In the 1980s, the HIV/AIDS epidemic was at its height in Brisbane, Australia.

The then Premier of Queensland ordered that no one should help the victims, claiming the epidemic was a punishment from God on the gay community.

Sr Angela Mary Doyle, now aged 100, was administrator at the Mater Hospital Brisbane. In defiance to the Premier’s order, she attended a hospital bedside Mass for a man dying from HIV/AIDS.

As Mass ended, the patient died. His partner fell across his body in grief.

Clearly loved by God, she acknowledged these two men loved each other.

For Doyle this was an epiphany moment. She believed, and continues to believe, that showing unconditional love, kindness and acceptance is doing the work of Christ in our midst.

Openly accepted

Christine Monica Zuba practices her faith in her Catholic parish in New Jersey, openly as a transgender woman.

She is a Eucharistic minister and facilitator of her parish LGBTQ+ ministry. She also works across parishes in New Jersey, Philadelphia and New York City in similar ministries and preaches at Catholic Women Preach.

She was one of four transgender women who met with Pope Francis in 2024.

She is unconditionally loved in her parish community as a person of worth by virtue of the work she facilitates and the service she renders to her fellow Catholics.

Gifts of empathy and mercy

Working together, we need to develop sympathy, empathy, compassion and mercy. These gifts give clear understanding of how and why others are suffering owing to their exclusion by the Church.

We are called to be witnesses to these sufferings.

Living by true Gospel values, all are called to acknowledge our fellow believers.

Sympathy, empathy, compassion and mercy are gifts that uplift others. They encourage and help both those who recognise the sufferer and those who suffer.

Pope Leo meets Fr James Martin SJ

Pope Leo XIV welcomed James Martin, S.J., to a private audience on Sept. 1, in the papal library of the Apostolic Palace.

Martin is founder of the LGBTQ-Catholic outreach organisation Outreach.

The meeting is being read in Rome as a renewed sign of papal support for the Jesuit’s ministry among L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics.

The audience lasted more than half an hour.

Martin described it as deeply consoling and said the pope encouraged him to continue his pastoral work.

He noted that Pope Leo expressed the same openness toward L.G.B.T.Q. issues that had characterised Pope Francis’ approach, making it clear his desire that all people feel welcomed in the church.

A bigger vision of God

“See how good, how pleasant it is for God’s people to live together as one … For that is where Yhwh bestows the blessing – life that never ends.” Psalm 133.

Sr Angela Mary, Fr James Martin and Christine Monica Zuba are examples of the welcome that can be offered to, and received by, those who are seen as “other” in our Church.

• Jackie Minnock has a BTh from the Priory Institute Dublin and an M.Phil in Inter cultural Theology and Inter religious Studies at Trinity College Dublin. She has written several articles and contributed to Catholc Women Preach Jackie is passionate about reform within the Catholic church.