The rainbow cross rose above the crowd as hundreds of LGBT+ Catholics and their families walked up Via della Conciliazione. Songs, banners, and prayers turned the long road to St. Peter’s into something more than a procession: it became a visible sign that the Jubilee’s doors can open for all. For the first time, a pilgrimage of LGBT+ Catholics was not an exception on the margins but written into the official calendar of the Church’s Holy Year.
More than 1,400 pilgrims arrived from across twenty countries, answering the invitation of La Tenda di Gionata. Some came by plane or train, others walked for days along the Via Francigena. Among them was Yveline Behets, a 68-year-old transgender woman who set out from Brussels. For her, the Church is a mountain climbed from many sides—different views, same summit. “We are not guests,” she said. “We are family.”
The pilgrimage had its own rhythm: a vigil of testimonies on Friday evening, a solemn Eucharist at the Church of the Gesù on Saturday morning, and then the slow march along Via della Conciliazione toward the Holy Door. At every step, the message grew clearer: belonging is not granted for one day only.
Hugo, a 35-year-old Franco-Québécois, put it simply: “It is a sign of inclusion. But if people truly met us, many walls would fall.” Beatrice, a mother from Bologna, came for her gay son. “Too many children leave the Church because they were told they were wrong. That has to change.” For her, the way forward begins with education: catechists, seminarians, priests, bishops, formation that starts from the ground and rises.
The memory of Pope Francis was present in many hearts. His words, “all, all, all,” had made space where silence once prevailed. His choice to open blessings to same-sex couples remains a turning point, even as it provoked resistance. Now eyes turn to Pope Leo XIV, still silent, still watched.
Yet something has already shifted. For Hugo, “homosexuality is no longer a taboo.” That alone feels like a door unlocked, waiting to be pushed further open.
And so the pilgrimage ended not at the threshold but beyond it. Pilgrims carried the cross through the Holy Door, stepping into light, carrying with them the hope that ordinary parish life, far from Rome, will one day reflect the same welcome.