BY JOSHUA J. MCELWEE

News Editor

June 14, 2023

Pope Francis has sent a message of support to a conference that will discuss LGBTQ ministry in the Catholic Church this weekend, after right-wing online influencers organized a petition to try and stop the event.

The pope is publicly backing the Outreach conference, a three-day meetingset to be held June 16-18 at New York’s Fordham University that will consider issues ranging from how the Bible speaks of homosexuality, how the church should minister with transgender Catholics and how to raise LGBTQ children in the faith.

In a handwritten letter released on June 14 by Jesuit Fr. James Martin, one of the organizers of the event, Francis asks the priest to send his “best regards” to the participants of the meeting and assures: “In my prayers and good wishes are you and all who work at the Outreach Conference.”

In a handwritten letter released June 14 by Jesuit Fr. James Martin, one of the organizers of the Outreach conference, Pope Francis asks the priest to send his "best regards" to the participants of the meeting and assures: "In my prayers and good wishes are you and all who work at the Outreach Conference." The conference will discuss LGBTQ ministry in the Catholic Church. (Courtesy of Fr. James Martin)

In a handwritten letter released June 14 by Jesuit Fr. James Martin, one of the organizers of the Outreach conference, Pope Francis asks the priest to send his “best regards” to the participants of the meeting and assures: “In my prayers and good wishes are you and all who work at the Outreach Conference.” The conference will discuss LGBTQ ministry in the Catholic Church. (Courtesy of Fr. James Martin)

The pope’s letter comes after a range of right-wing social media influencers have expressed outrage at the event. One group organized an online petition, garnering some 92,000 signatures, demanding that Fordham cancel the conference.

Also publicly supporting the conference is New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who has written a letter welcoming those planning to attend the event. 

“It is the sacred duty of the Church and Her ministers to reach out to those on the periphery and draw them to a closer relationship with Jesus and His Church,” Dolan writes in the letter, released by Martin. “Your vital and important ministry is a valuable and necessary contribution to this effort.”

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Letter from Cardinal Timothy Dolan.pdf

Outreach is an online news and opinion site dedicated to LGBTQ Catholics that is affiliated with the Jesuit-run America magazine. The 2023 event is the group’s second in-person conference, following a similar event at Fordham in 2022.

Keynote speakers for this year’s conference include Tania Tetlow, Fordham’s president; Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of LGBTQ Catholic ministry DignityUSA; and Juan Carlos Cruz, a Chilean abuse survivor and member of the pope’s clergy abuse commission.

Ryan Di Corpo, Outreach’s managing editor, told NCR in an interview that the group feels a special urgency to their conference this year, given the recent ramp-up of controversy around LGBTQ issues.