“No One Is Excluded from the Heart of God”: An Italian Archbishop on Transgender People

Damiano Migliorini, an Italian scholar of philosophy of religion and high school philosophy teacher, and Giuseppe Piva, an Italian Jesuit, theologian, and pastoral minister working with LGBTQ+ people, have co-edited the book Persone transgender: Scienze, Teologie, Pastorali (Transgender People: Sciences, Theologies, Pastoral Care), published by Editrice Querinian, an Italian Catholic publisher. It is only available in Italian at the moment. The book explores transgender experiences and the theological, philosophical, and pastoral questions they raise for the Catholic Church.

Archbishop Domenico “Mimmo” Battaglia

The book’s foreword was written by Archbishop Domenico “Mimmo” Battaglia of Naples, Italy. With permission from the publisher, Bondings 2.0’s Elisa Belotti translated Battaglia’s introduction into English, making it available to an international audience.

For everything there is a season under heaven,” says the wise one. And there is a time, today more than ever, to stop and listen. To remain silent before what we do not know, to bend down without haste over people’s stories, to welcome questions that seem greater than the answers we have. This is the time in which we find ourselves: a fragile and complex time, but also a fruitful one, because it forces us to take nothing for granted. A time that challenges the Church in profound ways, calling it to renew its understanding of the human person, to cross new thresholds without losing its soul. We live in a changing world, sometimes changing rapidly, bringing with it profound transformations in our experience of identity, relationships, the body, and consciousness. Faced with these changes, the ecclesial community is called to walk in listening and discernment, remaining faithful to the Gospel while, at the same time, attentive to the suffering, expectations, and questions that arise from the lived experiences of so many people.

This volume brings together contributions that differ in origin, perspective, and content. They are voices from the worlds of science, psychology, anthropology, theology, and pastoral ministry. Voices that do not all speak the same language, but that together approach a complex and delicate subject, offering the reader a possibility: to pause. To reflect, not to flee, not to rush to define, but to remain faithfully within the tension of seeking. The issue of gender dysphoria, transgender identities, and life experiences that do not conform to traditional models raises profound questions. For the Church, too. But precisely for this reason, it calls for listening that is even more respectful and attentive. A step that is not one of judgment, but of accompaniment. No one is excluded from the heart of God. No life is foreign to the mystery of salvation. And every person, every story, including those that seem distant or difficult for us to understand, carries within it the possibility of a revelation. The revelation of a God who draws near, who allows Godself to be touched, who dwells in wounds, who does not fear the fragile flesh of the children of humanity. Because God has assumed that flesh, lived it, and transfigured it.

At the heart of this journey of the transfiguration of the human, the Gospel remains for us light and measure, inviting us to undertake a path of faithfulness and trust. Faithfulness is movement in the Spirit, a communal search, a willingness to remain anchored in Christ while crossing territories that are still unexplored. For this reason, the aim is not to take hasty positions, but to mature through dialogue, prayer, and the spiritual and theological depth of a broad and shared ecclesial discernment, one that respects people and is rooted in truth.

This book can be a useful tool on this journey. Because it offers perspectives and encourages us to ask the right questions. And above all, it reminds us that before ideas come people. People to meet, to listen to, to accompany. With the wisdom of the Church, the strength of charity, the beauty of the Word, and the gentleness of care. I hope that reading these pages will inspire not so much agreement as attentiveness. Not so much judgment as dialogue. Not so much opinions as compassion. Because it is only on this ground that a true pastoral ministry can grow, one capable of truth and tenderness, consistency and openness, fidelity to the Gospel and closeness to the human person.

To those who read, I wish that they may allow themselves to be touched. To enter into the folds of stories, reflections, and doubts. And to feel that, at the heart of everything – beyond disagreements, beyond conflicts, beyond difficulties – there remains the desire for a Church that never ceases to be a mother. A mother who accompanies, who listens, who cares. A mother who knows, with humility and courage, how to set out on the journey with everyone, safeguarding and offering the liberating truth.

–Archbishop Domenico “Mimmo” Battaglia (translated by Elisa Belotti, New Ways Ministry), September 1, 2026