Every appointment from Leo XIV is another nail in the coffin of whatever shred of doctrinal orthodoxy is left in the Synodal Church. His latest round of promotions continues the pattern he has pursued since his election.
This week, Leo elevated Bishops Michael Saporito, Pedro Luis Fuentes Valencia, and Alfonso Raimo, all of whom deserve closer scrutiny given their ideological commitment to LGBTQ “accompaniment,” synodality, and interreligious dialogue.
On September 15, Leo appointed Saporito, previously an auxiliary bishop of Newark, to lead the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey. Saporito was ordained by then-Archbishop Theodore McCarrick in Newark in 1992 and was made an auxiliary by Francis in 2020.
As if the fact that he was a Francis appointment was not telling enough, LifeSite has reported that he served as an assistant vocations director under McCarrick, who was infamously embroiled in one of the worst sexual abuse scandals in Church history. While pastor of St. Joseph’s in Maplewood, Saporito established an “Open Arms” ministry for “homosexual Catholics.” Unsurprisingly, he said he felt “personally enriched” after attending an event organized by New Ways Ministry on LGBTQ and gender ideology.
Former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, drew attention to the connection to McCarrick with an X post. His Excellency noted that “a Pontiff who truly cared about the purification of the Church — that purification that Bergoglio proclaimed in words and sabotaged in deeds — would never have chosen, for McCarrick’s diocese, a man formed in McCarrick’s school.”
Leo’s second appointment is even more controversial and provides further evidence that he is fortifying the “pink” dimension of the Synodal project.
On September 14, Leo named Bishop Pedro Luis Fuentes Valencia, C.P., Military Ordinary for Bolivia. Fuentes represented the Bolivian bishops at the Synod of Bishops in Rome in both 2023 and 2024.
It has been reported that Fuentes has enthusiastically promoted synodality, relayed discussion about having the “courage to make a different Church,” and even said that synodality is not merely an administrative method but part of the Church’s identity.
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Also according to Fuentes, the question of Holy Communion for so-called LGBTQ Catholics who maintain lifestyles contrary to Catholic sexual morality “remains open,” and he has also indicated that the possibility of women in the diaconate should be up for discussion. This fits nicely with Prevost’s thinking as he has also entertained the possibility of “changing what the church says about any given question.”
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Finally, Leo has transferred Bishop Alfonso Raimo to the Italian Diocese of Terni-Narni-Amelia. Raimo was made an auxiliary bishop by Francis only in 2024, making his elevation to residential diocesan leadership uncharacteristically rapid.
Per InfoVaticana, Raimo founded and presided over the School of Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue in Eboli, and in a 2023 interview he described dialogue between religions not merely as desirable but as a “common obligation” and the “only possible path” toward peace, understood as a “harmony of differences.” In 2025, he participated in an interreligious Jubilee involving Muslims, Bahá’ís, Protestants, Orthodox Christians, and Buddhists.
As Integrity Magazine has pointed out elsewhere, personnel is policy. Within the space of two days, Leo has promoted three prelates conspicuously associated with signature priorities of the Bergolian era: the advancement of LGBTQ ideology, synodal experimentation, and expansive interreligious engagement.
Leo XIV is now regularly promoting radically heterodox candidates. His mission is so obvious that secular media are not only noticing, but praising him for it.
On August 24, 2026, Them, a pro-LGBT outlet, published an article entitled “Pope Leo’s Recent LGBTQ-Friendly Appointments Include Bishop Who Had Drag Queen Speak at Mass.” It spoke in congratulatory terms of the fact that Leo had “made room for progressive LGBTQ+ voices” through his episcopal appointments. The article highlighted the appointments of James Checchio to New Orleans, Ramón Bejarano to Monterey, Christian Würtz to Eichstätt, and Thomas Hennen to Baker.
The same day, New Ways Ministry published an article titled “Pope Leo’s Bishop Appointments Show an Openness to LGBTQ+ Ministry,” which similarly welcomed the appointments and argued that Leo was choosing bishops friendly toward LGBTQ Catholics.
The aim of Leo’s appointments is undoubtedly clear: to ensure there is no return to Catholicism by the “church” that was founded by Jorge Bergoglio.
