Italy’s  First National Conference on Catholic Pastoral Ministry With LGBTQ+ People

On September 4, two days shy of the first anniversary of the Jubilee pilgrimage of LGBTQ+ Catholics  to St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, nearly 200 pastoral workers and 10 Italian bishops gathered in Rome for the first national conference for pastoral workers. Entitled Good Practices in Pastoral Ministry with Homo-Affective* and Transgender People,” the meeting’s  goal was to share experiences and approaches  in ministry with LGBTQ+ people. 

[Among the speakers at the meeting was Bishop Francesco Savino, whose speech was translated for Bondings 2.0 by Elisa Belotti.]

Participants at Italy’s first national conference on LGBTQ+ ministry.

Participants did not gather for another conference in which LGBTQ+ people would be discussed as abstract pastoral cases, cautiously examined from a safe distance. Instead, the focus was on what some of Italy’s Catholic parishes LGBTQ+ people and their families are already doing, in harmony with the synodal journey. The meeting was held at the Jesuit Curia (world headquarters) just outside Vatican City.

The morning session presented experiences from four dioceses: Florence, Bari-Bitonto, Cremona, and Chiavari. The diocesan representatives were  introduced by their  bishops,  and their talks illustrated how LGBTQ+ pastoral ministry can become part of ordinary diocesan life rather than a separate or marginal initiative. 

Most of the paths described during the day did not begin with a document issued from above, but started with encounters between pastoral ministers and their parishioners.  These LGBTQ+ individuals were people who had grown up in parishes, attended catechism classes, joined Catholic organizations, sung in church choirs, or volunteered with local committees, while at the same time having to keep an important part of their lives silent for fear of being pushed away from the Church they considered their home. 

With the start of new ministries, however, they found  places in the Church where they could be fully themselves.

Bishop Antonio Napolioni of Cremona explained that the starting point for the pastoral journey in the northern Italy was the encounter with people’s stories that, he said, could be ignored only by someone with “mortadella over their eyes, plugs in their ears, and a hardened heart.” The papal exhortation Amoris laetitia, also helped to inspire their planning.

Maria Grazia Antonioli and Roberto Dainesi, a heterosexual couple who previously coordinated a  local family ministry in Cremona, and are now involved in LGBTQ+ pastoral ministry at both the diocesan and regional levels. They described the process that led to the bishops from the Lombardy region issuing the2023 document Primi passi. Riflessioni e proposte per una pastorale con le persone LGBTIQ e le loro famiglie (“First Steps: Reflections and Proposals for Pastoral Ministry with LGBTIQ People and Their Families”). The initiative has since led to diocesan teams, listening services, pastoral formation, and initiatives within local Catholic communities.

From  the Archdiocese of Bari-Bitonto, Archbishop Giuseppe Satriano and Sister Concy Gaudioso presented the work of the diocese’s Coordination for Inclusive Pastoral Ministry, whose main focus is listening to LGBTQ+ people and their families and providing formation.

The Diocese of Chiavari has integrated LGBTQ+ accompaniment into its family ministry. Bishop Giampio Devasini, Father Marco Torre, and other members of the diocesan team presented a pastoral approach organized around four words that mark different stages of every human life: being born, growing, loving, and experiencing loss. It’s the same diocese whose Family Pastoral Office, during a prayer vigil for overcoming homophobia and transphobia held in May, wrote a text in which Catholics asked forgiveness from LGBTQ+ people and their families for the discrimination, exclusion, silence, violence, and suffering caused or ignored within the Church.

Florence’s Archbishop Gherardo Gambelli and Anna Maria Massari, a member of the diocesan Coordination for Inclusive Pastoral Ministry, presented a journey that has developed through listening, prayer, and community initiatives. Gambelli also recalled the relief experienced by parents when they discover that their gay or transgender children are not “excommunicated or heretics.” He shared the Christian witness of a female couple whom he presented as an example of care for others and commitment to Christian life.

In the afternoon, national leaders from some of Italy’s main Catholic associations and movements described how their organizations are addressing the presence and participation of LGBTQ+ people. The main contributions came from AGESCI (the Italian Catholic Scouts), Catholic Action, FUCI (the Italian Federation of Catholic University Students), the Christian Life Community, and the Focolare Movement, an international Catholic lay movement, founded in Italy in 1943 by Chiara Lubich.

These presenters described a long and ongoing journey, marked by difficulties and delays, but also by moving testimonies and encouraging decisions aimed at overcoming discrimination and moving toward the recognition and full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in formation, service, and apostolic life within their communities. For AGESCI, this process has recently included the approval of a national document recognizing that sexual and affective orientation and gender identity should not be grounds for exclusion from educational roles. Bondings 2.0 has explored the issue through interviews with a nonbinary scout leader and a bisexual scout leader.

The assembly then divided into six regional groups, giving pastoral workers an opportunity to meet one another, compare what is already happening in their respective areas, and connect experiences that often develop in isolation. Back in plenary, delegates shared the questions and reflections that had emerged from their discussions.

What followed was an intense and genuine conversation, centered on the hope that there might no longer be a pastoral ministry “for” LGBTQ+ people, but “with” them. A small preposition that can open doors that have remained closed for centuries.

–Elisa Belotti, New Ways Ministry, September 16, 2026

For further reading:

Additional details about the conference and quotes from speakers can be found at Progetto Gionata’s post entitled “Quando la Chiesa cattolica cammina con le persone LGBTQ+. Da Roma esperienze e buone pratiche.” [“When the Catholic Church walks with LGBTQ+ people. Experiences and best practices from Rome.”]

*TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: The Italian conference title uses the word “omoaffettivo,” a term whose usage is debated in Italy. Some prefer “omosessuale” (“homosexual”), arguing that “omoaffettivo” removes the sexual dimension from the word and can contribute to the idea that same-sex relationships are acceptable so long as they are framed primarily in terms of affection rather than sexuality. This could be a particularly relevant concern in a Church context, where the sexual dimension of same-sex relationships has often been treated as the main source of discomfort. Others prefer “omoaffettivo” precisely because it shifts the focus away from the hypersexualization of LGBTQ+ people, particularly gay men, and toward the affective and relational dimension of their lives and relationships.

–Elisa Belotti