Opinion | Pope Francis Was a Champion, if an Imperfect One, for Gay People

As soon as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, was elected pope in 2013, he made his first big decision: taking the name of Francis, after St.Francis of Assisi.

In doing so, he signaled a desire to cast his lot with the poor and those on the margins.Few could have predicted that he would do more for one globally marginalized group — L.G.B.T.Q.

people — than all his modern predecessors combined.An obvious example of his approach was the story of Sister Jeannine Gramick.Her saga began in 1999, during the papacy of St.

John Paul II.That year, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later to become Pope Benedict XVI, barred Sister Gramick and the Rev.

Robert Nugent, two Americans, from ministering to “homosexual persons.” Father Nugent died in 2014.But Pope Francis called Sister Gramick, who for years was under pressure by the Roman Catholic hierarchy, a “valiant woman” and met with her in 2022, as well as last year in the company of transgender Catholics.Francis had compassion for L.G.B.T.Q.

people for many reasons.As a Jesuit, he took a person’s conscience seriously, an emphasis in Jesuit spirituality, meaning that he was less likely to condemn people seen by many previous church leaders solely as “sinners.” Increasing numbers of Catholic families with openly L.G.B.T.Q.

members made the church’s attitude toward them a more pressing pastoral issue.Finally, the pope’s desire that the church be a place for “todos, todos, todos” — “all, all, all” — meant reaching out to those who felt excluded.

Even if he did not change the church’s official teaching that homosexuality is “intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to the natural law,” Francis’s drastically new approach was itself a kind of teaching.Those who doubt the effectiveness of his approach need only to look at the increasing number of L.G.B.T.Q.groups and retreats in many parishes, as well as prominent church leaders who have grown more vocal in their suppo...