LGBTQ+ community allowed to hold "pilgrimage" at the Vatican

Vatican to host LGBT community 'pilgrimage' next year

In a blow to the Christian community, the Italian LGBT Christian group La Tenda di Gionata has announced that it has received Vatican approval for a pilgrimage to Rome for the 2025 jubilee.

However, the official organizers of the Vatican Jubilee have stated that they neither support nor oppose the event. The pilgrimage is scheduled for 6 September 2025 at 3 pm and the group invites other LGBT+ organisations to join them in crossing the Holy Doors of St Peter's Basilica.

In the evening, a Mass will be celebrated in the Jesuit Gesù Church by Monsignor Francesco Savino, and a prayer vigil will be held the night before. Although the Vatican has included this pilgrimage in the general schedule for the Jubilee, it has clarified that it is not an official Vatican event. Jubilee spokeswoman Agnese Palmucci stressed that this is a pilgrimage organized by La Tenda di Gionata and not one of the official representatives of the Jubilee event.

Such an event is certainly seen as a step towards a more liberal Church, and it is only a matter of time before events of this nature are recognized as official Vatican events. Some see this as a positive step, while others, such as the Catholic writer Luisella Scrosati, see it as challenging the Church's teaching on morality. The Vatican has officially opposed the event, while key Church leaders, including Cardinal Matteo Zuppi and Father Pino Piva, have expressed support for the initiative^[1].

The Vatican has yet to answer whether same-sex couples in the Church of Gesù will receive non-liturgical blessings, as foreseen in the Vatican declaration of 2023.

Media reports say that Pope Francis has reportedly approved a pilgrimage for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in 2025.

Pope gives blessing to same-sex couples

In 2013, Pope Francis issued a landmark statement, "Who am I to judge?", which marked a change in the Catholic Church's attitude towards LGBTQ+ people. Over the years, the Holy Father has put more emphasis on compassion and has been more hesitant to judge them, and his recent decision to allow the blessing of same-sex couples further demonstrates the Vatican's increasingly liberal stance towards same-sex couples. Although the Church's position on same-sex marriage remains unchanged, this move is seen as an important step towards acceptance.

The Church still teaches that sexual relations should only take place in heterosexual marriages and describes homosexuality as "intrinsically disordered", but also calls for LGBTQ+ people to be treated with dignity. Pope Francis often reiterates that LGBTQ+ people are also "children of God" and deserve respect, supports the legal recognition of same-sex unions, and opposes the criminalization of homosexuality^[2].

It is announced that the blessings will be informal - not part of a church ceremony - but this decision suggests that more formal actions may be possible.

In Germany, where some priests have already started to give blessings, the change has been welcomed, although there is still opposition; for example, Bishop Joseph Strickland has said he is against it.

Pontiff contradicts himself: opposes gender ideology but dines with transgender people

That one day, the Holy Father will be pushed to the wall and will have to reject the LGBTQ+ community either or formally recognize it is not in doubt - and that time is coming.

In his efforts to please everyone, traditional Christians and LGBTQ+ people alike, the Pontiff sometimes contradicts himself. Last year, for example, he criticized gender ideology as dangerous because, he said, it blurs the distinction between men and women and destroys the human condition.

He has also stated that he believes that gender differences are important for the advancement of humanity and that gender ideology is one of the most dangerous ideological colonisations^[3].

Meanwhile, a little later, it was reported that the Pope had decided to dine with transgender people on the occasion of the Day of the Poor, with as many as 44 transgender women invited to attend the event, arriving in a separate bus. Some of them have a history of prostitution.

However, these are not the only issues of public importance on which the Pope makes his voice heard. For example, in the wake of the war in Ukraine, the Holy Father addressed the faithful and declared that war is madness. Earlier, the Pontiff had called on Ukraine to raise the "white flag" to avoid more senseless casualties in this war.