VATICAN CITY (AP) — Hundreds of LGBTQ+ Catholics and their families descended on Rome for a Holy Year pilgrimage Saturday, celebrating a new level of acceptance in the Catholic Church after long feeling shunned and crediting Pope Francis with the change.
The vice president of the Italian bishops conference, Bishop Franceseco Savino, celebrated Mass for the pilgrims in a packed Chiesa del Gesu, the main Jesuit church in Rome.
“No one should feel excluded,” he said in his homily, quoting Francis that “everyone, everyone, everyone” was welcome.
Several LGBTQ+ groups signed up to participate in the pilgrimage, which was listed in the Vatican’s official calendar of events for the Holy Year, the once-every-quarter century celebration of Catholicism. Vatican organizers stressed that listing in the calendar didn’t signal endorsement or sponsorship.
The main organizer of the pilgrimage was an Italian LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, “Jonathan’s Tent,” but it also included Outreach, the U.S. group founded by the Rev. James Martin, a prominent Jesuit priest who has advocated for greater acceptance of LGBTQ+ Catholics in the church.
Pope Leo XIV celebrated a special Jubilee audience Saturday for all pilgrim groups in Rome this weekend, but made no special mention of the LGBTQ+ Catholics, who were scheduled to walk through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica later in the day.
A legacy of LGBTQ+ acceptance
Many of the pilgrims attributed their feeling of welcome to Francis. More than any of his predecessors, Francis worked to make the Catholic Church a more welcoming place for LGBTQ+ Catholics. From his 2013 quip, “Who am I to judge?” about a purportedly gay priest, to his decision to allow priests to bless same-sex couples, Francis distinguished himself with his message of welcome.
He never changed church teaching saying homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.” But during his 12-year papacy from 2013 to 2025, Francis met with LGBTQ+ advocates, ministered to a community of trans women and, i n a 2023 interview with The Associated Press, declared that “being homosexual is not a crime.”
John Capozzi of Washington D.C., who was participating in the pilgrimage with his husband, Justin del Rosario, said Francis’ attitude brought him back to the church after he left it in the 1980s, at the height of the AIDS crisis. Then, he said, he felt shunned by his fellow Catholics.
“There was that feeling like I wasn’t welcome in the church,” he said. “Not because I was doing anything, just because I was who I was,” he said. “It was this fear of going back in because of the judgment.”
But Francis, who insisted that the Catholic Church was open to everyone, “todos, todos, todos,” changed all that, he said.
“I was a closeted Catholic,” Capozzi said. “With Pope Francis, I was able to come out and say, ’Hey, you know, I am Catholic and I’m proud of it and I want to be part of the church.”
A message of welcome and hope
Capozzi spoke during a standing room-only vigil service for the pilgrims Friday night at the Jesuit church. The service featured testimonies from gay couples, the mother of a trans child and a moving reflection by an Italian priest, the Rev. Fausto Focosi.
“Our eyes have known the tears of rejection, of hiding. They have known the tears of shame. And perhaps sometimes those tears still spring from our eyes,” Focosi said. “Today, however, there are other tears, new tears. They wash away the old ones.”
“And so today these tears are tears of hope,” he said.
Leo’s position comes into focus
Leo’s position on LGBTQ+ Catholics had been something of a question. Soon after he was elected in May, remarks surfaced from 2012 in which the future pope, then known as the Rev. Robert Prevost, criticized the “homosexual lifestyle” and the role of mass media in promoting acceptance of same-sex relationships that conflicted with Catholic doctrine.
When he became a cardinal in 2023, Catholic News Service asked Prevost if his views had changed. He acknowledged Francis’ call for a more inclusive church, saying Francis “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.”
Leo met Monday with Martin, the American Jesuit, in an official audience in a sign he wanted the encounter made public. Martin emerged saying Leo told him he intended to continue Pope Francis’ policy of LGBTQ+ acceptance in the church and encouraged him to keep up his advocacy.
“I heard the same message from Pope Leo that I heard from Pope Francis, which is the desire to welcome all people, including LGBTQ people,” Martin told The Associated Press after the audience.
Del Rosario, Capozzi’s husband, said he too now felt welcome after long staying away from the faith he was raised in.
“Pope Francis influenced me to return back to church. Pope Leo only strengthened my faith,” he said.
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