Pope Francis Holds Private Audience With Transgender Man

[Myarkstir]

Pope Francis Holds Private Audience With Transgender Man

BY Jish Middleton, Jasn. 26, 2015

http://www.phillymag.com/g-philly/2015/01/26/pope-francis-holds-private-audience-transgender-man/

This weekend at the Vatican, Pope Francis met with a Spanish transgender man, Diego Neria Lejárraga, after he wrote a letter to the Pope complaining that his church discriminated against him following his gender-reassignment surgery.

[Myarkstir]

Susan is to be thanked for finding this article btw not me 

[jeni]

I'm not at all religious, but I really like this guy more every day it seems. I wonder what, if anything, he'll have to say about it.

[suzifrommd]

I'm a lifelong critic of the Roman Catholic patriarchy, but this seems like a really, really positive step. Hoping Señor Lejárraga does a good job stating our case.

[ImagineKate]

Pope Francis is a good man with a good heart.

But in reality the RC church is full of good people like him. My own parish priest has said that he'd accept me as a trans woman, but certain things he cannot overcome, such as the church ban on same-sex marriage.

[LoriLorenz]

The Hierarchy is often viewed as unaccepting because the language they use is very stilted. However - with some exceptions - they are in reality often much more accepting and intelligent. Francis has been a breath of fresh air in the informal and personable arena and reminds me of what I've heard of about Pope John the 23rd.

I have to agree with Kate, the Church is FULL of good people who are constrained by old ideas. Hopefully there will be an enlightenment somewhere along the line!

[Stevie]

 I really wanted to like this pope till he asked for the victims of the molesters the church harbored to forgive them.  I am never going to do that.  All I hear from him is platitudes.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/pope-asks-forgiveness-church-evil-priest-sex-abuse-scandals-article-1.1753341

[Alex2020T]

I was raised Catholic, but I reject the ideology completely now because of their stance on transsexuals. It goes something like this: your body isn't yours - it belongs to god. Therefore you shouldn't 'modify' it.

I sometimes wonder if the Catholic Church would take the same line if I told them I intended to 'gift' a kidney to someone. Somehow I doubt; I think they'd be completely cool about me 'modifying' my body to save someone else's life, but if I need to 'modify' my body to save my own life, it's a no-no. F'king hypocrites!