In a first for the Vatican, more than a thousand LGBTQ Catholics and their supporters are this weekend holding a pilgrimage, in what they are promoting as an important sign of diversity in the Church.
The gathering of some 1,400 people from around 20 countries was part of the Catholic Church’s Jubilee holy year. It was organised by La Tenda di Gionata (The Tent of Jonathon), an Italian association lobbying for greater inclusivity among the faithful.
While those taking part did not have a private audience scheduled with Pope Leo XIV this is the first time such a pilgrimage has featured on the official Jubilee programme, although LGBTQ groups have gone to the Vatican before.
Yveline Behets, a 68-year-old transgender woman from Brussels, walked 130 kilometres (80 miles) with another 30 LGBTQ people along part of the ancient Via Francigena pilgrimage route to get to Rome.
She said she expected more “plurality” from the Church after experiencing difficulties with other Catholics, among whom, she said, she did “not always feel acknowledged”.
“One should not misuse the word ‘welcome’. We are not just some outsiders who are 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.
– Into the Vatican –
Just as millions of other pilgrims have done before, those taking part in Saturday’s LGBTQ pilgrimage walked up the main road to the Vatican. Carrying a cross in rainbow colours before them, they stepped through the Holy Door into Saint Peter’s basilica.
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Hugo, a 35-year-old from Quebec in Canada who declined to give his last name, said he believed the LGBTQ pilgrimage was “a really important signal for us to feel more included”.
He said he hoped it would “let people who are on the fence to allow themselves to be more welcoming towards homosexuals in the Church”.
But, in a religious institution that for two millennia has viewed homosexual acts as going against its tenet of procreative sex and gay couples “intrinsically disordered”, the road to acceptance is still long.
“There are fears and a sort of misunderstanding when it comes to the life that homosexuals lead,” Hugo said. “If everybody got to know everyone else, I think a lot of barriers would come down.”