Rome
–
The Church of Jess in Central Rome was packed as a procession with an iridescent cross moved up the central passage. The service marked Rome the first officially recognized pilgrimage of LGBTQ Catholics.
About 1,000 pilgrims gathered on Friday at a 17th-century Baroque church to play music, pray and reflect. The doors will only be opened in the Catholic Church’s Jubilee Year and decrease every 25 years, including 2025.
The pilgrimage, listed on the official calendar of the Jubilee Event, continues to see Pope Leo XIV, to continue the bold path of his predecessor, and welcome groups that have faced the past with alienation and sometimes harsh treatment to the church. Pope Francis repeatedly said during the 12-year Pope that LGBTQ Catholics should be welcomed as “children of God,” and that he took groundbreaking steps to approve the blessings of same-sex couples and seek the decriminalization of homosexuality in Africa.
“I think this opens the church to so many people, all the family,” said Corey Shade of Fort Louderdale, Florida, and CNN walked to St. Peter’s Cathedral with hundreds of pilgrims.
Before the procession on Saturday, pilgrims gathered for a group at the Gesz Church, held by senior Italian bishop Francesco Savino.
He hopes Leo will be built on Francis’ legacy and died earlier this week when he met the Rev. James Martin, a New York-based priest, author and well-known advocate for the prominent LGBTQ Catholics. Martin leads an LGBTQ group from the United States on a Roman pilgrimage. Martin, a Jesuit like Francis, was given a private audience by Leo in the Apostles Palace of the Vatican.
Supporting that interpretation, Martin told CNN after Friday’s service:
Similarly, Michael O’Lowlin, leader of LGBTQ Catholic Group Outreach, told CNN that pilgrimage was a “huge moment” and that Pope Leo, who is “cautiously optimistic,” will continue what Francis started.
I believe that a Roman LGBTQ pilgrimage will not be made unless it is for Francis.
Francis Debernardo, executive director of the New Ways Ministry, an American organization that advocates for LGBTQ people, was in Rome in the year 2000 Jubilee. He said the incident was condemned by John Paul II at the time, saying that “anti-gay rhetoric” came from parts of the Vatican at the time. “Twenty-five years later, LGBTQ Catholics are welcomed through the sacred doors of the Vatican,” he told CNN. “That’s a huge change.”
According to Catechism of the Catholic Church, sex is only permitted between married men and women. The church’s official principles describe homosexuality as “essentially abused” – some Catholics say they want change, but gays must be treated with “respect, compassion, sensitivity” and should avoid all “unfair discrimination.”
Francis never changed his official teaching, but he effectively shifted the church’s approach to gay people, and when asked for the views of a gay priest, “Who am I going to judge?” In another example, Francis came out in support of private unions of same-sex couples who previously opposed the Vatican doctrine office.
In 2012, some LGBTQ people were concerned about the speech by Reverend Robert Prevost at the time, criticizing the media’s sympathetic portrayal of “a gay lifestyle” and “alternative families made up of same-sex partners and their adopted children.”
But when asked about these remarks in 2023, the newly appointed Cardinal Prevost said, “We want to be more welcome and more open, and we want everyone to say they are welcome in the church,” and Frances said, “Whether it’s lifestyle, work, outfits, or whatever, shouldn’t be simply eliminated based on the choices they make.
Still, acceptance of LGBTQ people, like most Christians, is controversial among Catholics, with deep disagreements about the blessings and marriage of same-sex couples.
Juan Pablo O’Connell contributed the report.
