LGBTQ Catholics process through Holy Door at St. Peter's

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Walking through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, the culmination of any Jubilee pilgrimage, many LGBTQ Catholics and the people who minister with them kissed or caressed the panels of the door. Some cried.

“When I walked through the Holy Door, I was flooded with memories and gratitude for all the Catholic LGBTQ+ people, supportive families and friends, pastoral ministers I have met in my ministry,” Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, told Catholic News Service.

DeBernardo was one of at least 1,200 people from dozens of countries in the LGBTQ group who crossed the threshold into St. Peter’s Basilica Sept. 6 after several days of prayer services, Masses, conferences and panel discussions.

While not organized by the Vatican, the pilgrimage was listed on the official Jubilee website’s Italian-language calendar of groups scheduled to pass through the Holy Door.

About 40 of the pilgrims came from the United States with Outreach, founded by Jesuit Father James Martin to provide resources and news for LGBTQ Catholics, their families and the people who minister with them.

“For me, the pilgrimage was deeply consoling,” Father Martin told CNS. “The Outreach panel at the Jesuit Curia, the joy-filled prayer service on Friday night and the beautiful Mass at the Church of the Gesu all seemed historic, betokening a new opening in the church to its LGBTQ members.”

“So, walking through the Holy Door was a fitting end to our pilgrimage. It felt like walking into a new era,” said Father Martin, who had had a private audience with Pope Leo XIV Sept. 1.

DeBernardo said, “This experience would not have been possible without Pope Francis’ opening the doors of the whole church to LGBTQ+ people, but even more important have been the prayers, courage and efforts of grassroots Catholics over decades who kept gently insisting that LGBTQ+ people are people of deep faith who should have equal status in the church. That’s why I walked through the Holy Door in grateful prayer for all these saints I have met.”

Before the group processed to the Holy Door, Bishop Francesco Savino of Cassano all’Jonio, vice president of the Italian bishops’ conference, presided over a Mass for the pilgrims in the Jesuits’ Church of the Gesu.

In his homily, Bishop Savino reminded the pilgrims of their dignity as baptized Christians and of the Jubilee call to conversion, reconciliation and “restorative justice.”

“Now is the time to restore dignity to all, especially to those who have been denied it,” the bishop said.

Because Christians believe in the dignity of each person created by God, he said, “We are opening new doors and new pastoral approaches that foster understanding and help us all feel like pilgrims of hope.”

While the late Pope Francis repeatedly said LGBTQ people are welcome in the church and insisted people follow the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s teaching that they be “accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity,” he did not change the catechism’s definition of homosexual acts as “intrinsically disordered.”