Why can't the Catholic Church fully accept gender diverse LGBTQI+ members as 'normal' Catholics, despite Pope Francis's compassion for the gay community? In this cutting-edge work, Ballano investigates how deductive moral frameworks and institutional homophobia play a key role in the social exclusion of the LGBTQI+ community in the Catholic Church. He traces the contours of this discrimination by using Francis's synodal theology as the primary conceptual framework along with sociological perspectives on gender, gender diversity, and morality. This volume aims to build sociological-synodal bridges for the full LGBTQI+ inclusion in the Catholic Church. It is sure to be valuable reading for church authorities, moral theologians, and LGBTQI+ leaders, as well as scholars and students of sociology, religion, theology, and gender studies. “Ballano challenges the traditional and contemporary Catholic Natural Law Theory that justifies discrimination, promotes homophobia, and excludes LGBTQI+ people from the Catholic Church. He argues for the full inclusion of LGBTQI+ people in the Church, proposing an interdisciplinary alternative moral framework guided by the social sciences, feminist theory, and synodality, that provide a thorough and foundational justification for a long-overdue revision of Catholic sexual anthropology, ethical methodology, and doctrinal teaching regarding human sexuality . This book is essential reading for those interested in ethical theory, its application to sexual and gender ethical issues, and calls for institutional and doctrinal reform in the Catholic Church.” ― Todd Salzman, Creighton University, USA Vivencio O. Ballano is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Philippines.