Spanish
Faithful Catholics LGTBIQ+ have managed to have space for them in this Holy Year and have been included in the official Jubilee agenda with several events that will bring together more than 1,300 people, with an expected pilgrimage to pass through the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica.
Although they clarify that it cannot be called the LGTBIQ+ Jubilee, as it is not a major jubilee event, like, for example, that of the Youth or the Poor, but one of the innumerable pilgrimages spontaneously organized by parishes, dioceses and Catholic organizations, they are sure that something is changing in the Church.
If it was not initially included in the agenda, the organizers later did so, although without the LGBTQI+ acronym. Officially, the event is called "Pilgrimage of the association 'La Tenda di Gionata' ('Jonathan's Tent')", the organizers along with other associations of faithful and parents with gay children.
"We will not go there to celebrate a Pride parade, nor to make claims, because we are not looking for confrontation. We are not looking for a way to make ourselves visible. Obviously, we are aware of our difficulties, but we are Christians, baptized like everyone else, and we have the right and the duty to manifest our faith. And that is why we will make this pilgrimage," explains Tiziano Fani Braga, promoter of the initiative, to EFE.
In addition to going through the Holy Door like all pilgrims, which they consider the most important point, also important is "the communion that will be created during the vigil and the mass, because they will be the moments of greatest prayer, in which we will meet people from all over the world who, let's say, have done pastoral work, even with great difficulty."
Fani reveals that they have received criticism and threats for this initiative, but emphasizes that "the Church is not just an institution; the Church is also us, who create this celebration, who create these moments of prayer together."
And it explains that such a large participation was not expected, as around 1,300 people from 40 countries have registered so far.
"The Church Comes Out"
The Spaniard Luisma González, theologian and collaborator of Chrismon, one of the associations representing the LGTBI community in Spain, will also travel to Rome with a large group and assures that this pilgrimage "is a turning point, it is to recognize that this is our home, that we are here, that we exist. And we go with the faith and the illusion of every pilgrim to the common house that is in Rome".
"They open the doors for us to enter like any son or daughter of the church and well, we are hopeful, we are excited. And I think that visibility brings the church out of the closet," he emphasizes.
For this theologian, in the welcoming of the LGBTIQ community by the Church "there is no going back". "I believe it is time to look forward with a hopeful gaze, to put a name and face to a reality that has been invisibilized and persecuted", he adds.
Next Friday, as in any pilgrimage, a prayer vigil will take place in the Church of the Gesù, in the center of Rome, where the next day the vice president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Francesco Savino, will celebrate a mass and then the pilgrimage itself will take place to the Holy Door of the Basilica of Saint Peter.
American priest James Martin, a defender of the rights of homosexuals and transgender people in the United States, will be present and will organize a meeting at the General Curia of the Jesuits, and Father Andrea Conocchia, parish priest of Torvajanica, who brought transgender people from the Roman coast to the audiences of Pope Francis, will also participate.
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For many of them, Francis opened the door, and now they hope that Leo XIV will leave it open, although he has not yet expressed himself on the subject. "Leo, in my opinion, will be more pragmatic, but I think he will make some points very clear. That is my hope. Let's give him time," adds Fani.
