Pope Francis reportedly held a private audience with a transgender man on Saturday, adding yet another first to his papal record.
Diego Neria Lejárraga, who underwent sex-reassignment surgery and was subsequently rejected by his religious community, claims he reached out to Pope Francis in December and received a call from the pontiff on Christmas Eve, Spanish newspaper Hoy reported. On Saturday, Lejárraga and his fiancee told the paper they met with Pope Francis in his residence at the Vatican.
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DeBernardo argued that Pope Francis may have a genuine interest in opening the doors to the transgender community, however, as Saturday’s reported meeting would suggest.
“Pope Francis is an intellectual who values discussion,” DeBernardo said. “I think that his meeting with the transgender man was a gesture not only of pastoral care, but of genuine interest in learning about the transgender experience from a firsthand source.”
