Cardinal Gregory Apologizes to LGBTQ+ Catholics – a ‘Watershed Moment’

Edited reflection by Francis DeBernardo, Executive Director, New Ways Ministry

New Ways Ministry’s Sister Jeannine Gramick and I were privileged to attend the prayer service on January 22nd of this year where Cardinal Wilton Gregory of the Archdiocese of Washington apologized to the members of Dignity Washington for the Church’s alienation of them and others in the LGBTQ+ community for many decades. It was an historic event, given the fact that Dignity Washington, a group of LGBTQ+ Catholics, had been ejected from their Eucharistic gathering place in St William’s Chapel at Georgetown University in 1987 by Cardinal James Hickey, a former archbishop of Washington.

It was a moment of reconciliation and healing for the 70+ people gathered in St Ignatius Chapel of Most Holy Trinity Parish, a few blocks from the university campus. The event, hosted by the LGBTQ+ ministry of Holy Trinity parish, was an Evening Prayer Service at which Cardinal Gregory preached. His sermon began in a benign way, but at the end, he began to talk about the hurt that LGBTQ+ people experienced because of Catholicism’s all-too-unwelcoming actions and statements, ending with an extended apology:

“As I recall the enthusiasm of my youthful first encounter with Christ in the Catholic Church, I am renewed and reaffirmed that Jesus has brought me here to the Priesthood and to the Episcopacy for His own purpose. I have never for one moment doubted that I have made the correct journey of Faith within Catholicism, but I have been deeply distressed by the state of things in the world in which the Church must witness to the Risen Lord. I apologize for my own failure to emulate Christ’s compassion. The way that we have treated our LGBTQ brothers and sisters has brought them tears and to many of us a disgrace.

“I apologize from the heart for the hurt that has resulted in the loss of so many of our family members who belong to God no less than I do. I apologize not only for those whose past actions have scandalized and wounded these men and women. I apologize for my own lack of courage to bring healing and hope, and I ask forgiveness.

“I apologize not only for those whose past actions have scandalized and wounded these men and women. I apologize for my own lack of courage to bring healing and hope, and I ask forgiveness.”

Earlier in the service, the cardinal stated:

“There is no room for religious bigotry that is largely fueled by lack of knowledge and ignorance on the part of peoples who may call themselves religious but whose behavior violates the basic tenets of most of the great faith traditions of the world.”

For many years, leaders and members of Dignity Washington have written to all of the archdiocese asking for dialogue and the possibility of reconciliation. Over the past few years, Sister Jeannine, co-founder of New Ways Ministry, Fr Peter Daly, an archdiocesan priest who is a member of Dignity Washington and a New Ways Ministry board member, and I have had several meetings with Cardinal Gregory, and at each one, we urged him to make a pastoral visit to Dignity Washington.

In a news report about the event in The Washington Blade, Sister Jeannine commented:

“I think Cardinal Gregory’s remarks are a watershed moment in the relationship between the Archdiocese of Washington and the LGBTQ+ community. I am hopeful this will set an example for other bishops to embrace Dignity communities across the U.S. Dignity was the first group in the world to organize and speak up for their rights as baptized LGBTQ+ Catholics.”

In a personal reflection on the event, Fr Daly stated:

“In my 39 years as a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, I have never been so emotionally moved by the words of one of your bishops as I was on January 22, when Cardinal Wilton Gregory preached at Evening Prayer. . . . Cardinal Gregory spoke to us from the heart. He apologized for past failings. He confessed his own failures, as well as the failures of his predecessors in office. His words were a healing balm.

“Most significant, he referenced the failings of the local Church in its relationship to LGBT Catholics who are also part of the body of Christ. It was a statement that we had waited years to hear in this Archdiocese. I have never heard an Archbishop speak so humbly and sincerely.”

Cardinal Gregory has made many steps toward advancing reconciliation between the Church and the LGBTQ+ community, both as Archbishop of Atlanta, where he served previously, and then as Archbishop of Washington. In 2019, Gregory told a transgender Catholic at a public event that “you belong to the heart of this Church.” As archbishop of Atlanta, Gregory invited Fr James Martin, SJ, to speak, despite some public opposition to the Jesuit, and Gregory had acknowledged that the Church needs to improve its pastoral care for LGBTQ+ people. In 2018, during a talk on new forms of discrimination, Gregory decried “the brutality that an individual’s sexual orientation often fosters and justifies.” He has suggested the work of the 1960s civil rights movement continues today and that work includes efforts for lesbian and gay protections. In 2016, Gregory supported the Georgia governor’s veto of a “license to discriminate” bill that would have expanded anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination. In 2015, when marriage equality was legalized in the U.S., Gregory called for all sides to be respectful and civil. In 2014, he appointed a deacon to pastoral ministry with the LGBTQ+ community, suggesting at the time that the distinction between orientation and activity the Church makes on homosexuality “needs reexamination and development.”

In March, Cardinal Gregory will retire from leadership in the Archdiocese of Washington, and a new archbishop, Cardinal Robert McElroy, will be installed. Cardinal McElroy comes to Washington with a positive record on LGBTQ+ issues. Cardinal Gregory’s apology has laid the groundwork for better connections between LGBTQ+ people and the Catholic Church. I have great hope that Cardinal McElroy will help that groundwork to blossom into greater welcome and affirmation.

—— Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, January 30, 2025