LGBTQ pilgrimage brings controversy to Vatican basilica
September 08, 2025
More than 1,000 people marched through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s basilica on September 6, in what organizers described as an LGBTQ Jubilee pilgrimage.
The participants sparked outrage among some Catholics, who took note of the placards and T-shirts carrying slogans (in at least one case, crudely obscene) critical of Church teaching on sexuality, and the irreverent behavior of activists.
Earlier the pilgrims had gathered at the Gesu, the Jesuit church in Rome, for a Mass celebrated by Bishop Francesco Savino, the vice-president of the Italian bishops’ conference. in his homily the bishop cited the historic tradition of the Jubilee as “the time to free the oppressed,” and said that it is now time for the Church to “put living truth before dead truth.” He assured the congregation that Pope Leo had approved the LGBTQ pilgrimage “with great tenderness and great sweetness.” Pope Leo himself did not acknowledge the group in his own greetings to various other pilgrimages taking place the same weekend.
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