Pope Francis holds private audience with trans man

The Pope has held a private audience with a transgender man at the Vatican, in the first official meeting between the head of the Catholic Church and a transgender person.

Pope Francis received Diego Neria Lejárraga and his fiancée at the Vatican on Saturday (January 24), after Neria wrote to him about the rejection he had experienced from the Church after transitioning.

After writing a letter last year in which Neria described how he was rejected by his former church in Spain and called “the devil’s daughter” by a priest, the pope called him on Christmas Eve and invited him to come and speak to gim about his experience.

“After hearing him on many occasions, I felt that he would listen to me,” Neria told Hoy.

José María Núñez Blanco, president of LGBTI advocacy group Fundación Triángulo, said the meeting was “a piece of good news.”

“Hopefully the Catholic Church ceases to be a machine of hate and suffering for the good of believers and non-believers,” he said in a statement.

The meeting forms part of what is seen as an ongoing attempt by Pope Francis to diminish hostility between the Catholic Church and the LGBT community.

Despite denouncing same-sex marriage a “threat” to the family earlier this month, the 78-year-old has also called on Catholic parents to “stand by” their LGBT children, and urged his peers to be “less hostile” to change.

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