Sicilian Bishops’ Conference Report Urges Local Churches to Welcome LGBTQ+ People

When the Sicilian Bishops’ Conference ended their general meeting in January, they issued a final report about their work which included a note that the bishops had “met with representatives of the groups ‘LGBT+ Christians Sicily’ and ‘Journey to Emmaus,’ which includes parents of homosexual and transgender children and their spiritual advisors, for a moment of encounter and dialogue.”

A session during the Sicilian Bishops’ Conference meeting.

The report also mentioned:

“The group representatives shared with the Bishops their experiences of their faith journey and the suffering often caused by closed doors or the indifference of Christian communities. They expressed their desire to be accompanied on their spiritual journey. They also presented the groups’ history and their formative journey, including periodic spiritual activities. . . >

“The Bishops expressed gratitude for the meeting, reaffirming that every person must be welcomed and respected in their dignity. They expressed the hope that, through the presence of LGBT+ Christians, doors might be reopened for those children of God who suffer from isolation and indifference. Through a spiritual journey within the Church, these people can transform their wounds into windows of light.”

How refreshing to hear about such a wonderful encounter by a group of bishops! How positive that the bishops affirmed them and urged LGBTQ+ people to be accepted “as children of God”!  How novel that instead of identifying LGBTQ+ people with sexual activity, they referred to them as people “who suffer from isolation and indifference,” acknowledging that the LGBTQ+ experience often means living in oppressive social contexts! How important that they also met with parents and pastoral ministers whose own stories often describe how the path toward acceptance and welcome of LGBTQ+ people has been shaped by Catholic teaching and values!

Progetto Gionata, an website for Catholic LGBTQ+ news, contains a full report on the meeting between the LGBTQ+ groups and the Sicilian bishops, including excerpts from some of the testimony the LGBTQ+ advocates presented.

The Sicilian bishops are following the example of Pope Francis, who urged church leaders and pastoral ministers to seek encounter with LGBTQ+ people by listening to their reality.  This gesture appears to be part of a broader growth in Italy in opening up to LGBTQ+ people.   In 2025 alone, the Italian Bishops Conference went from stalling a synodal report in part because of initialy weak statements on LGBTQ+ ministry to resolving the stalemate by offering much stronger support for welcoming LGBTQ+ people, stating:

“…local Churches, overcoming the discriminatory attitudes sometimes present in ecclesial and social settings, commit themselves to promoting the recognition and pastoral accompaniment of homosexual and transgender persons, as well as of their parents, who already belong to the Christian community.” (Synthesis Document, Part III, §62 c)

Similarly, in January of 2025, the Italian bishops’ conference offered a new directive that allowd gay seminary candidates to be assessed in the same way that heterosexual candidates, clearing up two decades worth of confusion caused by ambiguous Vatican statements about gay men and the priesthood.  This directive was approved by the Vatican.

A Bondings 2.0 in-depth report also showed how at the grassroots level, LGBTQ+ welcome is growing powerfully in the Italian church.

The example of the Sicilian Bishops’ Conference shows that members of the hierarchy can gain so much if they would dialogue with LGBTQ+ people.  The German bishops know that, too, from their work in their national synod meetings, and in many other ways.

So, the question is: Which bishops conference will be next in taking the step to meet with members of Catholic LGBTQ+ communities?

—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, March 5, 2026