VATICAN CITY — The technicolor kaftan, leopard-print boots and silver, glitter-studded parasol suggested they were no ordinary pilgrims.
An elderly and diminutive French nun, arm-in-arm with a statuesque Italian in cut-off denim shorts and a rainbow-hued handbag, helped lead hundreds of LGBT Catholics into St. Peter’s Square in Rome on Saturday.
The group represents the first pilgrimage for gay and trans people to be hosted by the Vatican as part of a Jubilee Holy Year. The Vatican hosts a Jubilee Year for pilgrims about every 25 years, when Catholics come to Rome to ask for forgiveness.
“This is a super-significant moment, the first LGBT jubilee in history, you can imagine how important that is for both LGBT Christians and the Church,” said Caterina, a health care worker from Padua carrying a rainbow fan and wearing a T-shirt that said “In love there is no fear.”
As millions of Catholics wait to see how Pope Leo XIV will continue the legacy of his predecessor Pope Francis, who died in April, LGBT Catholics are particularly anxious about whether the new pontiff will echo the welcome extended by Francis.
Catholic teaching states that same-sex relations are “intrinsically disordered,” a source of pain to LGBT Catholics. Francis promoted an inclusive stance. When asked about a gay priest, he famously replied “Who am I to judge?” and allowed priests to bless same-sex couples, which triggered a conservative backlash.
Pope Leo’s outlook is more uncertain. At a synod or Vatican conference in 2012, Leo gave a speech about how Western media was promoting “anti-Christian lifestyle choices” such as same-sex marriage. When he became a cardinal in 2023, he said that the Church “wants to be more “welcoming and open,” but he emphasized that doctrine had not changed. At the conclave where he was elected, cardinals expressed concerns at some of Francis’ moves to greater openness, seen as ambiguous, and even threatening by some.
Still the pilgrims were full of optimism for greater acceptance.
“We have been overlooked for so long. It is very good to show it is possible to be both LGBT and Catholic,” said Kaitlyn, an activist from the diocese of Westminster in London.
Guillermo, an El Salvadorean who travelled from London to attend, said that after Francis died group members were worried that the pilgrimage would be cancelled. “It’s a very special moment as it’s the first time the LGBT community has been invited — that is very meaningful. We all hope Leo will carry on the inclusiveness of Francis.”
It has been a case of interpreting the smoke signals. Before the procession, the pilgrims attended a mass presided over by a high-ranking prelate. That is “a clear sign of change,” said American activist Father James Martin, founder of Outreach, a church ministering to LGBTQ people. “I cannot imagine that happening before Francis or Leo. And it generates great hope.”
In another suggestion of possible opening, Leo personally received Father Martin.
“The message I received is that he wants to continue the legacy of Pope Francis, which is one of openness and listening,” Father Martin told POLITICO, adding that the meeting was “deeply consoling and very encouraging.”
But opponents of gay and transgender rights dismissed the event’s significance.
Simone Pillon, an Italian senator with the far-right League party, said that welcoming LGBT people as sinners does not mean that Church teaching will change.
Pope Francis didn’t change teaching, he said, but his gestures were misinterpreted by the media. It was “a clear signal, he claimed that Pope Leo decided not to meet the group of of gay and trans pilgrims.
“The Jubilee is a moment of forgiveness, so I don’t have any problem with the event; we are all sinners,” he said. “What is frankly annoying is that anyone would use the Jubilee to promote an ideology which contains nothing of Christianity. … The church has always welcomed everyone, but to be in communion with God means following the commandments, also in sexual conduct,” he said.
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