BUENOS AIRES, Argentina. The conclave to elect the next Vatican leader began on May 7 and is generating great anticipation worldwide, particularly in Argentina and Latin America, following the departure of a prominent figure from these regions. The election could take several days. There is much speculation about who might succeed Pope Francis , who left office a few weeks ago and is considered an official who implemented fundamental changes within the Church.

“There’s confusion in the religious world; people think the Pope is the head of all Christianity, when in reality he’s only the head of the Roman Catholic Church. Just as the Dalai Lama isn’t the head of all Buddhism, but simply of Shingon Buddhism,” explains queer theologian Hugo Córdova Quero. “Christianity is much broader,” he adds.

Hugo Córdova Quero is the first professor of queer theology and teaches at the California College of Theology. He directs the Sophia Institute in Saint Louis, California, and holds a doctorate in Interdisciplinary Studies in Migration, Ethnicity, and Religion. He professes the Christian faith and is a fourth-generation Protestant minister within the broader spectrum of Christianity.

The theologian analyzes Pope Francis's role as the highest authority in the Vatican, discusses the church's relationship with LGBT people, and raises the urgent need for people who profess the faith to study the scriptures in order to "dismantle" some false interpretations about religion and gender diversity.

Francis and Christianity

-What did Pope Francis's visit to the Vatican mean??

-Without a doubt, it has been a significant step within the Roman Catholic Church, but there have been ups and downs in the ecumenical relationship with the Pope. There are churches that are Catholic but not Roman, meaning they don't obey Rome . There are also Evangelical, Protestant, Anglican, Episcopal, and Orthodox churches for whom what the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church say is anecdotal because it has no institutional impact whatsoever. None of these Christian churches are under the Pope's tutelage . And I think there's also a great deal of confusion stemming from this regarding gender and sexual diversity, especially in Latin America, which is very religious.

I understand the Roman Catholic Church's colonial past, but not all Christianity follows what Roman Catholicism says . Lumping everyone together is a huge weakness in Latin America, something that doesn't happen in other parts of the world where gender and sexual diversity and progressive groups within different churches work together. In Latin America, it's a war. That, for me, is a weakness.

-What is this relationship like in other churches?

In evangelical and Protestant churches, gender and sexual diversity has been present for decades. We have over 70 years of queer and LGBT theologies, homosexual theologies that have been creating space and awareness for people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities within various churches. For Rome to join in with this Pope is like throwing them a theological party. The first person to found an inclusive church was Reverend Troy Perry (founder of the Metropolitan Community Church in Los Angeles in 1978); but in 1971, the United Church of Christ in the United States appointed its first openly gay pastor. Rome still can't even recognize people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities on equal terms. In other words, we are very far behind what the rest of Christianity has achieved.

-There were no structural changes

How many same-sex marriages have taken place in Roman Catholicism? The document on blessings is a mockery, because we bless same-sex couples, but they can't get married, it can't be a liturgy, it can't be done in public, there can't be an audience present, there can't be witnesses. So what do they do? In many churches, marriage as a sacrament is for all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender. It wasn't until the 14th century that heterosexuals began to marry within the Church. From the 5th to the 9th centuries, men, primarily, married. So, if anyone has the right to marry within Christianity, it's same-sex couples. And Rome has failed to grasp this.

The political value of a Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Pope

– Why then the expectations about who might become Pope?

I don't know if the Roman Catholic Church will change. There are too many entrenched internal power struggles. But the ecumenical landscape this year remains unchanged because it is not the head of the entire Christian Church. It isn't even the head of the Catholic denomination, which includes more than 600 or 700 non-Roman Catholic faithful, such as the Union of Utrecht.

-And what impact do the proposals of the Roman Popes have on other Christian churches??

It affects ecumenical dialogue. There are churches within the World Council of Churches that ordain people from diverse backgrounds and perform same-sex marriages. So, when the Roman Catholic Church takes a very intransigent position, it affects the dialogue, even though its role is only that of an observer; it's the only one not on the council. Precisely because it wants to do ecumenism its own way. In other words, Rome dictates how to do it; it's an imposition. The other churches engage in dialogue. When popes speak and say things like this, what they often do is hinder the dialogue.

-Why does all that power happen?

Rome is the only branch of Christianity that has state status at the political level, like the Vatican . This isn't the case with other Christian episcopal denominations, nor with other religions. In Argentina, we also need to tone down the rhetoric surrounding this. In the 2010 Census, out of 44 million Argentinians, only 28 million identified as Roman Catholic. This isn't 100% like in Rome, where 100% are Roman Catholic, and of that 28% (18 million), only 3 million were practicing Catholics. That is to say, they follow the precepts of Rome and attend Mass. We're talking about Roman Catholicism representing less than 10% of the population.

And there is a symbolic power affirmed in Article 2 of the National Constitution , which grants them a symbolic power to govern matters in society that they shouldn't have. Because the rest of the churches are judged by how many people we have. In Argentina, there is no equality of worship, there is freedom of worship. Except for the Roman Catholic Church, all other Christian churches and religions must register with the National Registry of Religious Organizations .

-What does the election of a Pope like Jorge Bergoglio have to do with that time?

The election of a Pope is always a political choice. Francis wasn't Pope when Ratzinger was elected for political reasons, but even then, Bergoglio was the leading candidate. Within Roman Catholicism, it's a significant achievement that the Pope is no longer Italian or another European, as has been the tradition for over 500 years. But it doesn't make much difference to the rest of Christianity, because in most Latin American countries, that symbolic power continues to generate influence. Within Roman Catholicism, as in all churches, there are many ministries, but few that work with LGBTQ+ people. The issue is that all these ministries, however well-intentioned, always end up in a secondary role.

Christianity and sexual diversity

-How does it impact people of diverse sexual orientations?

– Despite the statements, I haven't seen any openly gay people ordained or married, as I do see in other churches. In Latin America and Argentina, all the major religions are represented. But the ancestral religions of Indigenous peoples are also being revived. So we must begin to engage in dialogue and show respect. Focusing solely on Catholicism is to continue participating in the erasure of other Christian churches that have made significant progress in respecting diversity.

-What do these processes translate into?

– In August, we will ordain two transgender deacons . That is to say, access to holy orders is not conditioned by sexual orientation or gender. This has not yet happened in Rome, and the opportunity to do so was lost. Women are not ordained, something they were in the first-century church. People of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities are not ordained to the priesthood, something they were for eleven centuries in Christianity. People of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities do not marry within Roman Catholicism, something that did happen in fifth-century Christianity. Roman Catholicism has many outstanding debts that other Christian churches resolved decades ago.

-What are the debates that exist today in those churches?

– There are churches that no longer debate whether two people of the same sex can marry. That's settled. Today, there are churches debating how they will welcome bisexual people and their multiple partners, polyamorous people and their multiple partners. Discussions within Christianity have reached that level. And Rome is still wondering if we can even bless people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. The rest of Christianity has undergone processes that Rome hasn't, and given the current circumstances, I don't think we'll see them for the next 20 years .

People who serve in ordained ministry have a life. In Colombia, one of our ministers does drag. But this isn't just a Christian phenomenon; it also happens in Buddhism. There's a Japanese Buddhist monk (Kodo Mishimura) who's very famous because he's trans. There's so much diversity in the world, and so many things happening that we're unaware of here.

“We need to know history in order not to accept reductionist interpretations.”

Hugo Cordova Quero points out that the word "homosexual" only appeared in biblical texts in 1945 in English, in 1970 in Spanish, and in 1980 in Portuguese. "It didn't exist as a concept. Same-sex acts existed. But the medicalization and criminalization of homosexuality arose with the use of the term 'homosexual' in the 19th century. We need to know the sacred texts, because when we are told 'the Bible condemns homosexuality,' it's a lie," he emphasizes.

The theologian also recounts that in the episode in which Jesus heals the Roman centurion's slave, the term he uses to describe that relationship is the Greek word "love" in the sense of romantic love.

-At what point did this supposed condemnation of people of diversity within Christianity originate?

It was in the 11th century that the theologian Peter Damian wrote a book, Liber Gomorrhianus (Book of Gomorrah), where he first interpreted Genesis 19 as a condemnation of same-sex relationships. Neither the prophets of the Hebrew Bible, nor Jesus, nor Paul understood the condemnation of Sodom and Gomorrah to be related to this. That is to say, this interpretation regarding same-sex relationships arose eleven centuries after Jesus. We need to know history so as not to accept these reductionist readings as if they were the truth.

“Faith doesn't leave us out, institutions do;”

-How is it possible then to approach the Christian church as a person of sexual diversity from that faith?

– We have to do three more things than heterosexuals. The first is to know the sacred texts of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible. Many arguments used against gender and sexual diversity are interpretations of sacred texts taken out of their original context.

The second point is that we need to understand 2,000 years of history . In the first eleven centuries of Christianity , the sanctuaries of the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Churches, the Lutheran Churches, the Independent Catholic Churches, and other churches are full of saints who, in modern terms, were gay, lesbian, or transgender. And we continue to recognize them at the altars, we light candles for them, we remember them in the liturgical calendars and on feast days. And these are people of sexual and gender diversity who existed in the past of Christianity. To ignore this is like saying that gay and lesbian people came to Christianity after Stonewall, which is not only a reductionist historical interpretation, it's a narrow one.

Finally, we need to know the sacred texts, the history of our religion, and the history of our beliefs. We are told that Jesus instituted marriage. But the sacrament of marriage for heterosexuals dates back to the 14th century. If we don't know the history of our beliefs, we also end up affirming this biased interpretation, putting something wrong in Jesus's mouth. People of diverse sexual orientations who profess, particularly, the Christian faith must do these three exercises to dismantle this cisheteropatriarchal narrative that seeks to exclude us from the faith . It's not faith that excludes us, but rather the institutions that do .