(ZENIT News / Rome, 09/21/2025) – The new book-interview about Leo XIV not only offers an intimate look at his life, but also becomes a kind of pastoral manifesto of the first steps of his pontificate. In it, the Pope bluntly addresses some of the most divisive issues within and outside the Church: the place of women, the acceptance of LGBTQ Catholics, and the wound of sexual abuse.
The American-Peruvian Pontiff, interviewed at length by journalist Elise Ann Allen for the biography «Leo XIV: Citizen of the World, Missionary of the 21st Century,» published by Penguin Peru, made it clear that his style will be a continuation of Francis’ approach to welcoming, but also of maintaining the Church’s teaching. «Everyone is invited, but I don’t invite anyone because of a specific identity, but because they are a son or daughter of God.,” he affirmed, recalling his Predecessor’s “all, all, all.”
That «all» does not, however, mean immediate changes in doctrine. Leo XIV acknowledged that pressure to accept same-sex marriage or transgender identities is growing in some quarters, but he assured us that «the teaching of the Church will continue as it is.» He did ask for a change in attitudes and tone: respect, acceptance, and mutual listening. He expressed it with a pastoral gesture: «Let us get to know and respect one another. At some point, when specific concerns arise, they will have to be addressed.»
His reflection included a comment that resonated with him during the Synod: «The Western world is obsessed with sexuality,» a Cardinal from the East told him. This statement, he acknowledged, continues to challenge him because it reveals that in other regions, priorities are different, and the insistence on issues of sexuality «polarizes and distracts from the central mission of the Church.»
The family appears as another of his pillars. Leo XIV champions what he calls the «traditional family» — father, mother, and children — as the first space where one learns to live with others, to love, to respect, and to tolerate. «If you eliminate that basic pillar, it becomes very difficult to learn it anywhere else,» he warned. He drew on his own experience: he recalled the stable and happy union of his parents and the strong bond with his siblings, despite political differences. These roots, he confesses, have decisively shaped his way of being and exercising his ministry.
The Pope also did not avoid one of the most painful specters hanging over the Church: sexual abuse. He spoke of a «true crisis» and of the urgency of maintaining a deep sensitivity toward the victims. «Some wounds last a lifetime. Financial compensation or removing the perpetrator is not enough; accompaniment must be constant,» he noted. He acknowledged that many victims have left the Church and called for respect for that decision as well.
At the same time, he stressed the need to guarantee the presumption of innocence and protect the rights of the accused, noting that a small percentage of cases prove false. «Saying this can be painful, I know. But justice must protect everyone: victims and accused,» he explained, admitting that the slow pace of canonical proceedings is a source of frustration that has yet to find an easy solution.
In the interview, Leo XIV also addressed the Synod’s debates on women and the diaconate. He acknowledged that the ordination of deaconesses remains an open but complex issue, and warned of the risk of «clericalizing» women instead of more broadly recognizing their gifts in ecclesial life. He insisted that the discussion must mature before taking definitive steps. He added: «For the moment, I have no intention of changing the Church’s teaching on this issue.»
The new Pope, therefore, moves between doctrinal fidelity and pastoral openness. He doesn’t promise revolutions, but rather concrete gestures of closeness and a serene perspective on divisive realities. «The Church must continue proclaiming the Gospel,» he emphasized. And while doing so, she must learn to heal wounds, not to close herself off in polarizations, and not to lose sight of the fact that, in his own words, «all are welcome.»
Below is the English version of the advances published by Crux on these topics to the Pope.
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Allen: Two of the most prominent hot-button issues that came out of the Synod on Synodality, in terms of the debate they generated, were the role of women in the Church and the Church’s approach to the LBGTQ+ community. What were your thoughts on the discussion about these two issues, and how will you approach them in your new role now as Pope?
Pope Leo: In a synodal way. For most people, certainly the understanding that the role of women in the Church has to continue to develop, I think in that sense there was a positive response. I hope to continue in the footsteps of Francis, including in appointing women to some leadership roles at different levels in the Church’s life, recognizing the gifts that women have that can contribute to the life of the Church in many ways.
The topic becomes a hot-button issue when the specific question is asked about ordination. What the Synod had spoken about specifically was the ordination, perhaps, of women deacons, which has been a question that’s been studied for many years now. There’ve been different Commissions appointed by different Popes to say, what can we do about this? I think that will continue to be an issue. I at the moment don’t have an intention of changing the teaching of the Church on the topic. I think there are some previous questions that have to be asked.
Just one small example. Earlier this year, when there was the Jubilee for Permanent Deacons, so obviously all men, but their wives were present. I had the catechesis one day with a fairly large group of English-speaking Permanent Deacons. The English language is one of the groups where they are better represented because there are parts of the world that never really promoted the Permanent Deaconate, and that itself became a question: Why would we talk about ordaining women to the Diaconate if the Diaconate itself is not yet properly understood and properly developed and promoted within the Church? And what are the reasons for that? So while I think there was a significant inspiration at the time of the Council when the Permanent Diaconate was in effect reinstated, it has not become, in any parts of the world, what I think some people thought it would be earlier on. So, I think there are some questions that have to be asked around that issue.
I also wonder, in terms of a comment I made at one of the press conferences I participated in in the Synod, in terms of what has oftentimes been identified as clericalism in the present structures of the Church. Would we simply be wanting to invite women to become clericalized, and what has that really solved? Perhaps there are a lot of things that have to be looked at and developed at this time before we can ever really come around to asking the other questions.
That’s where I see things right now. I am certainly willing to continue to listen to people. There are these study groups; the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which has responsibility for some of those questions, they continue to examine the theological background, history, of some of those questions, and we’ll walk with that and see what comes.
Allen: Just a quick follow up on the LGBTQ+ point, it can be a very ideological issue. However, beyond any ideological views, I think people felt this was just spoken about in a different way, with a different tone, under Francis. What will your own approach be?
Pope Leo: Well, I don’t have a plan at the moment. I was asked about that already a couple of times during these first couple of months, about the LGBT issue. I recall something that a Cardinal from the eastern part of the world said to me before I was Pope, about “the Western world being fixated, obsessed with sexuality.” A person’s identity, for some people, is all about sexual identity, and for many people in other parts of the world, that’s not a primary issue in terms of how we should deal with one another. I confess, that’s on the back of my mind, because, as we’ve seen at the Synod, any issue dealing with the LGBTQ questions is highly polarizing within the Church. For now, because of what I’ve already tried to demonstrate and live out in terms of my understanding of being Pope at this time in history, I’m trying not to continue to polarize or promote polarization in the Church.
What I’m trying to say is what Francis said very clearly when he would say, ‘todos, todos, todos’. Everyone’s invited in, but I don’t invite a person in because they are or are not of any specific identity. I invite a person in because they are a son or daughter of God. You’re all welcome, and let’s get to know one another and respect one another. At some point, when specific questions will come up… People want the Church doctrine to change, they want attitudes to change. I think we have to change attitudes before we even think about changing what the Church says about any given question. I find it highly unlikely, certainly in the near future, that the Church’s doctrine in terms of what the Church teaches about sexuality, what the Church teaches about marriage, [will change].
I’ve already spoken about marriage, as did Pope Francis when he was Pope, about a family being a man and a woman in solemn commitment, blessed in the Sacrament of Marriage. But even to say that, I understand some people will take that badly. In Northern Europe they are already publishing rituals of blessing ‘people who love one another’, is the way they express it, which goes specifically against the document that Pope Francis approved, Fiducia Supplicans, which basically says, of course we can bless all people, but it doesn’t look for a way of ritualizing some kind of blessing because that’s not what the Church teaches. That doesn’t mean those people are bad people, but I think it’s very important, again, to understand how to accept others who are different than we are, how to accept people who make choices in their life and to respect them.
I do understand that this is a very hot-button topic and that some people will make demands to say, “we want the recognition of gay marriage,” for example, or “we want recognition of people who are trans,” to say this is officially recognized and approved by the Church. The individuals will be accepted and received. Any priest who has ever heard confessions will have heard confessions from all kinds of people with all kinds of issues, all kinds of states of life and choices that are made. I think that the Church’s teaching will continue as it is, and that’s what I have to say about that for right now. I think it’s very important.
Families need to be supported, what they call the traditional family. The family is father, mother, and children. I think that the role of the family in society, which has at times suffered in recent decades, once again has to be recognized, strengthened. I just wonder out loud if the question about polarization and how people treat one another doesn’t also come from situations where people did not grow up in the context of a family where we learn — that’s the first place you learn how to love one another, how to live with one another, how to tolerate one another, and how to form the bonds of communion. That’s the family. If we take away that basic building block it becomes very difficult to learn that in other ways.
I think there are some very key elements that need to be looked at. I believe I’m who I am because I had a wonderful relationship with my father and my mother. They had a very happy married life for over 40 years. Even today people comment on this, even with my brothers. We’re still very close, even though one is far on one end politically, we’re in different places. In my experience, that has been an extremely important factor of who I am and how I’m even able to be who I am right now.
