Bishop says Pope urged him to celebrate liturgy for LGBT event

Bishop Francesco Savino, vice-president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, has disclosed that Pope Leo XIV personally encouraged him to celebrate Mass for LGBT Catholics during a recent Jubilee year pilgrimage.

During his homily at the Church of the Gesù in Rome on 6 September, Bishop Savino said that in a private audience with the Pope the previous month he was urged “with great tenderness” to preside at the liturgy.

The homily and Mass occurred as part of an international gathering at the Vatican of LGBT Catholics, their families and friends, which was organised by the Italian pastoral group La Tenda di Gionata, an Italian association lobbying for greater inclusivity among the faithful.

In an apparent first for the Vatican, more than a thousand LGBT Catholics and their supporters – with reports of some 1,400 people from around 20 countries – took part in the pilgrimage, whose participants promoted as an important sign of diversity in the Church.

Bishop Savino told the congregation that when he informed Pope Leo of the invitation to celebrate, the Holy Father encouraged him directly, telling him to “go and celebrate the Jubilee” with those in attendance.

In his homily, Bishop Savino spoke of the dignity of all people before God, saying that Christians were called to “restore dignity to all, especially those to whom it has been denied”.  

He drew on biblical images to describve the the Jubilee as a time of liberation and renewal, insisting that “nobody should feel excluded” from the life of the Church. He quoted from St Isidore of Seville, as well as from Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium and from Cardinal José Cobo of Madrid to underline his message of hope rooted in Christ.

The bishop’s disclosure that he had received papal encouragement immediately drew attention and controversy. Some Catholic commentators argued that approval of liturgies for LGBT Catholics blurred doctrinal boundaries, with critics warning that public liturgical events of this kind could create confusion over the Church’s stance on sexuality and morality.

In a recent interview with Crux, however, Pope Leo XIV struck a more cautious tone, making clear that he had no intention of altering Church teaching on sexuality or on marriage. While stressing that “everyone is invited in” as sons and daughters of God, he said it was “highly unlikely, certainly in the near future” that Church doctrine would change.

Bishop Savino, 69, has led the Diocese of Cassano all’Jonio in Calabria since 2015 and was elected one of two vice-presidents of the Italian Bishops’ Conference in 2021. A former hospital chaplain, he is widely known in Italy for his pastoral work among the poor and vulnerable.

His appearance at the Mass at Gesù marked one of the most senior interventions yet by an Italian prelate in support of LGBT Catholics. Furthermore, according to supporters of the LGBT pilgrimage, the choice of venue added symbolic weight, as the Church of the Gesù is not only the mother church of the Jesuits but stands close to the Vatican itself.

RELATED: Pope Leo on LGBT: all welcome but Church teaching 'will continue as it is’‍

Photo: Pilgrims march toward the St Peter's Basilica during the LGBT Jubilee pilgrimage at the Vatican, 6 September 2025. (Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images.)

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