The new pope has affirmed his stance on gay marriage and abortion. In a bombshell statement, Pope Leo XIV said the Catholic Church’s definition of family is based on a “stable union between a man and a woman”.

He made the address as he met with the Vatican diplomatic corps, representing nearly 200 countries, in private ahead of his formal installation Mass this Sunday. The Vatican released the pope’s prepared text along with that of the dean of the diplomatic corps.

Pope Leo said that LGBTQ+ Catholics are welcome in the church but homosexual acts remain “intrinsically disordered”. He did not change the doctrine defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

The new pope also emphasised the dignity of unborn children and elderly people. He said abortion and euthanasia were evidence of today’s “throwaway culture.”

In 2012, the Rev. Robert Prevost criticised the “homosexual lifestyle” and said same-sex relationships conflicted with Catholic doctrine. However, he acknowledged the late Pope Francis’ call for a more inclusive church in 2022.

The new pope said in an address to the world Synod of Bishops in 2012: “Western mass media is extraordinarily effective in fostering within the general public enormous sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel, for example abortion, homosexual lifestyle, euthanasia.

He added that “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children are so benignly and sympathetically portrayed in television programs and cinema today”.

Francis DeBernardo, a member of America’s New Ways Ministry, which works for more inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in the Catholic Church, called the comments disappointing.

He said: “We pray that in the 13 years that have passed, 12 of which were under the papacy of Pope Francis, that (Leo’s) heart and mind have developed more progressively on LGBTQ+ issues, and we will take a wait-and-see attitude to see if that has happened.”