Three Suggestions to Keep the LGBTQ+ Jubilee Pilgrimage Alive

The LGBTQ+ pilgrimage begins its journey to St. Peter’s Basilica, carrying a rainbow cross.

A year after the LGBTQ Jubilee Pilgrimage to Rome, writer Luigi Testa has reflected on the experience, and he is offering  the three directions LGBTQ+ Catholics should take on the journey of inclusion in the broader Church.

The LGBTQ+ Jubilee Pilgrimage was organized by La Tienda di Gionata (Jonathan’s Tent), an Italian Catholic organization founded “to share the journey that LGBTQ+ Christians experience every day.” The pilgrimage, which brought together over 1400 people from countries around the globe, included a Mass held in the Church of the Gesù, with the main presider being Bishop Francesco Savino, Vice President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference. It culminated in passing through the Holy Doors of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Writing on the website Progetto Gionata, Testa describes those pilgrimage days as “a caress for so many. The songs, the faces, the smiles, the tears, the words remain imprinted on our faces.” That “jubilee grace” allowed for the “opening [of] ourselves to authentic listening so that the Spirit calls us by name, helping us to rediscover our identity.”

But the responsibility required of that grace” points in three different directions. The first is the re-emphasis of the centrality of one’s personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Testa writes: 

“LGBT+ Christians, more than others, can truly testify that the content of faith is not a morality or even an ethic, but an encounter with a person. The testimony of those who struggle hand-to-hand with the constraints of a moral misunderstanding or even a non-evangelical moralism in order to continue to remain embraced by Christ, in order to continue to adhere to Him, can be a very effective antidote in the Church against that ‘hidden and horrendous poison of your error’ of which Augustine speaks: ‘the desire that the grace of Christ consist in his example and not in the gift of his person’ ( Contra Iulianum. Opus imperfectum ).”

LGBT+ Catholics must also reaffirm their commitment to the Church: 

“[O]ur choice must be clear, if it is to remain in the Church as one remains in a family: without ceasing to be ourselves, but without expecting immediate and easy understanding.”

The final direction is to be present witnesses within the Church”

“It’s about imagining ways, both personal and group, of being present in the ordinary environments of our Catholicism—parishes, associations, movements—presenting there our witness as committed, passionate, serious, radical Christians, in love with Christ, devoted to the Church, and perhaps—where possible—also our witness of happy and fruitful conjugal love.”

Testa’s suggestions offer important spiritual directions that respect both the Church and LGBTQ+ people. 

To read the reflection in its entirety, click here.

—Tulio Huggins, New Ways Ministry, September 28, 2027