The Italian Association of Catholic Guides and Scouts, known as AGESCI, announced the policy shift in a recently released document. This change came after three years of internal debate and consultation. The document said, “AGESCI has reached the conclusion that… emotional orientation and gender identity cannot constitute exclusion criteria in the discernment that community leaders are called upon to exercise when an adult requests to join the association to play an educational role.”
The organization also stated that its mission of welcoming others means “it is essential to promote paths aimed at overcoming homophobic, lesbophobic and transphobic feelings and attitudes…Such feelings, in fact, constitute an obstacle to the recognition, inclusion, and integration of male and female leaders in our groups, and at all levels of the association.” Founded in 1974, AGESCI is Italy’s largest scouting and youth organization, with more than 182K members and over 33K leaders as of 2024, including around 2,000 priests.
Previously, LGBTQ+ people could participate in scouting activities but were barred from educational leadership positions. During consultations that began in 2022, the organization collected testimonies from LGBTQ+ members describing experiences of exclusion and prejudice. The move comes weeks after the Vatican’s 2026 Synod report acknowledged the “pain” and “profound suffering” experienced by LGBTQ+ Catholics, particularly those subjected to conversion therapy.
