LGBTQ+ Catholics make Holy Year pilgrimage to Rome and celebrate a new feeling of welcome

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Over 1,000 LGBTQ+ Catholics and their families participated in a Holy Year pilgrimage to Rome on Saturday, celebrating a new level of acceptance in the Catholic Church after long feeling shunned, and crediting Pope Francis with the change.

Some wept as they walked through the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica in the rite of passage of Holy Year pilgrims. They said the moment felt important, historic even, in the life of the church and their community.

“It just felt epic, like I was able to touch the hand of God,” said Justin del Rosario, who carried a big wooden crucifix across the threshold of the Holy Door with a group of pilgrims from the United States that included his husband.

Several LGBTQ+ groups participated in the pilgrimage, which was listed in the Vatican’s official calendar of events for the Holy Year, the once-every-quarter century celebration of Catholicism. Vatican organizers stressed that the listing in the calendar didn't signal endorsement or sponsorship, but was a logistical tool to help organizers and pilgrims alike.

The main sponsor of the pilgrimage was an Italian LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, “Jonathan’s Tent,” but other groups participated, including a group of trans women from southern Rome, DignityUSA and Outreach, another U.S. group, as well as the Brazilian National Network of LGBT+ Catholic Groups.

“I was here 25 years ago at the last Holy Year with a contingent of LGBTQ people from the U.S. and we were actually detained as a threat to the Holy Year programs," said DignityUSA's Marianne Duddy Burke.

To now be invited to walk through the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica "fully recognized as who we are and the gifts we bring to the church, and that we have both our faith and our identities combined, is a day of great celebration and hope,” she said.

Pope Leo XIV celebrated a special Jubilee audience Saturday at the Vatican for all pilgrim groups in Rome this weekend, but made no special mention of the LGBTQ+ Catholics.

Many of the pilgrims attributed their feeling of welcome to Francis. More than any of his predecessors, Francis distinguished himself with a message of welcome, from his 2013 quip, “Who am I to judge?” about a purportedly gay priest, to his decision to allow priests to bless same-sex couples.

He never changed church teaching saying homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.” But during his 12-year papacy from 2013 to 2025, Francis met with LGBTQ+ advocates, ministered to a community of trans women and, in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press, declared that “being homosexual is not a crime.”

John Capozzi of Washington D.C., who was participating in the pilgrimage with his husband, del Rosario, said Francis’ attitude brought him back to the church after he left it in the 1980s, at the height of the AIDS crisis. Then, he said, he felt shunned by his fellow Catholics.

“There was that feeling like I wasn’t welcome in the church,” he said. “Not because I was doing anything, just because I was who I was,” he said. “It was this fear of going back in because of the judgment.”

But Francis, who insisted that the Catholic Church was open to everyone, “todos, todos, todos,” changed all that, he said.

“I was a closeted Catholic,” Capozzi said. “With Pope Francis, I was able to come out and say, ’Hey, you know, I am Catholic and I’m proud of it and I want to be part of the church.”

Capozzi spoke during a standing room-only vigil service for the pilgrims Friday night at the main Jesuit church in Rome. The service featured testimonies from gay couples, the mother of a trans child and a moving reflection by an Italian priest, the Rev. Fausto Focosi.

“Our eyes have known the tears of rejection, of hiding. They have known the tears of shame. And perhaps sometimes those tears still spring from our eyes,” Focosi said. “Today, however, there are other tears, new tears. They wash away the old ones.”

“And so today these tears are tears of hope,” he said.

On Saturday morning, Italian Bishop Franceseco Savino celebrated Mass for the pilgrims and received a sustained standing ovation in the middle of his homily when he recalled that Jubilee celebrations historically were meant to restore hope to those on the margins.

“The Jubilee was the time to free the oppressed and restore dignity to those who had been denied it,” he said. “Brothers and sisters, I say this with emotion: It is time to restore dignity to everyone, especially to those who have been denied it.”

Leo’s position on LGBTQ+ Catholics had been something of a question. Soon after he was elected in May, remarks surfaced from 2012 in which the future pope, then known as the Rev. Robert Prevost, criticized the “homosexual lifestyle” and the role of mass media in promoting acceptance of same-sex relationships.

He later acknowledged Francis’ call for a more inclusive church, saying Francis “made it very clear that he doesn’t want people to be excluded simply on the basis of choices that they make, whether it be lifestyle, work, way to dress, or whatever.”

Leo met Monday with the Rev. James Martin, an American Jesuit who has advocated for greater welcome for LGBTQ+ Catholics. Martin emerged saying Leo told him he intended to continue Pope Francis’ policy of LGBTQ+ acceptance in the church and encouraged him to keep up his advocacy.

“I heard the same message from Pope Leo that I heard from Pope Francis, which is the desire to welcome all people, including LGBTQ people,” Martin told The Associated Press after the audience.

Savino, vice president of the Italian bishops conference, said he too had received Leo's blessing to celebrate the Mass for the LGBTQ+ pilgrims.

Del Rosario, Capozzi’s husband, said he now felt welcome after long staying away from the faith he was raised in.

“Pope Francis influenced me to return back to church. Pope Leo only strengthened my faith,” he said.

Associated Press journalists Isaia Montelione and Maria Selene Clemente contributed to this report.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Some of the hundreds of LGBTQ+ Catholics and their families who joined a Holy Year pilgrimage to Rome, celebrating a new level of acceptance in the Catholic Church and crediting Pope Francis for the change, walk through the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Some of the hundreds of LGBTQ+ Catholics and their families who joined a Holy Year pilgrimage to Rome, celebrating a new level of acceptance in the Catholic Church and crediting Pope Francis for the change, walk through the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Members of the LGBTQ+ community attend a vigil prayer in the Church of the Gesu' in central Rome, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Justin Del Rosario, left, and John Capozzi attend attend a vigil prayer for members of the LGBTQ+ community in the Church of the Gesu' in central Rome, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Justin Del Rosario, left, and John Capozzi attend attend a vigil prayer for members of the LGBTQ+ community in the Church of the Gesu' in central Rome, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Justin Del Rosario, left, and John Capozzi arrive to attend attend a vigil prayer for members of the LGBTQ+ community in the Church of the Gesu' in central Rome, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Andrea Mattei, holding a cross arrives with other members of the LGBTQ+ community to attend a vigil prayer in the Church of the Gesu' in central Rome, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Members of the LGBTQ+ community, who's t-shirts read "God does not reject anyone" in Spanish, arrive to attend a vigil prayer in the Church of the Gesu' in central Rome, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV arrives in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican for an open-air jubiliar audience Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV arrives in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican for an open-air jubiliar audience Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV attends an audience with the participants into a religious congress, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV arrives in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican for an open-air jubiliar audience Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV arrives in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican for an open-air jubiliar audience Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Vote counting was underway Friday in Uganda’s tense presidential election, which was held a day earlier amid an internet shutdown, voting delays and complaints by an opposition leader who said some of his polling agents had been detained by the authorities.

Opposition leader Bobi Wine said Thursday he was unable to leave his house and that his polling agents in rural areas were abducted before voting started, undermining his efforts to prevent electoral offenses such as ballot stuffing.

Wine is hoping to end President Yoweri Museveni's four-decade rule in an election during which the military was deployed and heavy security was posted outside his house near Kampala, the Ugandan capital, after the vote.

The musician-turned-politician wrote on X on Thursday that a senior party official in charge of the western region had been arrested, adding there was “massive ballot stuffing everywhere.”

Rural Uganda, especially the western part of the country, is a ruling-party stronghold, and the opposition would be disadvantaged by not having polling agents present during vote counting.

To try to improve his chances of winning, Wine had urged his supporters to “protect the vote” by having witnesses document alleged offenses at polling stations, in addition to deploying official polling agents.

Wine faced similar setbacks when he first ran for president five years ago. Museveni took 58% of the vote, while Wine got 35%, according to official results. Wine said at the time that the election had been rigged in favor of Museveni, who has spoken disparagingly of his rival.

Museveni, after voting on Thursday, said the opposition had infiltrated the 2021 election and defended the use of biometric machines as a way of securing the vote in this election.

Museveni has served the third-longest tenure of any African leader and is seeking to extend his rule into a fifth decade. The aging president’s authority has become increasingly dependent on the military, which is led by his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba.

Uganda has not witnessed a peaceful transfer of presidential power since independence from British colonial rule six decades ago.

Voters line up to cast their ballots at a polling station, during the presidential election, in the capital, Kampala, Uganda, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Election officials count ballots after the polls closed for the presidential election at a polling station in Kampala, Uganda, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

An election official holds up unmarked ballots during the vote count after polls closed for the presidential election, at a polling center in Kampala, Uganda, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

A political representative speaks as he works to observe and verify the counting of ballots after polls closed in the presidential election at a polling station in Kampala, Uganda, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

A supporter of leading opposition candidate Bobi Wine cheers while watching election officials count ballots, after polls closed at a polling station in Kampala, Uganda, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)