Following the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, 12 groups were established to study and report on specific aspects of the life and mission of the church.
Study Group 9 focused on theological criteria and synodal methodologies for discerning doctrinal, pastoral and ethical questions. Included among those questions was the pastoral care of Catholics with same-sex attraction.
To this end, and in line with the synodal method outlined by Pope Francis in 2015, the group relied in part upon the personal testimonies of two men civilly married to other men and active in their local parishes, who did not regard their irregular situation as sinful, but rather as a gift from God.
On 5 May 2026, Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, released the Final Report of Study Group 9.
Proposing a “paradigm shift” in how the church should approach questions on homosexuality, the report recommended eschewing “pre-established formulas” in favour of “listening to ourselves, listening to reality, and convening different forms of knowledge.”
In this vein, the report spoke of the church needing to speak boldly about the “recurring question” of marriage between two people of the same sex, as well as how to approach the education of children raised in same-sex unions in terms of family, ecclesial and social life. This report has been received with concern by those faithful who believe that objective truths were entrusted by God to his church and have been handed down unchanged through the ages.
The church’s enduring teaching on marriage and sexuality is perennial and therefore not subject to change. The truth about marriage and sexuality is not measured by its adaptation to one’s feelings, nor is reality rooted in the subjective experience of the person.
Accordingly, the testimonies of actively homosexual men who feel that their lifestyle is pleasing to God cannot ever be the basis of church teaching on this subject. To do so would result in a reconstruction of Catholic truth. The John Paul II Academy for Human Life and Family, of which I am a member, is an international community of scholars dedicated to defending the sanctity of human life and the integrity of the family.
In an open letter to Cardinal Grech requesting the report’s removal from further consideration, the academy stated: “[A]ny suggestion that the Holy Spirit may inspire doctrinal or moral responses contrary to the perennial teaching of the Church risks reviving errors historically associated with theological Modernism, repeatedly rejected by the Magisterium.
“Authentic development of doctrine deepens understanding of revealed truth; it does not overturn truths already definitively taught.”
The letter was signed by the academy’s President, Dr Thomas Ward, Vice President Christine de Vollmer, and Treasurer Steven Mosher.
Later, the letter noted: “[T]he Church’s mission has never been to conform herself to the spirit of the age, but to proclaim the truth in season and out of season. The moral law, grounded in divine Revelation and natural law, cannot be altered according to social pressures or contemporary sensibilities.”
The question of how the church demonstrates authentic mercy and pastoral accompaniment to people in irregular situations invites reflection on deeper questions about the nature of faith, the church itself, and the authority entrusted to it.
Readers are encouraged to read the full open letter here.
Dr Anna Walsh is a member of the John Paul II Academy for Human Life and Family.
