Tracing the Journey: LGBTQ+ Catholics in Italy from the 1970s to Today

Matteo Mennini, PhD, teaches courses in Christianity and Globalization at Roma Tre University, Rome Italy.His research has focused on the Vatican’s influence on Christian education, and alsothe debates about poverty during the Second Vatican Council. In his book Credenti LGBT+ (LGBT+ People of Faith) he explains the journey of Italian Catholic LGBTQ+ groups throughout history.

Bondings 2.0’s Elisa Belotti spoke with Dr.  Mennini about the little-known history of Italian LGBTQ+ Catholic groups, , the challenges that LGBTQ+ Catholics have faced with the Magisterium, and the prospects for genuine pastoral care in the Italian Church.

In your book Credenti LGBT+ (LGBT+ People of Faith), you explain how LGBTQ+ Catholics in Italy began a process of visibility and recognition in the 1970s. What do you see as the most important steps of this journey within the Italian Catholic context?

I believe the journey of Italian LGBTQ+ Catholics is not separate from the broader context of Italian Catholicism, which in the 1970s and 1980s was undergoing significant change due to the secularization of customs and the shifting relationship between religious and political activism. While many traditional forms of Catholic devotions were no longer being practiced, John Paul II’s pontificate made precise choices to reaffirm Catholic influence at the civil level. This divide between the people and the Vatican  opened a space where many women and men tried to redraw the boundaries of belonging to Catholicism without excluding personal choices or ways of life not aligned with the Magisterium.

Of course, at the theological and moral level, there was a need for a new reading of the sources of revelation. This effort involved many groups and movements at the time, including LGBTQ+ Catholics. The first step of the LGBTQ+  journey was awareness and the search for safe spaces, free from prejudice, where they could emerge authentically. The desire for visibility, the leadership of Ferruccio Castellano, a  prominent Catholic gay activist, and the hospitality offered by the  faith and homosexuality program at the Agape Waldensian Center near Turin marked the first phase of this process, from 1978 to 1985.

The second phase was the reaction to the Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons (1986), published by Cardinal Ratzinger, which strongly criticized some important pastoral experiences in the U.S. The letter condemned homosexuality not only as behaviour but as an “intrinsic disorder”, striking at the very roots of the theological reflection that had been developing over the years. From this marginalization, however, LGBTQ+ Catholics came out by working to strengthen networks between groups. This effort led to the creation of the first national movement, which laid the foundation for making their experiences visible.

The third phase, in the 1990s, was when LGBTQ+ Catholics began to walk alongside the broader queer movement. They came to see themselves as part of a larger reality, not as outsiders, but as an expression of God’s love.

“LGBT+ People of Faith: Rights, Faith and the Christian Church in Contemporary Italy”

In which way has the Magisterium’s approach to homosexuality influenced or triggered LGBTQ+ Catholics’ activism?

The Magisterium has always spoken of homosexuality in terms of sin. Even while recommending that homosexual people not be discriminated against, it has never truly listened to their voices or felt the need to ask questions about their religious experiences. The first time the Magisterium formally addressed the issue was in 1975 with the Vatican declaration Persona Humana, which examined many moral questions linked to changing sexual customs. Homosexuality was discussed alongside masturbation and premarital relations.

A decade later, the 1986 Letter signed by Cardinal Ratzinger claimed that the Magisterium’s positions on homosexuality had been misinterpreted by excessively benevolent readings. It hardened the Church’s stance, citing biblical sources as if they spoke only of the sin of sodomy. The Letter ignored medical and scientific literature that had already described homosexuality as a natural variation of sexuality.

The Magisterium’s impermeability to the religious and emotional experiences of LGBTQ+ Catholics undoubtedly triggered the need for these Catholics to speak out and to claim that their lives were not a sinful condition but a possible path to fulfillment.

Between the 1990s and 2000s, as LGBTQ+ Catholics drew closer to secular gay liberation movements, they also began voicing their disagreement with some positions of the Magisterium and Holy See. For example, they spoke out in 2008 when the Vatican opposed a French-sponsored UN initiative to decriminalise homosexuality, supported by the European Union, on the grounds that it might create new forms of discrimination against religious and other institutions. 

Yes, the Vatican said that countries which do not recognize same-sex unions as matrimony could be shamed and pressured. 

Today, some Italian dioceses are developing pastoral care for LGBTQ+ Catholics. Is this a real change in the Italian Catholic Church, or are they isolated and non-structural initiatives?

Over the years I have researched many dioceses and I have appreciated the work that many priests and laypeople, appointed by bishops, are doing in pastoral care of LGBTQ+ people. Yet I believe we are still far from a real willingness to listen deeply to their experience. A paternalistic attitude often prevails, focused on welcoming the marginalized. This style has certainly been encouraged by Pope Francis, to whom we must recognize an epochal shift in language. But at the Magisterium level, no real reform has been possible.

That said, it’s undeniable that many of these initiatives can represent a prelude to a new awareness, especially among clergy, so that LGBTQ+ Catholics may feel like part of a community and not as special cases under pastoral care for little lost sheep.

—Elisa Belotti, New Ways Ministry, September 17, 2025