Synod study group report on same-sex attraction continues to draw mixed reactions

"Where is the voice of those persons with same-sex attraction who want to follow Christ and freely choose to live chastely?" asked McTavish. "They're excluded from the synodal report. That's my biggest critique. It's like, 'We'll speak about supporting American football teams, so we'll listen to the testimony of two supporters of the San Francisco 49ers.' The testimony is interesting in itself, but it's not representative of all."

In his June 24 homily at Georgetown University amid the Outreach 2026 conference for Catholics who identify as LGBTQ, Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington, a synod delegate from the U.S., described the Study Group 9 report as one "important" development that sparked "great hope," since the Catholic Church "has so frequently wounded the LGBT community through judgmentalism and exclusion."

In a May 5 tweet, Jesuit Fr. James Martin — founder of Outreach and a synod participant – said the men who shared testimonies "speak movingly about their relationships with God, Jesus and the church, as well as the pain that they have experienced in response to how they have sometimes been treated by the church.

He added, "Listening in this way to LGBTQ people is a major step forward for the Catholic Church."

But the study group document reflected "some serious problems, to say the very least," said Fr. Brian Gannon, a priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and executive director of Courage International, a global apostolate of the Catholic Church ministering to those who experience same-sex attraction.

Speaking to OSV News in May following the report's release, Gannon said that the report was "erroneous" and "poor in its methodology, because it interviewed two people who have embraced same-sex relationship and said they could find happiness basically outside of God's teaching" — something "obviously in contradiction of 2,000 years of what the Catholic Church has always taught."

Equally disturbing, said Gannon, was that the report "was saying false things about Courage."

A testimony from a man in the U.S. included in the report stated the apostolate "engaged in reparative therapy, conversion therapy, which Courage never has," Gannon said.

"When people come to Courage, it's about living a life of holy chastity, living according to the teachings of the Church," said Gannon, whose organization hosted its annual conference July 13-21. "We've never engaged in any kind of conversion therapy whatsoever."

According to the unnamed man's testimony, he joined Courage "at the suggestion of a conversion therapist I met to deal with my 'condition,'" and added the "secretive and hidden" meetings "did little to help my spiritual and psychosexual development."

The report itself characterized the man's testimony as describing a "problematic membership in a Catholic group (Courage) which, by pushing for "reparative therapy," had the effect of separating faith and sexuality."

Courage issued a strongly worded statement shortly after the report was published, describing it as "both calumny and detraction against the organization and its members."

The organization said the study group unquestioningly accepted — with no verification from Courage — the document's claim that Courage practiced reparative therapy.

"The working group could have clarified this point by simply contacting Courage leadership," the organization's statement said.

As for the testimony's description of Courage meetings as "secretive and hidden," Courage's statement said members "understand those meetings to be confidential and secure — precisely so that they can speak candidly and vulnerably without fear of someone reporting about them."

The organization said the report "presents one person's experience and opinion as part of an official ecclesiastical document," adding that it was "a great sadness and an additional wound to our members to have this false and unjust depiction in a Vatican document."

Eve Tushnet, co-founder of Building Catholic Futures — a discipleship ministry for those seeking to "serve and share the Gospel with LGBT+ and same-sex attracted people," according to its website — acknowledged the report was limited in its inclusion of representative voices.

"The experience of LGBT and same-sex attracted people in the Church is really varied," she said, speaking to OSV News a few weeks after the report's release. "It would be very difficult to have any two voices really represent that whole range. If it were me, I would have, I think, sought out a wider range of experiences within the Church."

Still, she said, "the focus on hearing people in their own voice, describing their journeys" is "super important."

She pointed to Building Catholic Futures, which aims to "encounter witnesses, understand journeys, prepare for futures."

Tushnet explained that "as you hear the stories of LGBT and same-sex attracted practicing Catholics, you begin to see patterns in their experience."

"You begin to discern, 'Here are some things that we need to be doing differently. Here are some things that we're doing that are good,'" she said. "And that's the basis for shaping ministry going forward."

McTavish said he thought "the Church could improve" in "sharing its teaching" on same-sex attraction — one that balances moral clarity, pastoral care and an affirmation of God-given human dignity.

"There's a lot of misinformation; there are a lot of myths around," he said.

McTavish underscored the need for care and sensitivity in speaking of same-sex attraction, avoiding "dehumanizing," "disrespectful" and "discriminatory" language.

He also cautioned pastoral ministers from assuming that same-sex attraction is always "clear cut," and from "promoting coming out rather than going in" to a deeper relationship with Christ.