With a mix of curiosity and a little apprehension, the man stepped inside Our Lady of Mount Carmel in East Lakeview to celebrate Mass on a recent Sunday.
It was the first time David Charles of Des Plaines had entered a church in roughly 20 years.
During college he felt called to ministry, until his on-campus Methodist pastor in another state discovered he’d been secretly dating a man.
“In no unclear terms he said, ‘You either stop this now or this is where our road ends,” Charles recalled. “So I said, ‘This is where our road ends.’ And that was that. It was devastating … like a path was taken from me.”
Ever since, Charles felt like a nomad without a spiritual home, yearning for the religious community and collective worship he had left behind.
Yet at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, he found an acceptance and inclusion he couldn’t have envisioned two decades prior.
The July 13 Mass was organized by the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago’s LGBTQ+ outreach ministry, AGLO Chicago, with special prayers dedicated to family members, friends and allies of the queer community.
“AGLO Chicago invites parents, family and friends of the LGBTQ+ community to join them to understand what it means to be LGBTQ+ and Catholic, and for those who are struggling to reconcile and unify these sometimes-competing identities,” an invitation to the service stated. “Parents and family members may quietly grapple with questions of faith, identity and belonging when a loved one comes out as LGBTQ+.”
The mood at the church was an odd blend of optimism and worry, emanating from the state of Catholicism as well as national politics: Many worshippers conveyed hope that newly elected Pope Leo XIV — a Chicago native who preaches bridge-building and social justice — will forge greater LGBTQ+ inclusion in the worldwide church.
At the same time, some described a growing fear for the queer community as the Trump administration attempts to rescind various LGBTQ+ rights and protections, often using Christian or biblical rhetoric to support these policies.
The recent liturgical service at Our Lady of Mount Carmel focused on family and friends of LGBTQ+ Catholics because so many parents and relatives have relayed trepidation at the increasing hostility of the national climate, said Rick Guasco, co-director of AGLO Chicago.
“They want them to feel safe and feel accepted by the church,” he said. “They want them to still feel connected to the faith they grew up in. What better way to send that message than to have a Mass that recognizes our families?”
As worshippers bowed their heads, the Rev. Andy Matijevic offered a special prayer for the LGBTQ+ community and their loved ones.
“Shower your blessings on these families gathered here in your name,” he said. “Enable those who are joined by one love to support one another by their fervor of spirit and devotion to prayer.”
The words made Charles tear up.
In the wood pew, he sat next to his fiance Philip Odango, who was raised Catholic.
“We have been, I feel like, building up to this moment,” Odango said. “Because we have very deep conversations about faith and spirituality.”
Even as the United Methodist Church made great strides toward LGBTQ+ inclusivity and reconciliation — lifting the denomination’s longtime bans on gay marriage and clergy in 2024 — Charles said his wounds have remained.
“Not only was I ousted but I was trying in my own way, however I could, just to provide counsel to other queer people who were being told similar things,” he recalled.
Three days before Mass, the couple searched the terms “gay” and “Catholic Church” online, which led them to AGLO Chicago and the service at Our Lady of Mount Carmel. AGLO Chicago, which was founded in 1988, celebrates Mass weekly at Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
The simple act of walking side-by-side down the aisle of the English Gothic-style church and facing a Carrara marble altar proved empowering for the couple.
Stained glass images of archangels, known as protectors of humanity and messengers from God, loomed overhead in the apse. A pipe organ accompanied the liturgical service’s hymns.
Odango was encouraged earlier this month when a Vatican official indicated Pope Leo will continue to allow blessings for same-sex couples, which were first approved through a landmark and controversial declaration of his predecessor Pope Francis in 2023.
“One of the things I think everyone loved about Pope Francis was leading with humility,” Odango said. “We’re hoping Pope Leo will continue that journey of leading with humility. … I’m hopeful Pope Leo will continue to be inclusive.”
Same-sex blessings were an important first step, Odango said.
“I don’t foresee it quite yet where we’re getting a marriage certificate through the church,” he said.
But one can dream, Charles added.
‘Hear our prayer’
Through a series of petitions, worshippers at Our Lady of Mount Carmel prayed that the church serves as an instrument of healing rather than hurt; of reconciliation rather than division.
That fear, judgment, apathy and walls to this healing will be replaced with attentiveness and care.
And that all who are in need of God’s healing touch — especially those in the LGBTQ+ community — will find welcome in the living body of Christ and the church.
“Lord, hear our prayer,” they responded in unison after each supplication.
In the group’s May newsletter, AGLO Chicago co-director Angelina Rossi welcomed Pope Leo XIV’s May 8 election, noting that his first message to the world from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica began with the words “peace be with you all.”
“He asked that we be a church with open arms for everyone and that he believes in dialogue, love, and charity, especially to those who are suffering,” she wrote in the article. “We hope he is including the LGBTQ+ Catholic community in there as well.”
So far, his stance on LGBTQ+ inclusion has been complicated.
In 2012, as the Augustinian prior general in Chicago, he made critical statements of what he referred to as the “homosexual lifestyle” as well as the media’s promotion of acceptance of same-sex marriage, which is in conflict with Catholic doctrine.
A little over a week into his papacy, he upheld that family is “founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman” during his first meeting with the Vatican diplomatic corps.
Yet many LGBTQ+ advocates were heartened earlier this month when the head of the Vatican’s doctrine office told Italian media that the blessing of same-sex couples “will remain” under Pope Leo.
Under Pope Francis, the groundbreaking document entitled “Fiducia Supplicans” permitted blessings of people in same-sex relationships, so long as they’re not confused or conflated with the ritual of marriage, while still maintaining the church’s strict ban on gay marriage.
The declaration, a hallmark of Pope Francis’ decade-long outreach to LGBTQ+ Catholics, also faced great opposition around the globe. Many Catholic leaders rejected the pope’s stance, with bishops in Africa, Poland and other parts of the world refusing to implement the policy or barring their clergy from offering these blessings.
Locally, a same-sex blessing last year at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Lincoln Park drew much rebuke online.
The religious order of the priest who performed the blessing later issued an apology for the way it took place, stating that same-sex blessings “do not equate to a wedding and should not employ the clothing and gestures that accompany a wedding.”
“I am deeply sorry for any confusion and/or anger that this has caused, particularly for the People of God,” the priest said in the statement.
The couple — two wives who were married in the Methodist church — said the apology didn’t diminish the sacred nature of the blessing for them.
“We want the Catholic Church to continue this ministry to the queer community because it is so important and so meaningful to people of faith,” one of the wives, a Methodist pastor, told the Tribune last year.
LGBTQ+ issues are still very controversial in the Catholic Church “and there’s a lot of room for the church to grow,” said Jason Steidl Jack, assistant teaching professor of religious studies at St. Joseph’s University in New York.
“The church moves in centuries not in years,” said Steidl Jack, a gay Catholic theologian. “Most LGBTQ+ folks have not had experiences in Roman Catholicism where they are welcome. Where they are included. Where they’re represented in parish life. For a long time, we’ve been sort of shoved down into the basement.”
While Pope Leo has been more reserved and measured than Pope Francis, Steidl Jack predicts the new pope will continue in the trajectory of his predecessor.
The professor believes the papal conclave selected Pope Leo to continue Pope Francis’s “agenda of synodality,” a commitment to consultation and deep dialogue with global Catholics, particularly those who have been marginalized in the past.
“The church is making strides at the grassroots level but also at the Vatican level, first under Pope Francis and now, God willing, under Pope Leo,” he added. “Pope Francis started us out on a journey. And I believe Pope Leo is going to continue that.”
Questions and answers
The gospel reading during Mass told the parable of the good Samaritan who helped a Jewish stranger beaten by robbers and left for dead, even though Jews and Samaritans were enemies at the time.
The story goes that religious leaders passed by without offering aid.
“Who was the neighbor?” the church program said. “The one who treated him with mercy.”
The passage spoke to Guasco.
“Some people think that LGBTQ+ people can only be helped if they do this or that first. There’s a requirement first in order to get that help and acceptance,” he said, shaking his head. “If you don’t meet someone where they are, if you don’t help someone in the way they need to be helped, then what are you doing? Is it truly acceptance? Is it truly help?”
After the service, some of the worshippers lingered for coffee and sweets — and a question-answer session with Matijevic, the priest, on LGBTQ+ issues and the Catholic Church.
“Every person is made with God’s imprint,” Matijevic told the room. “No matter who is made, God had made them. And we have to respect them, love them and care for them. Because all of us are on the same journey of life together. Because we are not meant to be alone.”
The crowd posed some difficult questions on theology, church politics and the future of LGBTQ+ inclusion.
Will the trend of the Holy Father’s openness to the LGBTQ+ community continue?
“I would say yes. I hope Pope Leo will continue to be one of inclusion. I can’t speak for the pope, but he is from Chicago, so …” Mtijevic said, shrugging and eliciting laughter from the room.
How can we get Pope Leo to talk to advisers who are positive about LGBTQ+ matters?
Another participant jokingly suggested contacting the pope’s brother, who lives in the south suburbs, in the hopes that he’ll pass along the message to his sibling.
A church secretary from another Catholic parish requested advice on starting an LGBTQ+ ministry there. She noted that other local Christian churches offer LGBTQ+ outreach programs “and do it really well.”
“I want the Catholic church in the area to also say the same thing and have the same loving presence,” she added.
Recent polls show American Catholics tend to be largely accepting of LGBTQ+ people, rights and inclusion.
A Pew Research Center 2023 to 2024 survey found that nearly three-quarters of Catholic adults believed homosexuality should be accepted by society and 70% supported same-sex marriage.
More than three-quarters of Catholics said their fellow Catholics who identify as LGBTQ+ should be allowed to receive Communion and 65% said the church should allow openly gay men to be ordained, according to a 2022 Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey.
Toward the end of the discussion at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Charles asked a question that has plagued him for more than 20 years.
“How is it that heterosexual marriage, which can be sanctioned by the church, is a blessing of God?” he said. “Yet my love — which in my eyes is of no ill will or no ill intention, no malice — is not?”
“God never left you,” another man responded from across the room. “The church may have left you. And the church is playing catch-up.”
But God never left you, he repeated.
The Associated Press contributed.