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Leo XIV did not meet with pilgrims, but he has indicated that he is supportive of an open, welcoming church.
Sept. 6, 2025Updated 2:42 p.m. ET
Hundreds of L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics processed through the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday to officially participate in the church’s quarter-centennial festival of renewal and forgiveness, a marked sign of acceptance in a church in which many felt shunned or excluded until recently.
“It was a very special moment” for such Catholics to feel embraced, said Tyrone Grima, of Malta, who attended the event. For too long, they had “to hide, living in shame and guilt,” said Nathalie de Williencourt, whose son is gay. Participating in the festival, known as a Jubilee pilgrimage, signaled greater public visibility and welcome, she said.
Francis DeBernardo, who runs New Ways Ministry, a Maryland-based group that promotes inclusion in the church, contrasted this Jubilee pilgrimage with the last one he took in 2000, when the Roman Catholic Church had spent months lobbying unsuccessfully to cancel the first WorldPride, which had been organized to take place in Rome that summer.
Speaking from a balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square on the Sunday after the pride parade, Pope John Paul II had expressed “bitterness,” saying WorldPride was an affront to the church and the “Christian values” of the Italian capital.
“And here we are, 25 years later, and L.G.B.T.Q. people are going to go through the Holy Door as a group,” Mr. De Bernardo said. Organizers said some 1,400 people from 22 countries participated.
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