Leo XIV-appointed Jesuit Giacomo Costa backed the homosexual “Zan Law” - critisied even by the Vatican.
In June 2021, Fr. Giacomo Costa SJ, director of the Italian Jesuit magazine Aggiornamenti Sociali, published an editorial titled “Ddl Zan: prima le persone” (“Ddl Zan: People First”).
The text backed the proposed Italian law against discrimination and violence based on sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability. It was known as the DDL Zan, after its sponsor, Democratic Party deputy Alessandro Zan.
Yesterday, Leo XIV promoted this Jesuit as undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod.
Fr Costa had had supported homosexual "marriage" already in 2008.
The Zan bill had become a flashpoint between homosexual groups and Catholics. It would have restricted religious speech and promote “gender ideology” in schools.
Fr Costa’s editorial called the law “needed”. He grounded his argument in an alleged discrimination and violence because of homosexuality or transsexuality.
Fr Costa was explicit that legislation wasn’t enough on its own: “as feminists teach us, the battle is above all cultural and must be fought every day.”
And, “Regardless of the goodness of intentions, we are a racist, male-chauvinist and homophobic society.”
He argued the bill’s educational provisions should be understood not as “ideological colonization,” as some feared, but as a tool for dismantling stereotypes and prejudice.
He also turned against the Church’s language.
Fr Costa called the formulation “intrinsically disordered” for homosexuality a derogatory tone, “That vocabulary today constitutes an obstacle that prevents many people, young people in particular, from accessing the richness and beauty of Christian anthropology, including on matters of sexuality.”
For context, The DDL Zan had passed Italy’s Chamber of Deputies on November 4, 2020, and was before the Senate’s Justice Committee at the time of Costa’s editorial. Weeks later, on June 17, 2021, the Vatican Secretariat of State sent a formal diplomatic note to Italian authorities warning that parts of the bill could affect freedoms guaranteed to the Church under its 1984 concordat with Italy. The bill was ultimately never enacted: on October 27, 2021, the Italian Senate voted 154–131 to approve a procedural motion that stopped it.
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