The Catholic Church in Italy has held a first-of-its-kind conference of its clergy to discuss how best to welcome LGBTQIA+ Christians into the church.
The event took place in Rome on September 4 in the central auditorium of the General Curia of the Society of Jesus (also known as the Jesuit order), and came almost a year after the Vatican received its first official LGBTQIA+ pilgrimage to Rome.
Around two hundred Catholic clergy attended the packed conference, including a dozen bishops.
The president of the Italian Bishops Conference, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, also sent a personal message of support to the historic gathering on “pastoral ministry with LGBTQ people.”
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Catholic civil society groups also weigh in
National leaders from some of Italy’s main Catholic associations also participated in the conference and spoke about how they seek to respond pastorally to LGBTQIA+ people.
These include the Italian Catholic Scouts, the Italian Catholic University Association, Christian Life Community and Italian Catholic Action.
They described moving from a place of discrimination to fully integrating LGBTQIA+ people into service roles within their organisations.
Bishops from Bari, Cremona, Chiavari, and Florence spoke about how to establish good practices for integrating LGBT people into their faith communities, emphasising the importance of “offering full dignity to all believers through listening and a family-like approach to welcoming.”
Father Giuseppe Piva, head of the pastoral team that organised the conference, described it as a “turning point” and said that it demonstrated the Italian Catholic Church’s new attitude of “listening and attentiveness” on LGBTQIA+ issues.
“Problems remain, as do the suffering of so many people,” Father Piya said, according to the Avvenire news service, “But we have begun a journey.”
“We don’t yet know where it will lead, but [it] is certainly on the side of our most vulnerable brothers and sisters, who from now on will no longer have to hide in order to discover what the Lord is asking of them.”
Breaking: Ten Italian bishops and about 200 participants gathered in Rome for a historic national conference on ministry with LGBTQ people on September 4th.
Giuseppe Piva, S.J., reports on this historic moment in the Italian Church: pic.twitter.com/qqRR7ZdRfb
— Outreach (@OutrchCatholic) September 7, 2026
Change began with Pope Francis
The Catholic Church began a historic shift in its approach to LGBTQIA+ issues under Pope Francis, which has been continued under the leadership of Pope Leo XIV.
The Catholic Church still officially holds the view that sex should only occur within heterosexual marriages.
However, as recently as last year, a top Italian bishop said that it was wrong to expect same-sex attracted people to live lives of celibacy.
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I really do think anywhere in anytime in between this year of (2026 Twenty-Twenty Six) & either before the year of (2099 Twenty-Ninety-Nine) &/or (3000) is Italy would &/or will become a very new Same Sex Marriage Equality Country because all of the very old past Catholics with their very own very old fashioned outdated attitudes way of thinking of Marriage is between a Man & a Woman mentality who will die out in place of very new future Catholics who would &/or will want the very old traditional Marriage/s to be changed by having Same Sex Marriages for all &/or any Italian Same Sex Couples to have their very Marriages & Weddings all Lawfully, Legally, Rightfully & Respectfully all throughout Italy of course.