A mass to the Church of the Jesus, a prayer vigil and the pilgrimage to cross the Holy Door of the Basilica of St. Peter. It is the program of Jubilee for LGBTQ people (it is the acronym used to identify lesbians, gay, bisexual, transsexuals, queer and anyone who does not call itself heterosexual, editor’s note), included in the official calendar of the Holy Year, organized by the Association “The Gionata tent” And from other associations that take care of the pastoral care for these people.
The event begins on Friday morning with a meeting promoted by Outreach (USA) in the General House of Jesuits in Borgo Santo Spirito with the American Jesuit Father James Martin – received last Monday at the hearing by Pope Leone XIV – and the testimonies of Catholics LGBTQ from different countries. For Saturday the program of the Gionata tent, despite the insertion a few days ago of the jubilee hearing of Pope Leo in St. Peter’s Square, remained unchanged.
At 11 there will be mass in the Church of the Jesus in Romechaired by Monsignor Francesco Savino, Vice -president of the CEI, and at 2.30 pm the meeting in Piazza Pia to proceed in procession towards the Holy Door of the Basilica of San Pietro. The latter event is expected to participate a thousand people. In the evening, a convivial moment promoted by the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics With buffet dinner for pilgrims, a time to get to know each other and refresh themselves, explain the organizers.
On the website of “La Tento di Gionata” several testimonies were collected on the meaning of this event: “often”, he writes Paolo Spina, Doctor, one of the participants in the jubilee pilgrimage, “we felt on the margins, with the mouth closed, as evidenced by a boulder rolled against a sepulcher, considered impure, unworthy, not suitable to testify the wonders that the Lord has operated in us and with us and to announce his name that is life, love and freedom to the sisters and brothers we meet, in the Church and in the LGBTQ community. Instead, it arose that morning in which, like that Saturday in Nazareth, it is Jesus who announces a word especially for those who “live in Galilee”, on the outskirts of the sacred, where the rumors say that there is nothing good “. Anke Budwegwho came from Sweden for this Jubilee, says that “as a mother of two transgender children I feel really blessed. Being part of their path, learning from them and together with them, is a gift that I would not exchange with anything in the world ».
The Jesuit Father James Martin (Ansa)
“In these years,” he says Innocenzo Pontillo, Tuscan fisotherapist and president of the Gonate’s tent, “we behaved like the insistent widow of the parable: we knock, we still knock. Sometimes the doors open, others remain closed, but we don’t stop knocking. The jubilee pilgrimage was born like this: not to create a fence, but to walk inside the church. It is not a ghetto, but a concrete sign of reconciliation and rebirth. It is the opportunity to say that no one should feel unwanted in the Church. For me, the Jubilee is precisely this: to start again, get back on the way, remembering that the house of God is of all his sons and daughters. For me, pilgrimage is the photo of a journey and a story that has existed for decades. Already in the 1980s the first groups of LGBTQ believers were born in Italy who said: “We are there too”, but only today, in some dioceses, accompanying routes begin in ordinary pastoral care. It is not all solved, but we are no longer invisible. When we cross the Santa Porta we will bring faces and stories: catechists, ministries, parents, religious and religious who already live and serve the Church. And we will also bring the wounds: I think of Alfredo Ormando, who in 1998 was set fire in St. Peter’s Square because he could not reconcile faith and identity. We will also walk for him, and for many like him. Our message is simple: nobody must be excluded from the Gospel. Sometimes we feel as “discarded stones”, but the Lord reminds us that “the stone discarded by the manufacturers has become corner head” ».
Last Monday, the Pope received father James Martin at the hearing, the Jesuit who has always been close to homosexual people and a reference point for the pastoral care of these people: «I was honored and grateful to meet the Holy Father And he moved me to listen to the same message that I heard from Pope Francis on the LGBTQ Catholicswhich is a message of opening and welcoming, “Martin wrote in a post on social media,” I found him serene, joyful and encouraging. For me, it was a deeply consoling meeting. The message I received from him, strong and clear, was that he wishes to continue with the same approach promoted by Pope Francis, That is an opening and welcome approach. It was therefore a very encouraging message of continuity. This, in the mind of Pope Leo, is naturally linked to “synodality”, the idea that the Church must listen to people of all social backgrounds (including LGBTQ people) to become more open, more careful, more welcoming and more inclusive. Once again, this is very in line with the desires of Pope Francis and with his famous words “Todos, Todos, Todos” To describe the Church. This is also in line with the public adhesion of Leone to synodality, not only as a delegate to the Synod, but as Pope who in his first speech after the election mentioned what is now a “constitutive dimension” of the Church “.
