Members of the LGBTQ community passed through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on Saturday (September 6), taking part in a pilgrimage connected to the ongoing 2025 Catholic Holy Year.

    The Vatican has included one event organised by LGBT Catholics on its official online calendar for jubilee year, in an unusual sign of openness by the global Church that attracted criticism from some conservative Catholic commentators.

    One pilgrim headed to the Vatican City said that it was his first time walking through the Holy Door.

    Earlier in the week on Monday (September 1), Pope Leo gave a high-profile private audience to a prominent U.S. priest who ministers to LGBT Catholics in a possible sign the new pontiff will continue the late Pope Francis' legacy of opening up the Church to the gay community.

   Francis, who led the Church for 12 years before his death in April, issued a decree in 2023 allowing priests to administer blessings to same-sex couples on a case-by-case basis, although the Church still only officially recognises marriages between men and women.

    The Catholic Church teaches that LGBT people should be respected and that their human dignity must be defended. It also teaches that same-sex attraction is not sinful, but that sexual relations outside marriages between men and women are.

   Leo, elected by the world's cardinals in May, has not yet addressed the LGBT community publicly, and also has not publicly commented on Francis' disputed 2023 decree.