VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — The gay Vatican liturgical vestment designer known as the “Pope’s Tailor” gave an interview stressing both his active homosexuality and his renewed “calling” after the election of Leo XIV.
Filippo Sorcinelli, who made vestments for the last three popes, marked 25 years of working with the Vatican by granting an August 3 interview to the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera. He revealed that he had continued to work with the Vatican after “coming out” as a homosexual 15 years ago and that Vatican officials had, after Leo’s election, asked him to focus on preparing the new Pope’s liturgical image.
“It was like a calling, a summons back to duty,” he said.
Sorcinelli revealed that he had suffered an “existential” crisis and considered leaving the specialized field of sacred vestments after more than a decade of working closely with Pope Francis. He said he has already completed the vestments Pope Leo XIV is expected to wear during two major events on August 6 and August 22, in Assisi and Rimini.
The interview also revisited Sorcinelli’s public declaration of his homosexuality roughly 15 years ago. He said a business competitor disclosed his sexual orientation in an attempt to damage his standing within ecclesiastical circles, leading him to address the matter publicly himself.
Outside of his ecclesiastical commissions, Sorcinelli maintains a public profile markedly different from the sacred imagery associated with papal liturgies. In a documentary published on ARTE.tv on May 31, Sorcinelli revealed that he lives with Yuri, a man presented as his “husband.” The two have reportedly been together since 2016 and entered into a civil union in 2021. The documentary also shows Yuri as the manager of Sorcinelli’s social media and assisting him with the business.
In particular, Sorcinelli described his Instagram account as an “open book” since 2013, saying he prefers to present himself “completely naked, both literally and metaphorically.” The account combines promotion of his ecclesiastical work with images documenting his personal life as an openly homosexual Catholic.
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The documentary also depicts the couple’s home as resembling a museum, containing numerous pieces of antique art, including a substantial collection of Buddhist and Hindu statues.
The film highlights other aspects of Sorcinelli’s business. In particular, his Roman showroom employs Giuseppe Didio, who left the priesthood after 16 years to openly live his homosexuality. According to Didio, working with Sorcinelli allowed him to reconnect with the clerical world “from a different perspective.”
Sorcinelli’s fragrance business similarly juxtaposes explicitly religious and secular branding. His perfume collection includes products bearing names such as “Tu Petrus” alongside others marketed as “Cybersex” and “Quicky and Coffee.”
According to the documentary, he sprays one of his incense-based fragrances inside the box containing each set of sacred vestments before they are delivered, describing the gesture as a way to “complete the sensory experience.”
Sorcinelli’s association with the Roman Curia began in 2001 when he created a chasuble for the priestly ordination of a seminarian friend, Father Luca. The first prominent ecclesiastical client was Angelo Bagnasco, then archbishop of Pesaro, who — according to an earlier interview with Sorcinelli himself — approached him after that initial phase of his career. Contact with the Vatican came later, in 2007, when Sorcinelli was called to collaborate with the office responsible for papal liturgical celebrations during the pontificate of Benedict XVI.
“Benedict needed me,” he said in a 2019 interview. “Beyond their role, (the popes) are people just like us.”
In fact, the precious jeweled miter and the related liturgical vestments that Benedict XVI used during his apostolic journey to Genoa in 2008 are works by Sorcinelli. Bagnasco, therefore, acted as the link between Sorcinelli and the Office for Liturgical Celebrations, which at the time was headed by Guido Marini.
The liturgical vestment trade is not entirely in the hands of homosexuals. The Gammarelli family has been selling vestments in Rome since 1798. The current owner is Alessia Gammarelli, who with her cousins represents the sixth generation to run the business.