Gay pilgrimage removed from Jubilee calendar embarrasses Vatican

Another black hole in Vatican communications. Just days ago news broke that a jubilee for 'Christian' LGBT associations had been approved arousing widespread dissent in the Catholic world. The dissent must have exerted considerable pressure and no less embarrassment on the dicastery headed by Monsignor Rino Fisichella, the final point of reference for the organisation of the Jubilee Year. Pressure and embarrassment that have led to yet another media gaffe by the Vatican.

The subject of the embarrassment concerns the appearance and disappearance of the 'LGBT Jubilee' on the official calendar of events. Up until about a week ago, on 6 September 2025 the date of a pilgrimage organised by LGBT Christian associations appeared in the news and then suddenly disappeared. On Wednesday, the American news site The Pillar managed to reach a spokesman for the dicastery who with an ambiguous reply seemed to deny that the event had ever appeared on the official calendar: "The pilgrimage is not on the website because it is not an official event sponsored by the dicastery.

But it was too late to deny, because a multitude had already viewed the page on the calendar. Not only that, but the Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelisation himself had claimed the opposite a few days earlier (see here): "They are on the calendar like many others". In fact, the existence of this blessed page is also demonstrated by a simple web search: by entering the three keywords 'pilgrimage Tenda Gionata', one notices that the web address of the official calendar of events appears, but when one clicks on it, 'page not found' appears on the screen. Nonetheless, The Pillar managed to retrieve the archive page of the event, which was also subsequently removed.

Further evidence is provided by the fact that the Jubilee Tent's own website displays an article dated 6 December, which states "For this reason, on the occasion of the Jubilee 2025 called for by Pope Francis, the Italian Association La Tenda di Gionata (Jonathan’s Tent) has asked to organise a Jubilee pilgrimage on 6 September 2025, which has now been included among the events reported by the Jubilee Secretariat". As you can see, the last of the 'linked' pages is the Jubilee Calendar, which links to a page that no longer exists, but was apparently still active on the day the article was published.

On Thursday 12 December, a member of the Jubilee press office, Agnese Palmussi, confirmed to The Pillar that "the Pilgrimage of Jonathan’s Tent was in the general calendar of Jubilee events"; and explained that "it was removed a few days ago only because the organisers [of the pilgrimage] had not yet provided the [Jubilee] organisation with the number of participants [in the pilgrimage] nor with detailed information about the event. This information is necessary for inclusion in the general calendar". Palmussi also assured that "the event will be reinstated as soon as the organisers provide the necessary information" and specified that the dicastery is not responsible for "the small pilgrimages of the dioceses and associations that request them", but only for the 35 large Jubilee events.

So the LGBT pilgrimage which was registered, and at the moment is unlisted, will be reinserted in the future; a bit like the beast of chapter 17 of the Apocalypse, which "was, but is no more; he shall ascend out of the abyss, but to go into perdition". Bit, it is difficult to give full credence to the reconstruction given by the Press Office: if the necessary information was missing, why was it included in the calendar in the first place? And if that was the only problem, why remove it rather than leave it pending information? Indeed, not only the anonymous spokesman for The Pillar, but also our sources, report that the Vatican was abuzz with disagreements as soon as the news broke. And fortunately so: a sign that not everyone is prepared to bow their heads before unacceptable initiatives.
Palmussi's reply also allows us to understand that the anonymous member of the Dicastery who spoke to The Pillar was not telling a complete lie, but a half-truth, since "minor pilgrimages" are not in fact official events sponsored by the Dicastery.

So, with the calendar conundrum half solved, the real problem remains: the Dicastery for Evangelisation had no objection to accepting the inclusion of pilgrimages organised for LGBT associations among the official Jubilee pilgrimages. In fact, it seems that what is at stake is not the participation of people with a homosexual orientation in the Jubilee initiatives, but the official inclusion of associations that support and promote a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender identity; associations that reject the fact that these are disordered orientations, that speak of "LGBT people and Christians", as if these affective and sexual disorders were actually a variant identity of human beings.

With all the consequences that such an approach entails: if the orientation is not disordered, why should sexual acts in accordance with that orientation be a sin? And if it is not disordered, why should a person not be able to conform their body to that orientation? Here the whole of Christian anthropology is at stake: may more and more dissent voices be raised.

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UPDATE of 16 December 2024: The Lgbt pilgrimage has been reinserted into the calendar on the official Jubilee website.