IN A FIRST for the Vatican, more than a thousand LGBTQ Catholics and their supporters are holding a pilgrimage in Rome this weekend.
The gathering, of some 1,400 people from around 20 countries, is part of the Catholic Church’s Jubilee holy year.
It is organised by La Tenda di Gionata (The Tent of Jonathan), an Italian association which aims to promote acceptance of LGBTQ Catholics within the Church.
Though LGBTQ groups have gone to the Vatican before, this is the first time such a pilgrimage has featured on the official Jubilee programme.
Those taking part were not to have a private audience with Pope Leo XIV.
Last night, there was standing-room-only as over 1,000 people gathered for a prayer service for LGBTQ Catholics at the Church of the Gesù in Rome.
The group also took part in a procession through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica today.
Pope Francis officially launched the Church’s Jubilee Year on Christmas Eve by opening the Holy Doors in St Peter’s Basilica and millions of pilgrims have passed through the doors since.
The Vatican says close to 25 million people have come to Rome for the Jubilee.
And at a Jubilee Mass for LGBTQ Catholics this morning, Bishop Francesco Savino, vice president of the Italian Bishops Conference, said to applause: “Brothers and sisters, I say this with emotion. It is time to restore dignity to everyone, especially those who have been denied it.”
Bishop Savino added that when he informed Pope Leo XIV about the Mass for LGBT Catholics, the pontiff replied: “Go, celebrate the Mass with them.”
Yveline Behets, a 68-year-old transgender woman from Brussels, walked 130 kilometres with another 30 LGBTQ people along part of the ancient Via Francigena pilgrimage route to get to Rome.
“One should not misuse the word ‘welcome’,” she said.
“We are not just some outsiders who are welcomed sometimes, or more regularly – we are part of the same family,” she said, wearing a t-shirt with the rainbow of the LGBTQ community.
Beatrice Sarti, an Italian accompanying her gay son on the weekend pilgrimage, said there “is still a long way to go”, starting with shifting mindsets among Catholics.
“Many of our children no longer go to church… because they are made to feel that they are wrong. That absolutely needs to change,” said the 60-year-old from Bologna, who is a member of La Tenda di Gionata.
Meanwhile, Hugo, a 35-year-old from Quebec in Canada, said he believed the LGBTQ pilgrimage was “a really important signal for us to feel more included”.
He said “a lot of obstacles remain”, especially for couples who wanted the Church’s blessing for same-sex marriages.
Pope Francis, who died in April, had sought to make the Catholic Church open to all, and he made many overtures to the LGBTQ community – without changing the doctrine.
His 2023 decision to allow priests to bless same-sex couples triggered fierce opposition from conservative branches of the Church, particularly in Africa.
His successor Pope Leo has said that marriage is a union between a man and a woman, but he will not change Francis’s decision to allow for blessings of same-sex couples.
Pope Leo also met earlier this week with Father James Martin, a priest known for his outreach to the LGBTQ+ community.
Fr Martin is in Rome this weekend for the Jubilee and said Leo “encouraged” him to continue his “ministry” following a private meeting between the two.
He said he was “moved to hear the same message I heard from Pope Francis on LGBTQ Catholics, which is one of openness and welcome”.
He added: “My overall sense is that he ‘gets it’ and that he is ready to continue Francis’s legacy of openness, and that is surely good news.”
Fr Martin also said he offered the pope a five-step plan to welcome LGBTQ+ Catholics into the Church.
The Vatican had announced that the private 30-minute audience was taking place, which is seen as a signal that Pope Leo wanted the meeting to be known about.