catechism adds.