Pope Francis Meets with Trans People at the Vatican
Pope Francis met with a group of trans people on Thursday. It’s the fourth time for such a meeting, according to the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.The newspaper reported that Francis already met with some members of the group on April 27, June 22, and August 3, according to the Associated Press.
The group had been seeking shelter at a Rome church.L’Osservatore Romano reports that the latest encounter happened during the pope’s weekly general audience on Wednesday.The group had been at the Blessed Immaculate Virgin community that welcomed trans people in during the pandemic.“No one should encounter injustice or be thrown away, everyone has dignity of being a child of God,” L’Osservatore Romano reported Sister Jeanningros as saying.
She added that the meeting brought hope to the trans guests.LGBTQ+ rights advocates have welcomed Francis’s more accepting stances toward queer people than popes before him.
However, he has strongly been against the view that gender can be self-determined outside of biology. In 2016 he said self-determination of gender was “a great enemy of marriage,” Reuters reported at the time.
