Nearly 1,400 LGBTQ+ Catholics and their supporters from about 20 countries gathered at the Vatican this weekend for a pilgrimage officially listed in the Church’s Jubilee Holy Year programme.
The event, organised by La Tenda di Gionata (The Tent of Jonathan), an Italian association promoting inclusivity in the Church, marks the first time an LGBTQ-focused pilgrimage has been formally recognised in the Jubilee calendar.
Although participants were not granted a private audience with Pope Leo XIV, they joined millions of other pilgrims in the traditional walk to St. Peter’s Basilica, stepping through the Holy Door as part of the Jubilee rites.
The programme included a Friday evening prayer vigil and a Saturday morning mass at the historic Church of the Gesù in central Rome.
Among the pilgrims was 68-year-old Yveline Behets, a transgender woman from Brussels, who trekked 130 kilometres along the Via Francigena with 30 companions. “We are not just outsiders who are welcomed sometimes, we are part of the same family,” she said.
Hugo, a 35-year-old pilgrim from Quebec, described the gathering as “a really important signal” of inclusion, expressing hope it would encourage hesitant Catholics to embrace LGBTQ members.
The Catholic Church continues to define marriage strictly as a union between a man and a woman and has long described same-sex relationships as “intrinsically disordered.” However, under Pope Francis, who passed away in April, the Church adopted a more welcoming tone, including authorising blessings for same-sex couples in 2023 — a move that sparked controversy, particularly in Africa.
His successor, Pope Leo XIV, has reaffirmed traditional Church teaching on marriage while upholding Francis’s decision on same-sex blessings.
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