LGBTQ+ Jubilee pilgrimage sees lesbian couple and their daughter pass through Vatican’s holy door

A lesbian Catholic couple and their daughter were among LGBTQ+ Jubilee pilgrims who passed through the Vatican’s holy door at the weekend.

“It is necessary for greater openness and inclusion,” queer Catholic Francesca Borselli told the Associated Press, after taking part in the first officially recognised LGBTQ+ pilgrimage to Rome.

“I don’t want to be pessimistic, I don’t think there will be a huge change today. The Church is moving with the times, which are not very fast, but the Church is walking.”

Some 1,400 Catholics, believed to have come from more than 20 countries, took part in the Holy Year pilgrimage to Rome on Saturday (6 September), wearing rainbow-themed clothing and carrying crosses.

“Not only are LGBTQ+ people marching and walking to say that they’re part of the Church, but official Church institutions are welcoming them and helping them to tell their stories,” the executive director of New Ways Ministry, Francis DeBernardo, said, according to the National Catholic Reporter.

Looking back at previous pilgrimages, Marianne Duddy Burke, from DignityUSA, said: “I was here 25 years ago at the last Holy Year, with a contingent of LGBTQ+ people from the US, and we were actually detained as a threat to the Holy Year programmes,” NBC News reported.

To now walk through the Holy Door of St Peter’s Basilica “fully recognised as who we are, and the gifts we bring to the Church, and that we have both our faith and our identities combined, is a day of great celebration and hope,” she added.

The pilgrims, however, did not get to have an audience with the pope.

The pilgrimage, which was listed in the Vatican’s official calendar of events but which Church officials stressed did not constitute endorsement, comes after Pope Leo XIV met with LGBTQ+ advocate Rev James Martin earlier this month.

“You could say it’s semi-official,” Martin said of the Jubilee event, adding: “I think it’s pretty historic. I can’t imagine this happening before Pope Francis or before Pope Leo.”

What is the LGBTQ+ Jubilee pilgrimage?

A Jubilee, or Holy, Year has taken place within the Catholic Church every quarter of a century since 1470 and is a time of renewal, forgiveness and celebration for the faithful, who are encouraged to embark on pilgrimages to the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica.

This year’s runs until 6 January with the theme Pilgrims of Hope. An estimated total of 32 million pilgrims are expected to have descended on the Vatican by then, according to the BBC.

The vice-president of the Italian Bishops Conference, Francesco Savino, celebrated Mass with the pilgrims at a packed Chiesa del Gesù church and spoke of including Catholics from minority groups.

“The Jubilee was the time to free the oppressed and restore dignity to those who had been denied it,” he said. “Brothers and sisters, I say this with emotion: it is time to restore dignity to everyone, especially to those who have been denied it.”

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