The association CRISMHOM (Cristianas y Cristianos de Madrid LGTBI+H) has publicly thanked, through Religión Digital, Cardinal José Cobo, Archbishop of Madrid, and Monsignor José Antonio Satué, the new Bishop of Málaga, for their gestures of outreach toward the homosexual community in the ecclesial sphere.
In a statement released following the V Assembly of the Global Rainbow Catholics Network, held in August, Cardinal Cobo called for “wisdom and prudence to foster a Church where we listen to one another, with open doors, welcoming and fraternal.”
For his part, Bishop Satué, in statements to the press after the Mass marking the start of his ministry, stated that religions must “do everything possible to avoid adding more reasons for suffering, but rather help to welcome people as they are.”
CRISMHOM and the “Diverse Church”
CRISMHOM’s statement interprets these words as a validation of its proposal for a “diverse Church built with living stones.” The group asserts that bishops must act as “doorkeepers,” opening doors rather than closing them, and rejects any proposal for conversion that involves renouncing the so-called “rainbow gift.”
CRISMHOM thus presents its activism in favor of a “Church with open arms” as a sign of evangelical courage and fidelity to the spirit of welcome that, according to them, inspires the recent Vatican initiatives under the pontificate of Francisco and now of León XIV.
A Vision Incompatible with Catholic Doctrine
Although CRISMHOM resorts to a language of welcome and diversity, the reality is that its approach clashes head-on with the Magisterium of the Church, which teaches clearly and unequivocally that homosexual relations cannot receive any approval or blessing (Catecismo, n. 2357; Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, 1986).
The authentic pastoral care of the Church, recalled by Benedicto XVI and by the same perennial doctrine, invites accompaniment of people with same-sex attraction, but always in the truth of the Gospel, which calls for chastity and conversion, not the legitimization of a non-existent “rainbow gift” in Revelation.
The Mission of the Church: to Welcome and Call to Conversion
The dignity of each person demands respect and welcome, but this duty cannot be confused with the approval of behaviors objectively contrary to natural law and the teaching of Christ.
True evangelical courage does not consist in diluting doctrine, but in proclaiming the truth of marriage and the family according to God’s plan, even when the world and certain lobbies pressure to transform the Church into an assembly of ideological interests.