Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe has urged the Church to draw nearer to LGBT Catholics, emphasising listening to their lived experiences as essential to episcopal discernment, in a reflection published in America magazine on June 2, 2026.
The archbishop described his participation in a private gathering organised by New Ways Ministry at the Siena Retreat Center in Racine, Wisconsin, in April, where bishops met theologians, pastoral workers and LGBT individuals to discuss pastoral care, moral theology and scientific understandings of gender. He framed the encounter through the biblical story of Eli and the young Samuel in 1 Samuel 3, presenting bishops as called to help the faithful recognise God’s voice in contemporary realities.
