Leo XIV Appoints New Gender Ideology Bishop

Fr. Thomas Hennen helped draft LGBT pastoral guidelines that sidestep chastity, affirm “gender minorities,” and speak the language of synodality. Leo XIV didn’t just approve, he promoted him.

Bishop Joseph Strickland may have been ousted from his diocese, but his voice remains one of the few still willing to cry out in the wilderness. His July 10 statement, denouncing Leo XIV’s appointment of Fr. Thomas Hennen as bishop of Baker, Oregon, deserves to be remembered, not merely as another bold stand, but as a devastating indictment of the post-conciliar trajectory now accelerating under new management.

For those keeping score, Fr. Hennen is no obscure cleric. As Vicar General of the Diocese of Davenport and rector of Sacred Heart Cathedral, Hennen has helped steer diocesan policy on “sexual and gender minorities,” drafting guidelines that repackage ambiguity in the pastel tones of pastoral accompaniment. What makes this more grotesque is that Hennen was once affiliated with Courage International, the only mainstream Catholic apostolate that dares to call same-sex attracted persons to chastity. That was over a decade ago. Now, he talks of “LGBT+ Catholics” and “transgender persons” with the rhetorical confidence of a James Martin press release.

The Diocese of Davenport’s 2023 “Guidelines for Pastoral Accompaniment of Sexual and Gender Minorities,” which Hennen helped draft, omit any explicit call to chastity. Instead, they emphasize listening, accommodation, and collaboration with “healthcare providers”: a phrase that in today’s context might as well read “gender-affirming professionals.” At one point, Hennen even mused aloud whether the Church could make “appropriate accommodations” that “neither ‘sell out’ on our beliefs nor slam the door” on transgender persons. The illusion of doctrinal fidelity is preserved only by its absence in practice.

The Lavender Thread

Strickland names the enemy: the so-called Lavender Mafia. For years, Catholics were told this term was conspiratorial, exaggerated, even homophobic. But what else do you call a clandestine episcopal network that promotes one another into positions of power while undermining Catholic moral doctrine, first with soft language, then with sacramental betrayal?

Fiducia Supplicans was the coup de grâce of the Francis era, giving Rome’s stamp of approval to the ritual blessing of same-sex couples. If Leo XIV were the great corrector his defenders imagined, the one who would restore clarity and clean house, this appointment of Fr. Hennen would not have happened. But it did. And Strickland’s words make clear: Leo is not reversing course. He’s entrenching it.

“We face a troubling reality: instead of correcting the trajectory set by Pope Francis, Pope Leo XIV is doubling down on it.”

Synodality as Trojan Horse

Fr. Hennen calls his diocesan process a “synodal approach.” Of course he does. That phrase has become the holy oil by which anything heretical can be anointed. Synodality is the spirit that permits listening to the “lived experiences” of LGBT activists while silencing faithful Catholics who beg for the clear teaching of the Gospel.

We’re told that “transgender people are not pretending,” that they “do not choose” this “deep disconnect between their bodies and their perception of themselves.” But the Church does not teach psychology-by-feelings. It teaches metaphysical truth: God made them male and female. To affirm a contradiction of that truth is not mercy but malice.

Strickland understands this. He rightly points out that when sexual identity becomes negotiable, the Gospel becomes negotiable. And when the Church makes peace with a lie, she ceases to sanctify.

The Appointment Heard Round the West

Fr. Hennen’s new post, Baker, Oregon, might seem insignificant. It isn’t. Baker is a test case. It’s how you smuggle heterodoxy into America’s remaining strongholds of tradition. Bit by bit, one appointment at a time. Fr. Hennen was trained in the Traditional Latin Mass. That fact will now be wielded as a shield. “Look,” the defenders will say, “He’s liturgically sound!” as if incense could cover the stench of doctrinal erosion.

This is the same game the Vatican has played since Summorum Pontificum: use traditional aesthetics to neutralize traditional theology. And once the faithful are disarmed by the smells and bells, in comes the “pastoral accompaniment” to finish the job.

The Silence from Rome

Strickland concludes his statement with sorrowful defiance:

“If that is too strong for Rome, then the silence from the top is deafening proof that nothing has changed.”

And nothing has. The “change” promised by Trad Inc. after May 8, those first breathless hours of Leo XIV’s election, was always a fantasy. The very people who spent a decade sounding the alarm under Francis have now gone quiet. They urge docility. Prudence. Optimism. But what they cannot offer is proof.

The papal appointments tell the real story.

The Lavender Mafia has not been purged, it has been promoted.

And faithful Catholics are once again being told to accept the unacceptable.

We won’t.