A pastoral care of inclusion with LGBT people: "No one remains on the margins of the Church"
Article by Riccardo Bigi published in TOSCANA OGGI, weekly magazine of the Tuscan Episcopal Conference, on 18 February 2024, page 15
Looking at that theater full of people, observing those smiling faces, the words of Pope Francis in Lisbon came to mind «Todos, todos todos!» repeated to the young people at the WYD: «This is the Church, the Mother of all. There's room for everyone. The Lord does not point his finger, but opens his arms", the Pope said then.
The Florentine Church presented (editor's note: 12 February 2024), in the theater of the parish of Rifredi, the new «Coordination for the pastoral care of inclusion». Presiding over the evening was the Archbishop of Florence, the Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, who strongly wanted this new service. In front, many people who in recent years have knocked on the doors of communities and parishes, finding, as they said, sometimes closed, sometimes open doors. Also in the room were many faithful of the Florentine Church, priests and religious, interested in learning about this significant step that the diocese is taking.
Together with the bishop, at the speakers' table, Maria and Paolo Aminti who are part of the group of parents ofKairos association: Christian parents who, upon the "coming out" of a son or daughter, have chosen to make a journey of faith. We owe this initiative to their request: «We found ourselves catapulted into a world that was far from us – they said – and towards which we had prejudices that we had to shake off. We went to the bishop who listened and welcomed us. Today we thank him for his trust."
Together with Maria and Paolo, the new coordination includes two priests, Don Andrea Bigalli and Don Giovanni Martini, and a Dominican, Sister Fabrizia Giacobbe: all three have been following spirituality, prayer and catechesis groups for years with young homosexuals, or with parents of children who have declared this orientation.
«It is an area that is very close to the Church's heart» explained Cardinal Betori, opening the meeting. The idea, he underlined, was born from the request of some families: we had to respond to these parents, and to homosexual people. For this reason, the coordination for the pastoral care of inclusion has been included in the field of family pastoral care. «In the Christian faith, in its very doctrinal formulation – explained Betori – welcoming towards everyone is inherent. There is no distance between doctrine and pastoral care, we do not change the doctrine of the Church in welcoming: no one remains on the margins of the Christian community."
The framework in which the Florentine Church moved, the bishop explained, is that offered by Pope Francis in Amoris laetitia, at number 250: «With the Synod Fathers I took into consideration the situation of families who live the experience of having people with homosexual tendencies within them, an experience that is not easy for either parents or children. Therefore, first of all, we wish to reiterate that every person, regardless of their sexual orientation, must be respected in their dignity and welcomed with respect, taking care to avoid "any sign of unjust discrimination" and particularly any form of aggression and violence. With regard to families, it is instead a question of ensuring respectful accompaniment, so that those who demonstrate homosexual tendencies can have the necessary help to fully understand and realize the will of God in their lives".
It is therefore a question of offering paths for the maturation of faith, offering accompaniment to help people discern God's plan for them, also helping the parishes, in the area, to remove everything that can hinder the integration of everyone in the ecclesial community and to open paths of inclusion.
Father Pino Piva, Jesuit, expert in pastoral accompaniment paths with homosexual people, began his speech by saying he was excited: "I assure you that a meeting of this type is exceptional, it is a particularly significant moment and I am happy to be here." Inclusion, he said, is the opposite of exclusion: a banal but not obvious observation. The Church as a people
on the move, varied humanity that shares the same goal: the opposite of a customs that only lets in those who already have the necessary requirements. Father Piva then recalled the Pope's invitation to combat all discrimination: a request that also concerns our communities, where there are people who keep their sexual orientation hidden for fear of being excluded.
Connected via video she intervened Chiara D'Urbano, psychologist and psychotherapist, who for many years has accompanied the vocational processes of seminarians, priests, men and women religious, and who has been appointed in the Vatican among the consultants of the Dicastery for the clergy. She has the task of giving some scientific information: sexual orientation, she explained, is not chosen. The entire world scientific community agrees in saying that homosexuality is a non-pathological variant, it is not a deficit or a defect to be corrected, and that seeking its causes is useless, and risks even being harmful: intervening on orientation sexual behavior risks increasing negative reactions, a sense of inadequacy, up to suicide. The question is therefore whether LGBT people can reach full sexual maturity: the answer is yes. This is what is evaluated, for example, in vocational paths or in the possibility of assigning pastoral tasks: for homosexual people, as for everyone, what matters is a good functioning of the personality: «People must be known in a much more of their sexual orientation".
Rifredi's meeting continued with speeches and questions, emotional applause and a great desire to participate. Some issues remain suspended: for example, questions regarding homosexual couples, faced with a Church that reiterates (Amoris Laetitia, 251) that "there is no basis for assimilating or establishing analogies, even remote, between homosexual unions and God's plan for marriage and the family". Questions about which Confidence supplicans, Father Piva noted, has opened a pastoral space that assimilates these couples to all unmarried couples: cohabiting, divorced... Many themes that the meeting left open, and which can be taken up again. But the atmosphere of the meeting, rather than a debate, was that of a celebration, of meeting and recognizing each other.
There was even room for a laugh when Don Giovanni Martini he recounted his first encounter with the Kairos group: «They arrived timidly and asked me if they could meet in the parish to pray. Young people asking me for space to pray? I'm astonished. Here they only come to me asking for rooms to party or to see Sanremo." For this reason he welcomed them with joy. «But I didn't understand anything, I had to study, I walked with them. And now here we are, thank you for this gift that the diocese gives us."
Finally, the story of Don Andrea Bigalli, who a few weeks ago went to an audience with Pope Francis with the committee for the centenary of Don Lorenzo Milani, of which he is a member. «In the short time I had available to say goodbye – he said – I told him that we would meet here this evening. I caught his attention, he told me "Take great care of these people, love them very much".
