For the first time, a group of over 1,400 Catholics that are part of the LGBT+ community and their close friends participate, this weekend, in a pilgrimage officially organized during the jubilee year of the Catholic Church, celebrated every 25 years, according to AFP.
The event is seen as an “important signal” towards greater openness and diversity in the Catholic Church, notes the French press agency.
The pilgrims come from about 20 countries and responded to the invitation of the Italian association to Tenda di Gionata (“Ionatan's tent”). Although a private audience with Pope Leon XIV is not scheduled, the registration of this pilgrimage in the official jubilee calendar is a premiere.
Among the participants are Yveline Behets, a 68 -year -old Trans woman from Brussels, who traveled 130 km on via francigena along with several dozen LGBT+ people to reach Rome. She confessed to AFP that, in the Catholic environment, where she “does not always feel recognized”, she hopes that the church will give more space.
“The word reception should not be confused: we are not tolerated foreigners more often or rarely. We are part of the same family,” she said, wearing a white shirt with the colors of the rainbow.
The church is comparable to “a mountain we climb and has several slopes”. “We do not always see things in the same way, but it is and is very good.”
“Ignorance”
Like millions of other pilgrims, the participants will climb the main artery to the Vatican to pass through the “holy gate” of the imposing St. Peter basil.
On Saturday morning, hundreds of them participated in a liturgy chaired by the vice -president of the Italian Episcopal Conference in Chiesa del Gesu, in the center of Rome.
“It is a very important signal for us, to feel more included” in the church, he told AFP Hugo, 35, from Quebec, who prefers not to reveal his family name for confidentiality.
He hopes that this signal “will allow people who are little indecisible to be more open to homosexuals within the Church.”
But in an institution of two millennia, whose catechism considers homosexual acts as “intrinsically disordered”, the road is still long.
“There are fears and a form of ignorance about the life of homosexuals,” he said. “If everyone would meet everyone, I think many barriers would fall.”
According to him, “blockages” remain, especially for couples for whom “access to church mysteries is questioned.”
“There is a lot to do”
From his choice in 2013 to his death in April, Pope Francis, a fervent defender of a church open “to all, all,” multiplied the gestures of reception towards the LGBT community, without changing the doctrine.
His decision from the end of 2023 to open the blessings of same -sex couples caused a violent reaction in conservative environments, especially in Africa.
What decision will his American successor make, who has so far been very discreet in this matter?
For Beatrice Sarti, a 60-year-old Italian who came to accompany his homosexual son, “there is many more to do”, starting with the change of mentalities.
“Many of our children do not go to church (…) because they were understood that they are wrong.
In the 12 years of pontifying, Pope Francis “did not fear to speak the words”, which “greatly defined the subject of homosexuality within the Church,” Hugo explained.
“It is no longer an ugly word. And that, I think, is just an open door for many other developments,” he believes.
Photo source: dreamstime.com
