Hundreds of L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics processed through the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday to officially participate in the church’s quarter-centennial festival of renewal and forgiveness, a marked sign of acceptance in a church in which many felt shunned or excluded until recently.
“It was a very special moment” for L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics to feel embraced, said Tyrone Grima, of Malta, who attended the event. For too long, L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics had “to hide, living in shame and guilt,” said Nathalie de Williencourt, whose son is gay. Participating in the festival, known as a Jubilee pilgrimage, signaled greater public visibility and welcome, she said.
Francis DeBernardo, who runs New Ways Ministry, a Maryland-based group that promotes L.G.B.T.Q. inclusion in the church, contrasted this Jubilee pilgrimage with the last one he took in 2000, when the Roman Catholic Church had spent months lobbying unsuccessfully to cancel the first WorldPride, which had been organized to take place in Rome that summer.
Speaking from a balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square on the Sunday after the pride parade, Pope John Paul II had expressed “bitterness,” saying WorldPride was an affront to the church and the “Christian values” of the Italian capital.
“And here we are, 25 years later, and L.G.B.T.Q. people are going to go through the Holy Door as a group,” Mr. De Bernardo said. Organizers said some 1,400 people from 22 countries participated.
Pope Leo XIV did not individually welcome the L.G.B.T.Q. contingent at a Jubilee audience on Saturday morning, as he did with some other groups in attendance.
But speaking at the Mass for those L.G.B.T.Q. pilgrims at a Jesuit church on Saturday, Bishop Francesco Savino — one of the top clerics in the Italian Bishops Conference — said that Leo, “with great tenderness, and great sweetness,” had given him his blessing to celebrate the Jubilee organized by various L.G.B.T.Q. organizations.
In his homily, he noted that in the Bible, a Jubilee “was the time to free the oppressed and restore dignity to those who had been denied it.” Bishop Savino paused briefly to add: “Brothers and sisters, I say this with emotion. It is time to restore dignity to everyone, especially those who have been denied it.” His words were greeted with a standing ovation that lasted over a minute.
Bernardo Massarini, a priest from Amiens, France, who has worked with L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics for 20 years, said he had cried during the homily. One of the first things he did upon arriving in Rome this week, he said, was to visit Pope Francis’ tomb “to say, ‘Thank you.’” adding, “If we’re here, it’s because of his ministry.”
The Catholic Church’s teaching still maintains that homosexual acts are “intrinsically distorted.” But during his papacy, Francis changed the church’s tone — if not always its doctrine — on issues of gender and sexuality. From his 2013 quip, “Who am I to judge?” when asked about priests who might be gay, to his support for those who ministered to L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics, Francis was praised by supporters for his openness to the queer community.
His positions were not always straightforward. Francis rejected same-sex marriage yet called on priests to be welcoming to people in nontraditional relationships. He believed gay couples deserved civil protections but approved a Vatican decision to bar priests from blessing them — a decision he later said he regretted, and then reversed.
Leo has little public record on L.G.B.T.Q. issues. In a 2012 speech, he criticized the positive portrayal of the “homosexual lifestyle” in Western media, which he said fostered “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel.”
But in a 2023 interview with Catholic News Service when he became a cardinal, Leo acknowledged that things had changed since 2012, and that the church had “to open and to be welcoming.” He said Francis had “made it very clear that he doesn’t want people to be excluded simply on the basis of choices that they make, whether it be lifestyle, work, way to dress or whatever.”
Earlier in the week, Leo had an official audience with the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit and well-known proponent of outreach to L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics. After the meeting, Father Martin said on X that he believed that “Pope Leo will be continuing with the same openness and that Francis showed to L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics.” In an interview, he said the pontiff had “encouraged me in my ministry.”
Mr. DeBernardo was more cautious. “I think we still have to wait to see how Leo’s going to follow those footsteps, ” he said.
The pilgrimage was listed in the Vatican’s official calender of the many events taking place during the 2025 Holy Year.
Alessandro Previti, one of the organizers of the pilgrimage, said the Vatican had put the group on the calendar following years of dialogue between Jonathan’s Tent, an Italian L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy group, and “key members of the Vatican and pastoral workers.”
“We are welcome first and foremost as Christians who are L.G.B.T.Q., so we are at home,” he said, adding, “It’s about time.”
Elisabetta Povoledo is a Times reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years.
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