As World Youth Day Pilgrims Seek LGBTQ+ Inclusion, Pope Francis Says “Everyone” Welcome

Among the hundreds of thousands of people gathered for World Youth Day in Portugal this week have been young Catholics advocating for LGBTQ+ inclusion. The Associated Press reported:

“In Lisbon, [Pope] Francis has also emphasized the inclusive message of the church that he has championed throughout his 10-year papacy, telling the World Youth Day opening ceremony on Thursday that ‘in the church, there is room for everyone.’ He led the crowd of a half-million people in a chant of ‘todos, todos, todos’ or ‘everyone, everyone, everyone’ to make his point.

“That message of inclusivity has resonated in particular with LGBTQ+ Catholics. . .Dignity USA, a group of LGBTQ+ Catholics, has a delegation in Lisbon and said overall the reception was positive, with a few moments of tension.

“‘We’ve been able to trade our rainbow pens, our rainbow prayer cards,’ member Sam Barnes said Friday.

“There was an incident in which protesters tried to disrupt an LGBTQ+ Mass, but it went ahead after police were called in, said one of the participants, who gave her name as Victoria and said she was a transgender Catholic.

“‘It’s important that everyone, independent of their sexuality, can have their faith and their relation with God,’ Victoria said, adding that despite such incidents she has felt very accepted in Lisbon.

“The Mass had been organized by the Centro Arcoiris, an offshoot of a much larger Portuguese LGBTQ+ Catholic group called Sopro. They set up a ‘Rainbow Center’ to welcome LGBTQ+ pilgrims to World Youth Day, outside the official organization.

“In another incident captured on social media and broadcast on Portuguese television, two World Youth Day participants told a transgender participant to put away her flag.”

DignityUSA’s pilgrims, all of whom are in their 20s or 30s, are Catherine Buck, a former Bondings 2.0 contributor, Cesar Mendoza, Brian Frank, Cait Gardiner, Cassidy Klein, Audrey Carroll, Carter Fahey, and Sam Barnes. In 2019, the Equally Blessed coalition, of which New Ways Ministry and DignityUSA were a part, also sent LGBTQ+ and ally pilgrims to World Youth Day.

The Global Network of Rainbow Catholics hosted a number of events in collaboration with local Catholic LGBTQ+ advocates in Portugal. Events included roundtable discussions with Fr. James Alison, a theologian and openly gay priest, moments of prayer, including Mass, the screening of an LGBTQ+ documentary, and more.

LGBTQ+ issues also came up at an event with Fr. Arturo Sosa, SJ, the superior general of the Jesuits. Arturo held a conversation with six young people at a pre-event to World Youth Day, each of whom asked him a question. America reported on one interaction:

“Shingirai, a young woman from Zimbabwe, posed the final question to Father Sosa. She expressed concern about the impact of Christianity on African culture, particularly the loss of traditional roots. ‘What is the church doing to shape the moral fabric of young people?,’ she asked, making specific mention of the L.G.B.T.Q. community. She also inquired about the church’s efforts to include people from Africa and Asia in shaping its values and administration.

“Father Sosa replied: ‘Maybe the 20th century and this one, the 21st century, is the moment when the church is getting Catholic. Now is the moment in history when the church is getting real universal; because we now have a multicultural church.’ . . .

“Father General then turned to respond more directly to Shingirai’s concern about the church’s impact on sexual morality across cultures. Catholic moral and theological thought ‘is always in process,’ he said.

“‘We need to develop from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit how to approach different problems. And that’s why discernment is so important,’ he added. ‘We need to love people, because God loves everyone. God is love. And he takes the initiative of loving everyone; every human being is loved by the Lord. So from there we can really understand and develop our way of relationship and thinking.'”

Finally, on another positive note, Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen in Germany celebrated Mass with youth from his country and then took a photo with them that included the Progress Flag, which the youth have been carrying throughout World Youth Day events. Overbeck has an extremely positive LGBTQ+ record.

—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, August 5, 2023