Pope Leo XIV has appointed Father Thomas Hennen, who helped draft pastoral guidelines for “sexual and gender minorities” in the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, as the successor of Bishop Liam Cary of the Diocese of Baker, Oregon.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Office of Public Affairs announced Hennen’s appointment on Thursday, almost three years after Cary’s resignation was submitted, per Church custom, following his 75th birthday.

Hennen, who is currently vicar general of the Diocese of Davenport and rector of Sacred Heart Cathedral, served as diocesan director of vocations, and then associate director of vocations, from 2011 to 2021. He helped establish an Iowa chapter of Courage International, an orthodox Catholic ministry aimed at helping people with same-sex attraction strive for chastity.

Hennen affirmed in 2019 that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered,” as the Catholic Church teaches.

However, he was also later part of the Diocese of Davenport committee that drafted “Guidelines for Pastoral Accompaniment of Sexual and Gender Minorities,” which do not make any mention of the fact that same sex-attracted persons are called to live chastely.

Instead, it cites “principles for pastoral accompaniment of sexual and gender minorities” which include:

(1) “a fundamental respect for the dignity of every human person, body and soul, created in the image and likeness of God;

(2) a basic acknowledgement of people who experience differences in sexual orientation or gender discordance;

(3) a commitment to loving people first and listening for deeper understanding;

(4) a commitment to involving others in the discernment process, especially the individuals and families involved as well as other professionals and collaborators;

(5) a case-by-case approach with a basic willingness to make reasonable and appropriate accommodations when possible.”

The guidelines recommend that “we should listen especially, though not without question, to the recommendations of healthcare providers who work directly with” LGBTQ people, and ambiguously, obliquely refer to Church teaching without clearly insisting on it. “Any scientific approach can and should be paired with a deep respect for the wholeness of our Catholic intellectual, moral, and social tradition,” the guidelines state.

Hennen has previously described the process of drafting the guidelines as akin to a “synodal approach,” because it involved three years of various forms of education as well as “consulting with LGBTQ+ individuals and families.”

“We’ve taken a slower approach to this. We like to think we are taking a synodal approach, and we’ve learned a lot in the process — our own attitudes have changed,” Hennen said in October 2023.

LifeSiteNews reached out to Hennen for comment on the guidelines but had not heard back as of publishing.

Because these guidelines fail to clearly call same sex-attracted persons to chastity, Bishop Joseph Strickland remarked on X that “in substance it echoes the rhetorical strategies of gender ideology, undermining Catholic clarity and weakening the call to chastity.”

Some will cry “too harsh” but enough is enough…

With the appointment of Fr. Thomas Hennen, bishop-elect, as bishop of Baker, Oregon, we face a troubling reality: instead of correcting the trajectory set by Pope Francis, Pope Leo XIV is doubling down on it – deepening the… pic.twitter.com/vcIZF9VtJH

— Bishop J. Strickland (@BishStrickland) July 10, 2025

Strickland went so far as to call this “doctrinal smokescreen” a “hallmark of the Lavender Mafia – a clandestine network within the Church hierarchy that protects and advances a homosexual ideology while masquerading under the banner of compassion.”

“With the appointment of Fr. Thomas Hennen, bishop-elect, as bishop of Baker, Oregon, we face a troubling reality: instead of correcting the trajectory set by Pope Francis, Pope Leo XIV is doubling down on it – deepening the ambiguity that has plagued the Church,” Strickland concluded.

Hennen, who was ordained to the priesthood on July 10, 2004 at Sacred Heart Cathedral by Bishop William Franklin, has also served the youth in the Diocese of Davenport as part-time campus minister at the Newman Catholic Student Center at the University of Iowa in Iowa City from 2010 to 2011; as a teacher at Davenport Assumption High School from 2014 to 2017; and as chaplain and director of campus ministry at his alma mater, St. Ambrose University, from 2017 to 2021.