“We must free ourselves from prejudice. No one should ever feel excluded, I repeat, no one.”

With these words Bishop Francesco Savino of Cassano all’Jonio, vice president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, opened his homily at the Church of the Gesù in Rome. He was presiding over a Mass for the LGBT community at the close of their Jubilee pilgrimage, which that afternoon had passed through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica.

For Savino, the Jubilee is not only a time of penance but also of reconciliation—indeed, of “restorative justice.” It is the moment, he said, to restore dignity above all to those from whom it has been denied. His words drew long applause.

“Human dignity cannot be erased,” he underlined. “The painful chapters of life are not torn out, humiliations are not hidden. Yet God, through his transforming power, redeems it all.”

Savino also recalled his meeting with Pope Leo XIV on August 7: “I told him I had been invited to celebrate this Mass. I left filled with hope, because Pope Leo is a pope who listens. With great gentleness he told me: go, celebrate the Jubilee organized by La Tenda di Gionata and the other associations that accompany you.”

He closed with an image of community: “We are a people of faces and stories. A people asking, with dignity, with truth, to be recognized—each one with their wounds, yet each one with their beauty.”