Executive director of LGBTQ+ Catholic group to travel to Rome for conclave

The executive director of a group representing LGBTQ+ Catholics is set to travel to Rome next week for the papal conclave beginning on May 7.

Marianne Duddy-Burke, Executive Director of DignityUSA, informed the ‘Washington Blade’ that she will arrive in Rome on May 6. She intends to spend time in St. Peter’s Square “and have conversations with people.”

“I will wear Dignity insignia, have rainbow flags,” she stated.

Pope Francis passed away on April 21, and his funeral was held five days later.

Under the Argentine-born pope’s leadership, the Vatican adopted a more conciliatory tone on LGBTQ+ issues, though the church’s teachings on homosexuality remain unchanged.

Francis notably called laws criminalising consensual same-sex relationships “unjust” and endorsed civil unions for gays and lesbians. Trans individuals were among those who greeted Francis’s coffin at Rome’s St. Mary Major Basilica before his burial on April 26.

In October 2023, Duddy-Burke and two others from the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics met with Francis during a discussion about the Catholic Church’s future. Duddy-Burke mentioned that Francis “invited” her and her colleagues as his “special guests for the audience and then had a conversation with him afterwards.”

“For me the sort of visibility that he (Francis) brought to our community and to our concerns feels irreversible,” Duddy-Burke said. “He empowered so many people and so many new ministries.”

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, the archbishop of Kinshasa in Congo who has denounced homosexuality as an “abomination,” is reportedly among those being considered to succeed Francis.

When asked by the Blade about the next pope, Duddy-Burke replied, “I really don’t know. Of course, I am hoping and praying hard that it will be someone who will continue to lead the church on responsiveness of human need and greater inclusivity.”

“What happens in that room is such a mystery,” she added.