Gay Roman Catholic pilgrims will have
a special day, September 6, during next year's Jubilee Holy Year
celebrations, the Vatican confirmed Friday after a report in
Rome daily Il Messaggero.
On that day, it said, members of the Church's LGBT+ community
will be welcomed into the Jesuit mother church, the Church of
the Gesù, in central Rome.
"The Jubilee of 2025 will open its doors to the first pilgrimage
dedicated specifically to gays and LGBT+ people," said Il
Messaggero.
"An absolute novelty, unthinkable until a few years ago, the
result of a pastoral attention that extends to milieux usually
considered marginal".
It said "the historic baroque Church of the Gesù has promoted
welcoming LGBT+ pilgrims, their parents, workers and all those
who gravitate towards these rainbow associations, led in Italy
by Tenda di Gionata (Jonathan's Tent), the association founded
on March 18, 2018, at the request of Don David Esposito, a
priest who died prematurely, who dreamed that Christian
communities would know how to 'widen the tent' (Isaiah 54) to
make room for everyone to become more and more sanctuaries of
welcome and support towards LGBT people and towards every person
affected by discrimination".
Asked abut the report, Jubilee 'director' mons. Rino Fisichella
told ANSA: "Everyone is welcome".
Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, and
responsible for organizing the Jubilee, confirmed that "the
initiative was born at the instigation of the Association 'La
tenda di Gionata' and is on the calendar like many others."
Soon after his election in 2013, Pope Francis said "who am I to
judge" when asked about gays in the Church. In May 2022 he wrote
a letter to gay Catholics saying "the Church does not refuse
you".
More recently he has criticised a "gay lobby" in the upper
reaches of the institution.
photo: pope's May 2022 letter to the Catholic LGBT+ community
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