An international group of dissident “LGBT Catholics” preparing for an annual gathering of similar organizations was received warmly by the cardinal of Madrid this week, although the group advocates against Catholic teaching.

From August 21 through 25, the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics (GNRC) will hold its fifth annual meeting. Taking place in Madrid, the event will see groups and individuals gather to discuss “the future of LGBTQ+ Catholics.”

The GNRC serves as an umbrella organization for LGBT groups worldwide, with some of its member groups – such as New Ways Ministry or DignityUSA – perhaps better known than the GNRC itself.

Founded in 2015 in Rome, the GNRC states that it was inspired by Pope Francis’ Synod on the Family. The GNRC makes no secret about its stance regarding homosexuality, transgenderism or same-sex “marriage.” Indeed, both co-chairs of GNRC’s board are in same-sex “marriages.”

The group received a marked sign of welcome by the late pontiff when he hosted them in private audience in October 2023. Francis reportedly told the group’s leaders to “Go ahead!”, which they took as a confirmation of their mission to advance LGBT ideology and acceptance of LGBT issues within the Catholic Church.

Among GNRC’s aims are the stated intentions to:

support and lift up the voices of LGBTI people, and all who are marginalized in the Catholic Church and in society. These groups include racial, gender, and sexual minorities. We advocate for those who suffer from violence, prejudice, persecution and criminalization because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. We foster a culture of equal rights and acceptance. We promote the equality of women in the Catholic Church.

Other member organizations – especially New Ways Ministry – are more explicit still, advocating for an overturn in Church teaching regarding the immorality of same-sex behavior.

The Madrid assembly will feature a range of pro-LGBT speakers, including the controversial James Alison. Ordained as a priest, he lobbied the Vatican for many years to be relieved of his clerical celibacy, arguing that he joined the priesthood based on a false acceptance of the Church’s teaching on homosexuality.

The openly homosexual priest received a letter from the Congregation for Clergy around 2010 in which he was informed of his eventual laicization after refusing to cooperate in previous attempts to laicize him. Angered by this decision, he wrote to Pope Francis, requesting to ignore the Congregation’s decision. Francis subsequently called Alison in 2017, appearing to give his approval to the homosexual priest, saying, “I want you to walk with deep interior freedom, following the Spirit of Jesus. And I give you the power of the keys. Do you understand? I give you the power of the keys.”

Notably, one of the LGBT groups tasked with organizing the GNRC Madrid meeting was received in audience by Madrid’s Cardinal Archbishop Jose Cobo Cano this week. Describing having received a warm welcome by Cobo, the group stated that “we have shared with him the joy of co-organizing the next GNRC World Assembly and taken the opportunity to strengthen ties…We continue to build bridges towards a more inclusive Church.

Appointed as archbishop of Madrid by Pope Francis in 2023 and later that year made a cardinal, he was viewed as being in particular favor from the Pope since his leadership of Madrid’s key archdiocese came despite him having never led a diocese before, although he had served as Madrid auxiliary since 2017.

Following Fiducia Supplicans and the ensuing debacle regarding the offering of blessings for same-sex “couples,” Cobo moved to quash any opposition to the text, warning his priests that “we are going to fully apply the Pope’s doctrine” on same-sex “blessings.” His clampdown came after a number of clergy expressed loyalty to the Church’s teaching opposing such blessings, and had cited canon law in their joint petitions.

The Catholic Church teaches that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to the natural law.” The catechism is very clear that homosexual activity can never be approved, and repeats that “[h]omosexual persons are called to chastity.”

“By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection,” reads the Catechism.

The Vatican’s 1986 document “On the pastoral care of homosexual persons” stated that a “truly pastoral approach will appreciate the need for homosexual persons to avoid the near occasions of sin.” The doctrinal office also noted that though homosexual inclinations were not sinful in themselves, such an inclination would be “a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.”

An earlier 1975 document, Persona Humana, also emphasized the Catholic teaching regarding homosexuality with the words, “there can be no true promotion of man’s dignity unless the essential order of his nature is respected.”