Pope asked to reverse ban on gender-affirming care

Pope Francis faced requests to revoke the Catholic Church’s prohibition on gender-affirming care for trans individuals during discussions with LGBTQ+ activists at the Vatican. This 80-minute private meeting was held at the guesthouse where the pope resides and included a Catholic sister involved in LGBTQ+ outreach, a transgender community member, and a U.S.A. doctor operating a clinic offering gender-affirming hormone therapy for adults.

Michael Sennett, a participant in the meeting, told ‘Reuters’, “I really wanted to share with Pope Francis about the joy that I have being a transgender Catholic person.” Sennett, a transgender man from Boston, shared with the pope “the joy that I get from hormone replacement therapy and the surgeries that I’ve had that make me feel comfortable in my body.”

This unpublicised gathering was absent from the Vatican’s official schedule of the pope’s Saturday appointments. Around a dozen LGBTQ+ activists attended the meeting, which occurred six months after the Vatican’s doctrinal office “firmly rejected” gender-affirming care, claiming it “risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.” The Vatican document received significant criticism from LGBTQ+ organisations for not consulting with transgender individuals about their experiences before dismissing gender-affirming care.

Cynthia Herrick, an endocrinologist from a St. Louis, Missouri clinic present at the meeting, said, “We expressed that as the church makes policies in this area that it’s very important to speak with transgender individuals.” Herrick noted the pope was “very receptive” and listened “empathetically,” emphasising he always wants to focus on “the well-being of the person.”

Pope Francis, aged 87, has been acknowledged for guiding the Catholic Church toward a more inclusive stance on the LGBTQ+ community, allowing priests to bless same-sex couples “on a case-by-case basis.” However, earlier this year, he used a highly derogatory Italian term for LGBTQ+ individuals, for which the Vatican later apologized “on his behalf.”

The meeting was organised by New Ways Ministry, a U.S.A.-based advocacy group for LGBTQ Catholics. Sister Jeannine Gramick, the group’s co-founder who requested the meeting with Francis, stated, “The message really is that we need to listen to the experiences of transgender people.” She added that the gathering indicates that “the church is coming along, the church is joining the modern era.”

Gramick’s efforts with LGBTQ Catholics have faced opposition from Vatican and U.S.A. Catholic officials for decades, including during Pope Benedict XVI’s tenure. Yet, she has maintained a correspondence with Pope Francis, who first invited her to a Vatican meeting last year. The Vatican’s press office did not immediately comment on Saturday’s meeting.