No, the Vatican Didn’t Sponsor an ‘LGBT Jubilee’

Most people don’t follow the Catholic news cycle regularly, and there’s a good reason: In recent years, it’s been a web of entangled finances, bishop appointments, and meetings that concluded by affirming the need for more meetings while accomplishing little else.

This week was an exception to that rule.

Paris’ Notre Dame reopened, and while the liturgy featured vestments that looked like they were designed as a L’Oréal marketing ploy, there was also an impressive dialogue between the Archbishop of Paris and the newly renovated organ. Meanwhile, in Rome, Pope Francis created 21 cardinals, many of whom (the AP speculates) seem to be part of his attempt to establish his legacy. (READ MORE: The Democrat Party’s Noxious ‘God Problem’)

That’s all very nice news, but it’s hardly the kind of stuff that causes a flurry of controversy on internet forums and posts on X. No, the event being discussed there wasn’t anything as historic as the reopening of Notre Dame. Instead, it was the fact that the official Vatican calendar for the 2025 Jubilee Year includes a pilgrimage made by an LGBTQ outreach group run by Jesuits. This, the internet and media concluded, was proof that Pope Francis himself had approved the event.

Let’s back up and get some context.

The Catholic Church is getting ready for its regularly scheduled Jubilee Year, which will begin on Dec. 24, 2024, with the opening of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and end on Jan. 6, 2026. The Church has celebrated jubilees regularly since Pope Boniface VIII declared the first one in 1300 to call Christians to a year of penance, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

As part of a Jubilee Year, many Catholics try to go on pilgrimage to Rome, and the city is preparing to receive some 35 million of these pilgrims next year. Many of them will likely join in on the scheduled pilgrimages made from local churches in Rome to the Holy Door at St. Peter’s. These scheduled pilgrimages are published on an official general events calendar and include hundreds of groups from dioceses and parishes around the world. (READ MORE: Now That Trump Won, Catholic Bishops Have a Choice)

Here’s where the controversy comes in. One of these scheduled pilgrimages is being organized by a Jesuit priest from the Diocese of Bologna and is sponsored by an umbrella organization called Tenda di Gionata that runs a group called Progetto Gionata (Project Jonathan). Progetto Gionata’s goal, as stated on its website, is to make “known the journey that LGBT Christians (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) take every day in their communities and in the various Churches, so that these experiences can help society and the Churches to open up to understanding and welcoming homosexual people.”

Sexual relations between two people of the same sex is one of those things the Catholic Church considers gravely wrong. Given full knowledge and consent, practicing a homosexual lifestyle cuts a person off from the body of the Church. But those doctrinal points haven’t stopped Progetto Gionata from insisting that biblical passages condemning homosexuality are “taken out of context” and that “[p]rejudices against homosexuality have caused a misunderstanding of the original texts; some of the passages attributed to Paul were probably written by his assistants; and the Scriptures must be interpreted in the light of history and reason.”

The pilgrimage run by this group plans to start at the Gesù (the Jesuit church in Rome that holds the tomb of the order’s founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola) with a prayer vigil on Sept. 5. The following day, pilgrims will head to St. Peter’s, walk through the Holy Door, and return to the Gesù for a Mass celebrated by Bishop Francesco Savino.

When this news broke, Italian and American media claimed that Pope Francis both knew about and openly supported the pilgrimage. They labeled the event an “LGBT Jubilee,” implying that it had the same significance as themed jubilee events like the Jubilee for the Poor or the Jubilee for Prisoners. But that’s an exaggeration.

The Pillar later pointed out that the event isn’t listed on the calendar of major events but just on the calendar of hundreds of pilgrimages being made next year, where it’s called the “Pilgrimage of the association La Tenda di Gionata and other associations.” A spokesperson for the Dicastery for Evangelization stated that these kinds of pilgrimages are hardly “sponsored activities,” but are simply officially registered with the Jubilee Year Office. (READ MORE: Kamala Harris’s Anti-Catholic Bigotry on Display)

All that to say, when this group of LBGTQ pilgrims makes its way from the Gesù to the Vatican, they’ll do so in the same way as hundreds of other groups.

This is something of a non-issue. There’s really no problem with LGBTQ individuals making a pilgrimage — which, by its nature is penitential — to the Vatican. Perhaps they’ll find the repentance, forgiveness, and healing they need to leave behind their irregular and sinful lifestyles and pursue a life of Christian chastity. One can (and should) certainly pray for that outcome.

What is unfortunate (and problematic) is that these pilgrims likely won’t hear a call to repentance coming from the Vatican or the clerics running the event, which is going by the clunky name “Church: Home for All, LGBT+ Christians and Other Existential Frontiers.” Instead, they’ll probably be told that their presence in Rome is “historic,” and “offers an immense amount of hope” to individuals seeing “acceptance” for their debauched lifestyles in the Catholic Church.

That’s problematic because it misses a golden opportunity to encourage these individuals to seek the healing they need and could find within the arms of St. Peter’s if they would only look.

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