Pope Francis urged to undo ban on gender-affirming care

Following talks with LGBTQ+ activists at the Vatican, Pope Francis is facing calls to overturn the Catholic Church’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender people.

The meeting, held privately at a guesthouse at the Pope’s residence, was organised by New Ways Ministry, a U.S-based advocacy group for LGBTQ+ Catholics.

Those in attendance included a Catholic sister who works with LGBTQ+ people, a transgender person, and a doctor from the U.S who runs a gender-affirming care clinic for trans adults as well as other LGBTQ+ activists.

Sennett, a trans man from Boston, was also present. Speaking to Reuters, he said his intention in attending the meeting was to share “the joy” that he has being a transgender Catholic person with the Pope, and that gender-affirming care has made him “feel comfortable” in his body.

This comes six months after the Vatican rejected allowing gender-affirming care in Catholic doctrine as it “risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception”.

The document released in April aimed to outline the Pope’s stance on gender-affirming surgery, surrogacy, and abortion.

It quoted Pope Francis as saying gender-affirming care was a form of “ideological colonisation” and that gender theory was “extremely dangerous since it cancels differences in its claim to make everyone equal”.

It also said that any attempt to obscure the differences between men and women should be rejected and that gender-affirming surgery should be avoided as “the body serves as the living context in which the interiority of the soul unfolds and manifests itself”.

There is a distinction made as medical intervention for those with “genital abnormalities” is permitted.

The Vatican were fiercely criticised for this move, particularly as they had not consulted transgender people about their experiences before announcing the ban.

Reports after the meeting suggested that the Pope was “very receptive” to what the activists said, especially as Pope Francis has been credited with being more welcoming towards the LGBTQ+ community since he became the pontiff.

He has previously stated that trans people may be baptised and act as godparents in the Catholic church and that same-sex relationships could be blessed by the Catholic Church too.