The Global network of Rainbow Catholics, a network of over 50 LGBTIQ+ Catholic organisations from all over the world, welcomes the Vatican’s recent report of Study Group 9, published on 5th May 2026.
This report is part of the Synod on Synodality and was titled “Theological Criteria and Synodal Methodologies for Shared Discernment of Emerging Doctrinal, Pastoral, and Ethical Issues” and elaborates on two “emerging” issues: one regarding the LGBTIQ+ community, and the other regarding a practice of active non-violence. In this statement, we focus on the former.
Statement
We, the Board of the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics, want to express our joy about the final report of Study Group 9.
In an extended general introduction, the foundational experience of our Catholic Tradition is recalled: the vitality of Jesus’ Kerygma, the transformative encounter with His Living Word, an encounter that makes every individual that turns to Him part of the ongoing tradition of the Church, people of God. In the light of this encounter, we LGBTIQ+ Catholics are no longer considered a problem that has to be solved, but a reality to be integrated in the ongoing pilgrimage of the Church, the People of God.
For the first time in the history of the Church we, the LGBTIQ+ community, are invited to place our experience in the center of our relationship to Jesus and the Church he has called into being, instead of having to conform to a heterosexual norm that we are not. “ Every person is …singular, irreducible, irreplaceable and original” (p. 10) and we Rainbow Catholics are no exception in this diversity of humanity. The study report calls us to be present in our communities as the personsthat we are, with our affections, our sexual attractions, our hopes and our dreams, and to walk with and contribute to the growth of our communities as we are.
We are very encouraged that the Study group 9 have chosen to interview and include the testimony of two members of the LGBTIQ+ community, to illustrate the vitality of the Living Gospel also within our community, highlighting that the Church is prepared to listen to our shared experiences and our connection with it. We also welcome the position of the Study Group to the ‘conversion therapies’, recognizing the harm and the damage this does to individuals and families.
We also acknowledge that, though the Study Group opens a door for us, it’s we who have to walk the arduous road towards full integration in our Church communities. We are aware that in many countries our LGBTIQ+ brothers and sisters cannot walk this road without danger, sometimes for their life.
There will be resistance.
However, fortified by this report, we as community of LGBTIQ+ Catholics are prepared to walk with every one of our members and with the Church to which we belong, and to commit to
learning with our bishops and priests to walk this new and communal road. The Roman Catholic Church holds an important key to ensure that the LGBTIQ+ reality is not experienced in a logic of ‘solitude, anguish and stigma’ (p.25), but in a reception of the beautiful, positive, enriching and wonderful manifestation of God’s love. And we call on our Church’s leaders, and all members of our Church, to engage in the kind of open dialogue that is needed for deep encounter. That is the only way the goals of this report, and indeed the Synodal process, to be achieved,Deeply committed,
Board of GNRC Catholics
Download the statement in PDF: Final Study Group 9 statement