Catholic leader Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to sit down to lunch with transgender rights advocates later today.
The pontiff has reportedly invited five transgender people to join the Jubilee of the Poor, which is dedicated to highlighting the dignity and rights of the impoverished and marginalised.
After a mass for World Day of the Poor, hundreds of people from disadvantaged backgrounds have been invited to join the pontiff for a lunch at The Vatican, the news reported by The Catholic Herald.
Alessia Nobile, a prominent transgender rights advocate, who is Catholic, has spoken to Italian media about being invited to the event.
Nobile, 46, told local media that she hopes the gathering will allow her to speak with Pope Leo directly. “I hope this will be an opportunity to speak to him and ask him not to backtrack on rights,” she said.
The rights advocate said the fact that the nee Catholic leader had said very little about transgender people since being appointed was encouraging.
The church currently says that very person, including those who identify as transgender, possesses inherent dignity as a child of God and must be treated with respect, compassion and sensitivity. While also arguing that sexual orientation and gender should not detour from traditional understandings.
Pope Leo was elected in May this year following the death of Pope Francis. He is the first Pope to come from North America, born in Chicago in 1955 he was ordained as a priest in 1982. He has spent most of his life working as a missionary in Peru. He became a dual citizen when he gained Peruvian citizenship.
In September he had a private audience with Reverend James Martin. Reverend Martin is the editor at large at America Media and founder of Outreach, an organsiation the provides resources for LGBTQ Catholics and those who minister with them in the Catholic Church worldwide.
