LGBTQ Catholics make Holy Year pilgrimage to Rome and celebrate a new sense of acceptance

Hundreds of LGBTQ+ Catholics and their families participated in a Holy Year pilgrimage to Rome on Saturday, celebrating a new level of acceptance in the Catholic Church after long feeling shunned and crediting Pope Francis with the change

Hundreds of LGBTQ+ Catholics and their families participated in a Holy Year pilgrimage to Rome on Saturday, celebrating a new level of acceptance in the Catholic Church after long feeling shunned and crediting Pope Francis with the change.

The vice president of the Italian bishops conference, Bishop Franceseco Savino, celebrated Mass for the pilgrims in a packed Chiesa del Gesu, the main Jesuit church in Rome. He received a sustained standing ovation in the middle of his homily when he recalled that Jubilee celebrations historically were meant to restore hope to those on the margins.

"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."

Several LGBTQ+ groups participated in the pilgrimage, which was listed in the Vatican's official calendar of events for the Holy Year, the once-every-quarter century celebration of Catholicism. Vatican organizers stressed that the listing in the calendar didn't signal endorsement or sponsorship.

The main organizer of the pilgrimage was an Italian LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, "Jonathan's Tent," but other groups participated, including DignityUSA and Outreach, another U.S. group.