Editor’s note: In Part 5 of his essay, Father Enoch relates more recent developments regarding the promotion of the homosexual agenda within the Church and concludes his essay. Click here for Part 1, here for Part 2, here for Part 3, and here for Part 4.
To purchase his book The Trojan Horse, click here.
(LifeSiteNews) — On this same issue of homosexuality as presented in Part 4 of this series, we must also consider what has been taking place publicly with bishops throughout the world, and with Pope Leo XIV, in recent months. Two examples follow.
First, the German bishops. On October 30, 2025, the German Bishops’ Conference released the document “Created, Redeemed and Loved: Visibility and Recognition of the Diversity of Sexual Identities in the School,” which boldly asserts that “the diversity of sexual identities is a fact,” and instructs that in Catholic schools, teachers not only must accept whatever gender with which a student identifies, but also must address students with gender-affirming pronouns. Moreover, teachers are required to present Catholic teaching on human sexuality as “disputed” and open to debate. As Dr. Steven Mosher, President of Population Research Institute, noted:
[W]hile the Vatican has, in the past, repeatedly condemned gender ideology as an attack on the God-given differences between men and women, as well as on the anthropological foundation of the family, it has taken no disciplinary action against the German episcopate for promoting it.[1]
Next, the U.S. bishops. At their November 10-13, 2025, meeting Bishop Joseph Strickland, former bishop of Tyler, Texas, courageously called out his brother bishops for not condemning a Confirmation Mass for well-known ABC news anchor Gio Benítez, who lives in an open homosexual relationship with his male partner to whom he claims to be “married” and who was his Confirmation sponsor at the Mass that took place the weekend before the bishops met. Father James Martin concelebrated the Mass, whom Benítez publicly thanked for receiving him into full communion with the Church “exactly as I am” – thus boldly affirming his active homosexuality with no intention of renouncing his gravely sinful lifestyle.[2]
This event went viral; but no public rebuke followed from either Cardinal Timothy Dolan, in whose former archdiocese of New York this Mass was celebrated, or from any of the other U.S. bishops at their November meeting.
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Contributing to the immense public scandal among Catholics and non-Catholics alike was Pope Leo, whose silence echoed loudly throughout the world, especially since just two months beforehand, in September of 2025, the Pope hosted Fr. Martin in a private audience at the Vatican where afterward the two were photographed smiling and shaking hands – after which Martin went on social media to say that Pope Leo, like Pope Francis before him, desires “to welcome all people, including LGBTQ people.”[3]
And just five days after their meeting, on September 6, self-proclaimed LGBT men and women were welcomed to a special Jubilee Mass at the Jesuit Church of the Gesù in Rome, after which they marched together to St. Peter’s Basilica where they proudly processed through the Holy Door of the basilica, many hand-in-hand as “couples,” brazenly affirming their decadent lifestyle, with absolutely no indication of repentance for their sins.[4]
And no word from Pope Leo.
In fact, on February 5, 2026, Martin appeared on Stephen Colbert’s late night television show. When Colbert held up a photo taken of Martin and Pope Francis after their private audience at the Vatican back in September of 2025, Colbert asked the priest about what he and Pope Leo talked about. Martin said, “we talked about ministry to LGBTQ Catholics which is part of my work”; and then Martin said that “the message I got from him was that he’s continuing Pope Francis’ mission and message of welcome and inclusion and he wanted that to be broadcasted.”[5]
So we should ask: Is Pope Leo using the same tactic as Pope Francis; i.e., using Fr. Martin as his mouthpiece to put forth his “mission and message” of “welcome and inclusion” to “LGBTQ Catholics”? In what precisely does this “mission and agenda” consist? And why is Pope Leo allowing Martin, who is renowned for his pro-sodomite agenda which is contrary to biblical and Catholic teaching, to speak for him – while he remains silent?
The gravity of this silence is two-fold: it not only furthers the homosexualist agenda (and here I cannot judge Pope Leo’s intentions), but it brings great scandal upon the Catholic Church. Many of faithful are confused; many are equally misled into thinking that the Church may soon give approval to the homosexual lifestyle and the despicable acts which take place therein – especially in the wake of Fiducia Supplicans which permits the bestowal of blessings on same-sex couples; and in light of Pope Leo’s interview by Elise Allen (referred to earlier herein) in which he said that in the future the Church may change its teaching on this issue.
Back on January 6, 2025, Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Robert McElroy as Archbishop of Washington, D.C. At that time, then-Cardinal Robert Prevost was the prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops, having been appointed to that position by Pope Francis in January of 2023. (N.B.: In October of 2023 Francis appointed Prevost as a member to seven additional dicasteries, and also appointed him to the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State.[6])
As I point out in The Trojan Horse,[7] prior to McElroy’s appointment to the prestigious post of archbishop of the nation’s capital, he had penned two articles in the prominent Jesuit-run America magazine. The first, in the January 2023 issue, McElroy, who was then Bishop of San Diego, California, argued for admitting to Holy Communion those actively engaged in homosexual lifestyles as well as the divorced and civilly “remarried,” saying that the Church must dismantle the “structures and cultures of exclusion.”[8] He followed up with a second article in the March 2023 issue of America (in response to an article in First Things[9] by bishop and canon lawyer Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, that criticized McElroy’s arguments), in which he insisted that offering the Holy Eucharist to homosexuals and divorced and civilly “remarried” couples who are actively engaged in sexual activity was a “pastoral” approach that attends “to the concrete reality of human life and human suffering.”[10]
In late October of 2025 Pope Leo received a same-sex male “couple” in an audience at the Vatican who smugly announced to him that they were “married.” Afterward they reported that they “both felt received with warmth and tenderness,” and posted pictures on Facebook of their audience with the pope.[11]
More recently, Pope Leo selected Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., widely known for his support of the gay agenda,[12] to offer a meditation for the cardinals at the consistory that met in January of 2026.[13] Here Leo follows his predecessor, Pope Francis, who chose Radcliffe to lead a prayer service to kick off both sessions of the Synod on Synodality. It seems likely that the significance of choosing Radcliffe was not missed by the cardinals who attended the consistory, both by those who support and by those who oppose normalizing homosexual conduct and same-sex “marriage” in the Church and in the culture.
For the Catholic faithful who rightly recognize the sinful nature of homosexual acts, what we have experienced under Pope Francis and are now experiencing under Pope Leo is both a challenge and a cause for grave concern; it should motivate us to pray fervently for Holy Mother Church.
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On January 9, 2026, Pope Leo delivered his “State of the World” address to members of the Diplomatic Corps Accredited to the Holy See. In that address, Leo stressed many worthy things regarding human life and the family: the centrality of the institution of the family and its fundamental social role; that human life is a gift to be cherished with the family as its responsible guardian. He condemned both abortion and surrogacy, and deplored the fact that “public resources are allocated to suppress life, rather than [to] support mothers and families.” He expressed concern over “a dramatic decline in birth rates” in many nations. Especially noteworthy in light of points I have highlighted in this essay, Leo spoke about the “vocation to love and life, which manifests itself … in the exclusive and indissoluble union between a woman and a man.”[14]
While Leo’s words are commendable, there is a problem: If one day the Pope speaks in a public audience about how marriage is an indissoluble union between one man and one woman; but on another day he hosts a private audience and does a photo op with a renowned priest who promotes the gay agenda and is on record calling for a change in the Catechism’s teaching so as to allow for homosexual sodomy (Fr. James Martin), all of which garner worldwide attention; or he allows openly homosexual couples to process through the Jubilee Year Door at St. Peter’s Basilica in a pre-planned event that gains global news coverage; or he permits cardinals to remain in powerful positions who are on record stating they believe the Church’s teaching should change to allow for homosexual sodomy and for those actively engaged in this sin to be admitted to Holy Communion (Cardinal Hollerich of Luxembourg, General Relator of the Synod on Synodality; Cardinal Robert McElroy, Archbishop of Washington, D.C.); or he continues to maintain a policy of permitting couples in openly same-sex relationships to receive priestly blessings (Fiducia Supplicans); or in an interview he intimates that the Church’s teaching on sexuality may one day change: What then is the result? These conflicting messages surely foster scandal among the faithful and contribute to confusion among them.
Conclusion
In view of Pope Leo’s full support of and enduring commitment to the implementation of the Synod on Synodality’s Final Document (N.B.: then-Cardinal Prevost attended both the 2023 and 2024 sessions of the synod), and the care Pope Francis took in placing cardinals and bishops who support his agenda in positions of power and influence, it seems hard not to conclude that Cardinal Robert Prevost was favored by Francis as one to succeed him in order to guarantee that his pernicious plot to invert the hierarchical structure of the Church as outlined in the synod’s Final Document, and to overturn the entire moral order, would be fully implemented.
Union or communion with God and among those who love Him can be based only on unchanging objective truth; it cannot be grounded on the shifting sands of a capricious “consensus” – a false foundation. If the “truth” changes from age to age according to majority opinion, then there is no truth. The false doctrine of Modernism builds not only on a foundation of sand, but really on quicksand.
Christ demands that His faithful followers, His true disciples, submit to the objective truth as revealed by Him whom the Father sent, and by the Spirit of Truth whom the Father and the Son breathed forth upon the Church at Pentecost to lead and guide the apostles and their successors in all truth (cf. Jn 16:13). Authentic truth does not conform itself to the spirit of the age. If there is consensus in the true faith, then we have unity and peace; consensus based on false teacings brings about only a deceptive outward appearance of unity that degenerates into division and conflict. The truth cannot be peaceably reconciled with evil and error. Love, Christian charity, cannot be reconciled with sin. We must all follow Christ’s call: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15). Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
In these perilous times we must watch, and pray. We must pray for the Church. We must pray especially for our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, that as the successor to St. Peter and Christ’s Vicar on earth, he remain faithful to Jesus and His teaching, and faithfully adhere to and defend the Deposit of Faith handed on to him.
Moreover, we must have faith and confidence in God’s loving providence that whatever trials Holy Mother Church may undergo are all part of His permissive will, His loving plan; and we must trust in Christ’s promise that the gates of Hell will never prevail against the Church, His spotless Bride.
To purchase Father Enoch’s book The Trojan Horse, click here.
References
[1] Stephen Mosher, “German Catholic bishops’ new document on ‘sexual diversity’ in schools signals deep spiritual crisis,” LifeSiteNews (Dec. 6, 2025); avail. at https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/german-catholic-bishops-new-document-on-sexual-diversity-in-schools-signals-deep-spiritual-crisis/.
[2] Jonathon Van Maren, “Fr. Martin celebrates Confirmation Mass for homosexual ABC News anchor,” LifeSiteNews (Nov. 13, 2025); avail. at https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/fr-james-martin-celebrates-confirmation-mass-for-openly-homosexual-abc-news-anchor/.
[3] The Associated Press, “Pope Leo meets LGBTQ+ Catholic advocate and vows continuity with Pope Francis’ legacy of welcome,” WSVN-TV / 7 News (Sept. 2, 2025); avail. at https://wsvn.com/news/us-world/pope-leo-meets-lgbtq-catholic-advocate-and-vows-continuity-with-pope-francis-legacy-of-welcome/. This report includes a photo with Pope Leo shaking hands with Fr. Martin, both with broad smiles.
[4] Antonino Cambria, “WATCH: Thousands of ‘LGBT Catholics’ process into St. Peter’s Basilica for Jubilee Year pilgrimage,” LifeSiteNews (Sept. 8, 2025); avail. at https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/watch-thousands-of-lgbt-catholics-process-into-st-peters-basilica-for-jubilee-year-pilgrimage/. This article contains a video of the procession of “LGBTQ pilgrims” processing to the Holy Door behind a rainbow cross.
[5] Avail. at https://www.catholicarena.com/latest/martincolber050226.
[6] The Dicasteries for: Evangelization, the Doctrine of the Faith, the Eastern Churches, the Clergy, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Culture and Education, Legislative Texts; see “Biography of Leo XIV, Born Robert Francis Prevost,” Vatican News (May 8, 2025); avail. at https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-05/biography-of-robert-francis-prevost-pope-leo-xiv.html.
[7] The Trojan Horse, 116-19.
[8] “Cardinal McElroy on ‘radical inclusion’ for L.G.B.T. people, women and others in the Catholic Church,” America (Jan. 16, 2023); avail. at https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2023/01/24/mcelroy-synodality-inclusion-244587.
[9] Thomas J. Paprocki, “Imagining a Heretical Cardinal,” First Things (Feb. 28, 2023), online version avail. at https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2023/02/imagining-a-heretical-cardinal.
[10] “Cardinal McElroy responds to his critics on sexual sin, the Eucharist, and LGBT and divorced/remarried Catholics”; avail. at https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2023/03/02/mcelroy-eucharist-sin-inclusion-response-244827.
[11] Emily Mangiaracina, “Pope Leo XIV meets with ‘married’ homosexuals at Vatican,” LifeSiteNews (Nov. 13, 2025); avail. at https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-leo-xiv-meets-with-married-homosexuals-at-vatican/. In this article is a link to a video with commentary by John Henry Weston which shows the Facebook post.
[12] For a listing of Radcliffe’s efforts in promoting the gay agenda, see Pieter Vree, “A Rogue Receives a Red Hat,” in New Oxford Review (Jan.-Feb., 2025), 40-42.
[13] Fr. Raymond J. de Sousa, “Pope Leo Walks the ‘Early Francis’ Path — With a New Approach,” EWTN (Jan. 14, 2026); avail. at https://ewtnvatican.com/articles/pope-leo-xiv-early-pontificate-direction.
[14] Avail. at https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/speeches/2026/january/documents/20260109-corpo-diplomatico.html.
