The late Pope Francis‘ book Hope: The Autobiography has finally been published in Russia, but readers there won’t get to find out about the late pontiff’s thoughts on LGBTQIA+ issues.
Pope Francis presided over a seismic shift in the Catholic Church in how it accepts LGBTQIA+ people, with Francis declaring homophobia a sin, condemning the criminalisation of homosexuality, and opening the door to blessings for same-sex couples.
“The criminalisation of homosexuality is a problem that cannot be ignored,” Pope Francis famously declared following a visit to Africa.
Francis also became the first pope to meet with representatives of the trans community, and in 2023 his Vatican made clear that it was acceptable for transgender people to be baptised as Catholics, serve as godparents, and be witnesses at Catholic weddings.
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Russian version erases topics
Key passages addressing these issues have either been removed or blacked out in the Russian-language edition of the book, which was published in the rest of the world just months before Pope Francis died in 2025.
The Russian-language version of the book was published earlier this year by the Moscow-based Alpina Publishing Group, and according to reports, passages where Francis addressed issues of homosexuality, transgender rights and blessing same-sex unions are missing from both the hard copy and digital versions of the book in Russia.
A section of the book where Francis states that homosexuality is not a crime and that gay and transgender people are welcomed in the church has been struck out by being covered by solid black lines in the Russian edition.
His thoughts on the inclusion of transgender people in Catholic rites such as baptism have also similarly been struck out.
Alpina Publishing have not publicly addressed the controversy. However, around six hundred books have been banned in Russia since the country strengthened its ban on so-called “LGBT propaganda” in 2022.
Russian Church rejected Francis’ reforms
The Russian Orthodox Church was highly critical of Pope Francis’s pivot on LGBTQIA+ issues in the Catholic Church, accusing him of “rejecting the Christian moral ideal” in the year before his death, and of “legitimising what, in essence, is illegitimate.”
Close to a million Roman Catholics live in Russia, but more than sixty million Russians belong to Orthodox Churches.
Pope Francis’ successor, Pope Leo XIV, has largely maintained Francis’ legacy on LGBTQIA+ rights, and the Vatican received its first ever official LGBTQIA+ pilgrimage to Rome in September last year.
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