The Spanish blog "Religion Digital," directed by laicized Catholic priest José Manuel Vidal offered its own version of the episode, quoting anonymously one of those who met the pope: "In the painful journey that each one of us have made as LGBT believers, I confess that I would not have imagined that we would have reached this stage; to meet in audience with the Holy Father."
"These are the words of one of the representatives of the Italian association Tenda di Gionata (Jonathan's Tent), of LGBT parents and children. About 40 of its members were received at the Vatican yesterday," Religión Digital wrote, suggesting that the group had a formal, private meeting with the pope.
The Spanish blog report of the events was tweeted by Fr. James Martin, generating more media buzz.
In fact, the group Tenda di Gionata was not received in a private audience, but met briefly by the pope during the massive greetings that follow his Wednesday general audiences.
During the minute-long encounter, Mara Grassi, vice president of the association, presented Pope Francis with a Spanish translation of the booklet "Genitori Fortunati" ("Fortunate Parents"), a collection of mostly negative experiences that parents of those identifying as LGBT have had with the Catholic church. The groups also presented the pope a rainbow-colored T-shirt with the words "In love there is no fear," a quote from 1 John 4:18.
Most of the initial coverage about the reported words of Pope Francis to Tenda di Gionata came either from L'Avvenire or the Italian socialist newspaper La Reppublica, both of which interviewed Grassi, a mother of four children, one of whom, who is 40, identifies as gay.