Pope Leo Meets Pro-LGBT, Anti-Trump Nun Known for Heroic Ukraine Rescue Efforts

A second meeting with an outspoken pro-LGBT Catholic in one week signals Pope Leo’s bold pastoral style.

For the second time in a week, Pope Leo XIV has met with a Catholic figure who has become a voice for LGBTQ inclusion in the Church.

Days before receiving Jesuit priest Fr. James Martin — perhaps the most prominent advocate for LGBTQ Catholics — the pope quietly welcomed Dominican Sister Lucía Caram on August 28 for a private audience.

Sister Caram is well known in Spain as both a media personality and a humanitarian.

She once drove more than 4,000 miles in a single weekend to rescue Ukrainian refugees, and through her Fundación Rosa Oriol she has directed aid to struggling families across Catalonia.

She has also been outspoken internationally, even criticizing U.S. president Donald Trump for failing to do more to end the war in Ukraine.

The Argentine-born nun has lived in Spain for three decades and has consistently paired her religious vocation with active engagement in the public square.

The Vatican bulletin for the day did not list her meeting, which has led to speculation among conservatives, given that in recent years, Caram has publicly supported sacramental same-sex marriage, insisting that “God always blesses love.”

Yet Pope Leo’s decision to meet her is unmistakable.

Coming so close to his encounter with Fr. Martin, it highlights his determination to keep open channels with Catholic leaders who speak for marginalized communities, even when their views unsettle some conservatives.

By receiving Sister Caram, the pope did not endorse her theology; he acknowledged her witness of service, her risk-taking humanitarianism, and her refusal to reduce faith to silence on hard questions.

For Catholics, the moment is telling. Pope Leo is signaling that accompaniment and dialogue cannot be restricted to those who remain within tight doctrinal boundaries.

His willingness to sit with voices like Caram’s and Martin’s demonstrates a pastoral style rooted in encounter first.

That balance unsettles some and consoles many others.

But it makes clear that Pope Leo’s pontificate will be defined not by shutting doors, but by choosing to open them — even when those who walk through will cause critics to grumble.

Letters from Leo exists for moments like this — stories that reveal not just what the pope says, but who he listens to in shaping the Church’s witness to the world.

In his first days, Pope Leo has welcomed voices that others might ignore or dismiss: Father James Martin, the Church’s most prominent advocate for LGBT Catholics, and Sister Lucía Caram, the Dominican nun whose rescue work in Ukraine made international headlines and whose bold public stances have stirred controversy.

These encounters signal that Leo’s pontificate will be marked by dialogue with those on the margins and attention to the cries of people often left outside the room.

Our task here is to keep that witness alive after the headlines fade: to tell the story clearly, to follow the shifts in policy and practice that matter, and to track how Leo XIV leads a Church that refuses to reduce people to stereotypes.

If you want to support this mission, here’s how you can help:

• Subscribe as a paid member to receive future posts about the life and formation of Pope Leo and help sustain this work.

• Donate to fuel this project’s mission and expand our reach.

• Share this post (and Letters from Leo) with a friend who should see the pope’s moral clarity in this moment.

Whether you give $1, $10, $1,000, or simply read, I’m grateful you’re here.

I’ll be back with updates soon.