Analysis accuses French LGBT groups of reinterpreting Scripture and Church documents
Thierry Burtin, writing from Paris, says several French associations that call themselves Christian recast biblical passages and magisterial texts, including Fiducia supplicans, to challenge Catholic teaching on sexuality
An LGBT advocacy group active in France works under the banner of inclusion and spiritual welcome while pressing for a wholesale revision of Catholic moral teaching on sexuality, Thierry Burtin writes in an article published from Paris on Tuesday, October 27, 2026. He examines the methods and arguments of several associations that present themselves as "Christian" and that, in his view, strain both Scripture and the documents of the Magisterium in the way they treat homosexuality.
The organizations he names are D&J Arc-en-ciel (formerly David & Jonathan), Devenir Un En Christ, Reconnaissance and Carrefour des Chrétiens Inclusifs. Their activities range from spiritual guidance and support for families to calls for changes in Church practice. Burtin concentrates on D&J Arc-en-ciel. What it shows, he says, is something qualitatively different: a systematic search through the biblical texts and the history of the Church for arguments that can legitimize practices Catholic teaching has held to be contrary to its understanding of human sexuality.
Reinterpretations of biblical passages
A D&J article titled "What does the Bible say about homosexuality?" argues that the main biblical condemnations do not apply to homosexual relationships today. Burtin says Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 are presented as referring only to Canaanite sacred prostitution, even though the passages deal directly with sexual relations between men. The same approach is applied to Romans 1:26-27, where the association stresses the idolatrous context to narrow the scope of St. Paul's judgment, ignoring that the Apostle is working from a theological understanding of the order of creation.
The underlying problem, Burtin says, is one of method: the association starts from a legitimate distinction between ancient and modern categories and then draws conclusions the texts themselves do not support. That the biblical authors knew nothing of the contemporary notion of sexual orientation does not mean they approved homosexual acts, he writes. Christian teaching on marriage does not rest on prohibitions alone. From Genesis onward, God creates humanity as man and woman (Gn 1:27), blesses that difference and links it to fruitfulness (Gn 1:28), and Genesis 2:24 describes their union as one flesh.
Mishandling of magisterial documents
The clearest case of a document being misused, according to Burtin, involves Fiducia supplicans, published on December 18, 2023. D&J says the document authorizes the blessing of same-sex unions. But the text draws a clear distinction between a spontaneous pastoral blessing of such couples and any form of recognition of their union. On January 26, 2024, Pope Francis said: "We do not bless the union itself, but simply the people who have asked for it together." That clarification, made by the author of the document himself, is absent from the association's presentation, Burtin writes.
D&J also suggests an erotic dimension in the friendship between David and Jonathan, citing 2 Samuel 1:26. Burtin rejects that reading: no passage describes a sexual relationship between the two, and inferring an erotic character from the depth of a friendship is a forced interpretation. The association further points to adelphopoiesis, an ancient Byzantine rite of spiritual brotherhood, as supposed evidence that the Church once recognized same-sex unions. That argument rests on a disputed historical hypothesis that later studies have refuted, he writes.
Doctrinal continuity
Burtin recalls that the Second Vatican Council, in Gaudium et spes (no. 48), describes marriage as a community of life and love founded on the covenant between a man and a woman, ordered to the good of the spouses and the welcoming of children. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (no. 2357) states that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered," calls them "contrary to the natural law," says they "close the sexual act to the gift of life" and concludes that "under no circumstances can they be approved." That teaching stands in continuity with St. Paul, who warns in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Burtin links that continuity to remarks by Pope Leo XIV. On October 11, 2012, when he was superior general of the Augustinians, Father Robert Francis Prevost addressed the Synod of Bishops and criticized the influence of Western media, which he said fostered "enormous sympathy for beliefs and practices contrary to the Gospel, such as abortion, homosexuality and euthanasia."
Between truth and charity
Burtin concludes that D&J's publications follow a questionable method: narrowing the scope of passages that tell against its positions, widening the scope of ambiguous episodes, and citing Church documents while concealing their explicit limits. The fact that all these interpretations converge with the association's own demands raises a fair question, he writes: is this a search for what the texts teach, or a search in the texts for what one already wants to defend?
Support for homosexual people and their families is a Christian duty, Burtin says. But that support gives no authority to alter the meaning of Scripture or to present historical hypotheses as established fact. The Church is not obliged to choose between truth and charity, he writes, but to hold both at once. Genuinely seeking Christ does not mean shaping the Gospel to each person's wishes, but letting one's own life be transformed step by step by his teaching.
