Natural Law, Homophobia, and Lgbtqi+ Exclusion in the Catholic Church

Why can’t the Catholic Church fully accept gender diverse LGBTQI+ members as ’normal’ Catholics, despite Pope Francis’s compassion for the gay community?

In this cutting-edge work, Ballano investigates how deductive moral frameworks and institutional homophobia play a key role in the social exclusion of the LGBTQI+ community in the Catholic Church. He traces the contours of this discrimination by using Francis’s synodal theology as the primary conceptual framework along with sociological perspectives on gender, gender diversity, and morality.

This volume aims to build sociological-synodal bridges for the full LGBTQI+ inclusion in the Catholic Church. It is sure to be valuable reading for church authorities, moral theologians, and LGBTQI+ leaders, as well as scholars and students of sociology, religion, theology, and gender studies.

Vivencio O. Ballano is the Program Chairperson of the Master of Arts in Sociology Program and Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.