On September 15, the day of Our Lady of Sorrows, a coalition of 25 Catholic associations presented Pope Leo XIV with a filial appeal asking him to confirm with absolute clarity the perennial teaching of the Church on marriage and sexual morality in the face of pressure from a “powerful lobby” seeking to legitimize unions between people of the same sex. The signatories are inspired by the Brazilian thinker Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, founder of the Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP) movement.
Specific Requests
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Reaffirm the perennial Magisterium of the Church on homosexual acts, explicitly rejecting proposals to alter the Catechism of the Catholic Church and upholding Sacred Scripture.
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Revoke the 2023 declaration Fiducia supplicans on blessings for same-sex couples, and reaffirm the 2021 Vatican prohibition regarding such blessings.
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Annul the 2017 rescript of Pope Francis, which gave special magisterial weight to the interpretation by the Argentine bishops of Amoris laetitia, allowing Communion for some civilly remarried divorcees.
A Filial and Apprehensive Supplication to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV
Most Holy Father,
In light of your recent and auspicious statements in defense of the family and the coherence that Catholics must maintain in public life by upholding the principles of the Faith, the signing associations— heirs to the thought and action of the great Brazilian Catholic leader Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira— address themselves filially to Your Holiness to express their apprehensions about the future of the family.
In 2015, we addressed Pope Francis between the two Synods on the Family to denounce the alliance of influential organizations, political forces, and media that promoted the so-called gender ideology. This ideology served as a seal of approval for a sexual revolution that favors customs contrary to the natural and divine law. Even more gravely, we pointed out the widespread confusion among Catholics, “arising from the possibility that a breach had opened in the Church that would accept adultery—by allowing divorced and then civilly remarried persons to receive Holy Communion— and would practically accept even homosexual unions.” As a result, we asked Pope Francis “to clarify the growing confusion among the faithful” and to avoid “the teaching of Jesus Christ Himself being diluted.”
With the support of other entities in the coalition titled Supplica Filiale al Papa Francesco sul futuro della Famiglia (“Filial Supplication to His Holiness Pope Francis on the Future of the Family”), we collected 858,202 signatures. These were delivered to the Holy See on the morning of September 29, 2015, almost exactly ten years ago.
Among the signatories of that Filial Supplication were 211 prelates (cardinals, archbishops, and bishops), a large number of priests and religious, and numerous renowned laity in the West and other parts of the world. In his speech during the colloquium titled Iglesia Católica: ¿A dónde vas?, held in Rome on April 7, 2018, Cardinal Walter Brandmüller mentioned our petition as one of the most evident manifestations of the consensus fidei fidelium, which plays an immunizing role in preserving the Church from error.
With great pain in our hearts, we must point out that, far from responding to this just request from the flock, his predecessor on the See of Peter further aggravated the situation. On one hand, by abusively admitting civilly remarried divorcees to Eucharistic Communion through footnote 351 of Amoris laetitia and by granting pontifical approval to its interpretation by the bishops of the Pastoral Region of Buenos Aires, Argentina. On the other hand, through statements and gestures that legitimized homosexual civil unions, culminating in the “pastoral blessings” authorized in the declaration Fiducia supplicans of December 18, 2023, signed by the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Since then, the situation has continued to worsen, especially regarding the acceptance of homosexual relations. There has been a proliferation of statements from high prelates calling for an update to the Church’s teaching. This includes changing paragraphs of the Catechism of the Catholic Church that state that the homosexual inclination is “objectively disordered,” that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered,” and that Sacred Scripture presents them as “acts of grave depravity.”
Although using apparently moderate language, some prelates and theologians already demand discarding so-called moralistic prejudices by “historicizing” situations, updating the two-thousand-year-old language of the Church and adapting it to the present times. This is the stance, for example, of figures such as Msgr. Francesco Savino, vice-president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, the French archbishop Hervé Giraud, and Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, archbishop of Luxembourg. The latter has gone so far as to say that the Catholic teaching on homosexuality “is incorrect,” since its sociological and scientific basis is no longer valid.
Likewise, Sister Jeannine Gramick and Father James Martin wish to eliminate the expression “intrinsically disordered” and propose alternative formulations that tend to make acceptable what is neither nor can be accepted. The German Synodal Way does the same by requesting a revision of the Catechism to adapt it to “human science,” which amounts to saying that the modern world has more authority than God.
Unfortunately, some go even further, calling not only for a change of words but for the very practice of the Church’s moral teaching. For example, Cardinal Robert W. McElroy denies that sexual sins are grave, paving the way for the legitimation and normalization of impurity. He also asserts that the “radical inclusion” of practicing homosexuals must be sacramental, in other words, that a lifestyle objectively contrary to the divine commandment would not constitute an obstacle to receiving absolution and the Holy Eucharist.
After stating that Catholic teaching is “solid and good,” Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe dilutes it by saying that it must be understood with “nuances.” He indirectly reiterated what he had already said in the Pilling Report, namely, that homosexual relations could be understood in a Eucharistic key, as an image of “Christ’s self-gift” in Holy Communion. The Austrian theologian Father Ewald Volgger insists on the same line of thought by saying that homosexual unions are an image of divine solicitude for men, which would justify blessing them. The Swiss theologian Daniel Bogner directly undermines the sacrament of marriage by asserting that it needs to be understood anew, freeing it from its “shell of perfection,” so as not to discriminate against irregular and homosexual unions. He argues that it is necessary to end the “rigid fixation on biological sex and the necessary heterosexuality of spouses,” since “fertility should not be understood exclusively in terms of biological reproduction.”
Given all this, Most Holy Father, we cannot but conclude that, under the pretext of mercy and adaptation to science, some forces are striving to reinvent the Catholic faith according to worldly passions, making it unrecognizable.
In this context of an open offensive to impose the acceptance of homosexual unions, it was particularly shocking to see that, under the pretext of obtaining Jubilee indulgences, great visibility was given to groups that openly profess such errors. They were allowed to enter in procession into St. Peter’s Basilica, carrying a rainbow cross. Even more gravely, this “homosexual pride march” was preceded by an audience granted to Father Martin, who later attributed words of encouragement to Your Holiness for his activism in favor of the L.G.B.T. movement. Similarly, Msgr. Francesco Savino, at the end of his homily in the Church of the Gesù, declared that Your Holiness had told him: “Go and celebrate the Jubilee organized by Jonathan’s Tent and other organizations that care for [your homosexual brothers and sisters].”
We are aware that some of these scandalous events (and others still on the agenda) were organized by Holy See bodies during the previous pontificate, and that Your Holiness, perhaps in the desire to ensure the unity of the Church, apparently wants to gradually change the orientation of the Roman Curia. However, while it is legitimate to yield on secondary points for the sake of unity, it does not seem legitimate to do so when the truth is sacrificed. As St. Augustine teaches: “Doing the truth does not consist only in saying what is true, but also in practicing it before many witnesses.”
Great hope arose in the hearts of millions of Catholics when, during the Jubilee of Families, Your Holiness quoted the encyclical Humanae vitae and stated: “Marriage is not an ideal, but the measure of true love between a man and a woman.” This statement resonated with your speech to the Diplomatic Corps, in which you reiterated that the family is “founded on the stable union between a man and a woman.” However, that hope turns to alarm when fearing that, as in the previous pontificate, concrete pastoral attitudes continue to contradict in practice what is taught in theory.
This fear leads us to renew the request we made in our 2015 Filial Supplication to Pope Francis:
“Truly, in these circumstances, a word from Your Holiness is the only way to clarify the growing confusion among the faithful. It would prevent the teaching of Jesus Christ Himself from being diluted and would dispel the darkness looming over the future of our children if that light ceased to guide their steps.
Holy Father, we implore you to say that word. We do so with a heart devoted to all that You are and represent. We do so with the certainty that your word will never separate pastoral practice from the teaching handed down by Jesus Christ and his vicars—for that would only add to the confusion. Indeed, Jesus taught us very clearly that there must be coherence between life and truth (cf. Jn 14:6-7); and he also warned us that the only way not to fall is to practice his doctrine (cf. Mt 7:24-27).”
With boldness and respect, we add two specific requests that would make clear the realignment of practice with the Church’s traditional teaching:
- We supplicate that you annul the rescript of June 5, 2017, from Francis, which conferred special magisterial value on the heterodox interpretation of the ambiguities of Amoris laetitia, and that you clearly reiterate that divorced and civilly remarried persons living more uxorio cannot receive sacramental absolution nor, as public sinners, Holy Communion.
- We implore you to revoke the declaration Fiducia supplicans and reaffirm the prohibition on granting any blessing to homosexual couples, as established by the Responsum of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of February 22, 2021, on a dubium regarding blessings for same-sex couples.
Imploring your apostolic blessing, we assure you of our prayers to Our Lady of Good Counsel and to St. Augustine. May they enlighten Your Holiness in this delicate beginning of your pontificate, in which you find yourself involuntarily confronted with a difficult legacy of confusion and division.
September 15, 2025 — Liturgical Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows
Signatories of the Filial Supplication
- Instituto Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira (Brasil)
- American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (USA)
- Tradición y Acción por un Perú Mayor (Perú)
- Asociación Civil Fátima la Gran Esperanza (Argentina)
- Australian TFP Inc. (Australia)
- Canadian Society for the Defence of Christian Civilization (Canadá)
- Acción Familia por un Chile auténtico, cristiano y fuerte (Chile)
- Asociación Civitas Christiana (Colombia)
- Deutsche Gesellschaft zum Schutz von Tradition, Familie und Privateigentum e.V. (Alemania)
- Sociedad Ecuatoriana Tradición y Acción Pro Cultura Occidental (Ecuador)
- Tradición y Acción (España)
- Société française pour la défense de la Tradition, Famille, Propriété – TFP (Francia)
- Hrvatsko Ddruštvo za Zaštitu Tradicije, Obitelji i Privatnog Vlasništva (Croacia)
- Irish Society for Christian Civilisation (Irlanda)
- Associazione Tradizione Famiglia Proprietà (Italia)
- Ufficio Tradizione Famiglia Proprietà (Roma)
- Stichting Civitas Christiana (Países Bajos)
- Österreichische Gesellschaft zum Schutz von Tradition, Familie und Privateigentum – TFP (Austria)
- Sociedad Paraguaya de Defensa de la Tradición, Familia y Propiedad – TFP (Paraguay)
- Philippine Crusade for the Defense of Christian Civilization (Filipinas)
- Fundacja Instytut Edukacji Społecznej i Religijnej im. Ks. Piotra Skargi (Polonia)
- Instituto Santo Condestável (Portugal)
- Nadacia Civitas Christiana (Eslovaquia)
- Family Action South Africa NPC (Sudáfrica)
- Tradition, Family, Property Association (Reino Unido)
Original text in English here