Reuters

<p>Pope Francis faced calls to overturn the Catholic Church&#x27;s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender people on Saturday (October 12) when he held talks with LGBTQ activists at the Vatican.</p><p>The 80-minute meeting, held privately at the guesthouse where the pope lives, included a Catholic sister who works with LGBTQ people, a member of the transgender community, and a U.S. medical doctor who helps run a clinic providing gender-affirming hormonal care for adults.</p><p>&quot;I really wanted to share with Pope Francis about the joy that I have being a transgender Catholic person,&quot; Michael Sennett, who took part in the meeting, told Reuters.</p><p>Sennett, a transgender man from Boston, said he told the pontiff about &quot;the joy that I get from hormone replacement therapy and the surgeries that I&#x27;ve had that make me feel comfortable in my body.&quot;</p><p>The unusual encounter was not listed on the Vatican&#x27;s official agenda of the pope&#x27;s meetings for the day.</p><p>The meeting with around a dozen LGBT activists comes six months after the Vatican&#x27;s doctrinal office firmly rejected gender-affirming care, saying it &quot;risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.&quot;</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/2024/3/2/pope-in-fresh-attack-against-dangerous-gender-ideology-1248">READ: Pope in fresh attack against &#x27;dangerous&#x27; gender ideology</a></div><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/world/2024/5/28/a-look-at-pope-francis-comments-about-lgbtq-people-702">READ: A look at Pope Francis&#x27; comments about LGBTQ+ people</a></div><p>LGBTQ groups sharply criticized the Vatican document and said the doctrinal office did not seek input from transgender people about their experiences before rejecting gender-affirming care.</p><p>&quot;The pope was very receptive,&quot; said Cynthia Herrick, an endocrinologist at a St. Louis, Missouri, clinic who took part in the papal meeting.</p><p>&quot;He listened very empathetically. He also shared that he always wants to focus on the person, the well-being of the person.&quot;</p><p>Francis, who is 87, has been credited with leading the Catholic Church into taking a more welcoming approach towards the LGBTQ community, and has allowed priests to bless same-sex couples on a case-by-case basis.</p><p>But earlier this year he also used a highly derogatory Italian term about LGBTQ people, for which the Vatican apologized on his behalf.</p><p>New Ways Ministry, a U.S.-based advocacy group for LGBTQ Catholics, organized Saturday&#x27;s event.</p><p>&quot;The message really is that we need to listen to the experiences of transgender people,&quot; said Sister Jeannine Gramick, the group&#x27;s co-founder, who asked Francis for the encounter. The meeting &quot;means that the church is coming along, the church is joining the modern era,&quot; she said.</p><p>Gramick&#x27;s work with LGBTQ Catholics has attracted the ire of the Vatican and U.S. Catholic officials for decades, including Pope Benedict XVI. But she has developed a correspondence with Francis, who first welcomed her for a meeting at the Vatican last year.</p><p>The Vatican&#x27;s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Saturday&#x27;s meeting.</p><div><em>(Production: Jaime Lopez, Roberto Mignucci)</em></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div>

<p>Pope Francis faced calls to overturn the Catholic Church's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender people on Saturday (October 12) when he held talks with LGBTQ activists at the Vatican.</p>

Pope Francis faced calls to overturn the Catholic Church's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender people on Saturday (October 12) when he held talks with LGBTQ activists at the Vatican.

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Pope, in LGBT meeting, urged to reverse Church's ban on gender-affirming care

Pope, in LGBT meeting, urged to reverse Church's ban on gender-affirming care

Reuters

Published Oct 14, 2024 05:52 PM PHT

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