Some jokes never seem to get old, and we’d argue that’s true for quips about the pomp and circumstance behind papal vestments. Despite hopes that having two relatively liberal popes in a row would have done something to shift the Catholic Church’s stance on LGBTQ+ issues, things have remained pretty status quo in the past decade-plus. So it seems only fair to make light of the fact that, when it comes to their flamboyancy of sartorial expression, popes have a tendency to give even drag queens a run for their money.
What is no laughing matter, however, is the openly gay designer responsible for some of the last three pope’s most photographed ensembles: Filippo Sorcinelli.
“I have never seen faith and sexuality as a battle, but as a creative tension that fuels my work,” Sorcinelli said in a Monday interview with the Daily Mail that’s bringing renewed attention to his relationship with the Vatican.
“What does it mean to be openly gay? Perhaps it means embracing one’s story without fear and transforming it into creative language,” he added.
As Out reported in the past, Sorcinelli has crafted ceremonial papal vestments for over 20 years, meaning that Benedict XVI, Francis, and now Pope Leo XIV have all worn his intricate designs. (He even fabricated the ornately embroidered burgundy-and-gold stole that helped Leo, who wore the item for his first address from St. Peter’s Basilica, crack Vogue’s best-dressed list for 2025.) But he’s now emerging as a convincing spokesman for the Catholic leadership’s flamboyant dress and characteristically individual-based approach toward LGBTQ+ people — saying that his interactions with the Church have always been grounded in acceptance.
“My experience of the Church has always been one of welcome. No one has ever stopped me at the threshold of a church,” Sorcinelli told the publication, explaining that his love for Catholicism began as a child, when he helped his mother clean their local parish church. In that relatively humble house of worship, he said, he first became enamored with the religion’s intricate expressions of faith, saying, “Every act of care, every glance toward architecture, the organ, altarpieces, awakened in me the awareness that faith also lives in small attentions.”
Admittedly, Sorcinelli’s sincere attachment to the lavish aesthetics still used by the Catholic Church to demand respect takes some of the humor out of them. But to his credit, that’s because he speaks about his ornate, meticulously crafted designs — which can seem as out of line with modern-day priorities as traditional military regalia or crown jewels — in a way that also has relevance for the secular world. Specifically, while educating many of us about the liturgical calendar dictating what’s to be worn when, he talks about artistry and personal expression being a key factor in his designs.
“Each pontiff, like every priest, is a universe of symbols. His body becomes a visible word that asks to be clothed in forms and colors capable of reflecting the mission he embodies,” Sorcinelli said in the interview that’s picking up steam among audiences interested in both papal fashion and the designer’s sexuality.
“Benedict XVI expressed a culture of roots, a refinement grounded in memory and tradition… Francis chose the strength of a surprising simplicity, almost a Gospel provocation,” he added of the two previous popes who at least preached very different messages of acceptance. “Leo XIV manifests a desire to bring everything back to the centrality of Christ, making that axis the sign of a single path uniting past and future.”
In the interview, Sorcinelli dives into the first U.S.-born pope’s love of cufflinks and habit of pairing the new with the old — like when he wore a Chicago White Sox cap with white robes. And while it’s not exactly a lesson in personal styling from Law Roach, it at least shows a more intimate side to a pope who has so far been praised for opposing extremist politics but failed to bring in long-excluded groups to the fold.
