(LifeSiteNews) — A radical pro-LGBT priest who coordinated meetings between gender-confused persons and Pope Francis is hopeful that Pope Leo XIV will continue down a similar path.

“He is at the beginning of his pontificate…. I’d say that I’m faithful: actually, I am full of hope. I listen, I observe and I pray a lot,” Fr. Andrea Conocchia told dissident website National Catholic Reporter (NCR) Wednesday.

Conocchia is a parish priest in Torvaianica, a seaside town southwest of Rome that is infamous for its “sex workers” and drug trade. In 2023, Conocchia and a group of 50 persons, some of whom were men that presented themselves as women, were welcomed to a luncheon at the Vatican. One man who had “transitioned” in order to appear like a prepubescent girl sat opposite of Francis at the table.

“We transgenders [sic] here in Italy feel a bit more human because the fact that Pope Francis brings us closer to the Church is a beautiful thing,” a man who attended the event named “Carla” Segovia commented.

Former LifeSiteNews Vatican correspondent Michael Haynes reported at the time that the group first came to Francis’ attention when they wrote to him about their needs. In 2020 Francis instructed Cardinal Konrad Krajewski to send them money. The Holy See eventually invited them on Holy Saturday 2021 to receive the abortion-tainted COVID-19 shot at the Vatican. Francis directed Vatican employees not to ask them about their gender. The group eventually started attending Francis’ weekly audiences, where they were routinely given seats of honor.

Conocchia told NCR that he attended the scandalous LGBT “pilgrimage” at the Vatican on September 5-6, which he described as “very powerful” and “cheerful.”

“Maybe for [Leo], just being able to have the pilgrimage celebrated already seems like something,” he said. “It could be a good start. We’ll see how things develop from here. I wish for continuity amid diversity.”

The pilgrimage saw more than 1,000 “LGBT Catholics” parade through the Holy Doors into St. Peter’s Basilica. At least one of the attendees wore a t-shirt that said “[expletive] the rules,” shocking many faithful Catholics. The procession was organized by “La Tenda di Gionata” (“The Tent of Jonathan”), a pro-LGBT group, and joined by Father James Martin’s Outreach group. The event was included on the Vatican’s official website, while the Traditionalist Society of St. Pius X event was initially posted but later removed from the site.

Many high-profile clergy rebuked the pilgrimage. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò responded to the procession with an X post that include several quotes from the visions of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich that describe a counterfeit church purporting to be the true Catholic Church. Cardinal Joseph Zen described it as a “protest” that “gravely insult[s] the Catholic faith and the dignity of St. Peter’s Basilica.” German Cardinal Gerhard Müller said the pilgrimage “desecrated the temple of God.” Bishop Athanasius Schneider similarly expressed “horror” at the Vatican’s endorsement of the “LGBTQ Jubilee pilgrimage,” rebuking priests who support homosexuality as “spiritual criminals” and “murderers of souls.”

97-year-old Albanian Cardinal Ernest Simoni Troshani, an exorcist who was imprisoned for his Catholic faith under his country’s communist regime, recited an exorcism during a Pontifical High Mass for the Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage at St. Peter’s Basilica this weekend, presumably in response to the LGBT event.

Conocchia told NCR that he is looking forward to the future. “I truly hope that we can just move forward, with courage. We can continue this path embracing each of our unique qualities and differences, even regarding Pope Leo’s ones,” he said.

On August 28, Pope Leo XIV met with heretical pro-LGBT nun Sr. Lucia Caram. The meeting was not publicized on the Vatican’s daily bulletin, and neither Caram nor the Spanish-language news portal Religión Digital, which she is associated with, reported on it. In September 2023, Caram said that homosexual “couples” should be able to “marry in the Church.”

Days later, he met Jesuit priest James Martin, who has been seeking to change Catholic teaching on LGBT issues for decades. Following the meeting, Martin shared on social media platform X that he is “profoundly grateful” for the audience with the Pontiff, adding that the “message” he took from the meeting “was that Pope Leo will be continuing with the same openness that Francis showed to LGBTQ Catholics.” Martin has since praised Leo for telling Crux magazine that “we have to change attitudes before we even think about changing what the Church says about any given question.”