This book looks to sociologically articulate and resolve Pope Francis’s moral dilemma on whether to uphold the Catholic Church’s binary natural law moral framework, which is restrictive to LGBTQIA+ inclusion, or revise it to unconditionally accept all gender nonconforming Catholics within the Christian community, thus realizing his vision of an inclusive synodal church. It investigates the hegemony of the natural law theory in the Catholic Church and its implications on the morality of homosexuality, gender diversity, and LGBTQIA+ inclusion in the Church. It explores four negative and positive unintended consequences of Francis’s options. It proposes an alternative ethical framework that applies Pope Francis’s inductive synodal theology and sociology of gender and morality to resolve this dilemma. This book appeals to church authorities, moral theologians, LGBTQIA+ leaders, as well as scholars and students of sociology, religion, Christian ethics, and gender studies.

Dr. Vivencio O. Ballano is Associate Professor V of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), Manila. To date, he has published 11 monographs with Springer Nature, Routledge, and Bloomsbury Academic and several articles in Scopus and Web of science-listed journals. He is currently Member of the Editorial Board of the top Scopus and Web of Science-indexed journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (Q1, Springer Nature).