Italy’s TORVAIANICA–
A community of transgender women has found support and hope in a working-class seaside town south of Rome, where Pope Francis ‘ current gesture of welcome for transgender Christians has resonated highly. Through an extraordinary relationship with the pontiff that was forged during the worst of the pandemic, the transgender woman community has discovered help and optimism.
These people now attend Francis ‘ Wednesday general people on a monthly basis and are given VIP seats thanks to the local parish priest. On any given time, they get handouts with money, detergent, and medication. The Vatican bused them into its medical service when COVID-19 struck so they could receive vaccinations before the majority of Italians.
To commemorate the Catholic Church’s World Day of the Poor on Sunday, these women—many of whom are Spanish National immigrants who work as prostitutes—will join over a thousand different underprivileged and poor people for lunch in the Vatican hall. It is merely the most recent act of participation from a bishop who has made it his mission to reach out to the LGBTQ+ community in both word and deed for Torvaianica’s disadvantaged trans community.
The temple had previously been closed to us. According to Andrea Paola Torres Lopez, a Brazilian transgender woman by the name of Consuelo whose house is adorned with images of Jesus,” they did n’t see us as ordinary citizens, they saw the devil.” ” After that, Pope Francis showed up, and the church’s gates welcomed us.”
Francis ‘ most recent effort was a report from the Vatican’s philosophy office that claimed transgender people could occasionally be baptized and serve as guardians and testimony in weddings. It came after the bishop himself recently made the suggestion that same-sex people might be granted church gifts.
Both times, the novel pronouncements overturned the Vatican theory office’s 2015 and 2021 total bans on same-sex blessings and transgender people serving as godparents, respectively.
Given that gay and trans people have long felt excluded and discriminated against by a church that formally teaches that queer acts are “intrinsically disordered,” important LGBTQ+ companies have embraced Francis ‘ message of equality.
Francis has changed his stance to extremely make it clear that everyone is a child of God, is loved by God and pleasant in the temple, starting with his well-known” Who am I to judge” remark in 2013 about an ostensibly gay priest and his claim in January that “being queer is no crime.”
The rest of the Catholic Church does not always hold the same judgment-free position. New synods of bishops and laypeople in the Vatican backed off vocabulary that explicitly called for the acceptance of LGBTQ+ Catholics. Cardinals and other traditional Catholics have clearly questioned his strategy. And according to a Pew Research Center analysis from 2022, the majority of U.S. Catholics, or 62 %, think that the sex that is assigned at birth determines whether someone is male or female, while only 37 % of respondents said it can change.
GLAAD and DignityUSA claimed that Francis ‘ voice of incorporation may send a text to political and cultural leaders to finish their oppression, isolation, and prejudice against transgender people following his most recent statement about trans participation in church ceremonies.
It served as a more personalized information to the Torvaianica trans society, providing concrete evidence that the bishop was aware of them, had heard their stories, and wanted to inform them of their membership in his religion.
For trans women like herself, being a caregiver is the closest point she will ever have to having her own child, according to 46-year-old Brazilian sex worker Carla Segovia. She claimed that the new expectations helped her feel more confident about possibly one day fully regaining the devotion she had been baptized in but abandoned after coming out as transgender.
She claimed that in order to completely reconcile with the belief,” this standard from Pope Francis brings me closer to finding that total serenity.”
A 55-year-old trans tailor and housekeeper named Claudia Vittoria Salas claimed she had already been a caregiver to three of her nieces and nephews up residence in Jujuy, in north Argentina. She choked up as she thought back to paying for her godchildren’s education with the money she made from her previous job as a girl.
As her words broke, she remarked,” Being a caregiver entails taking the place of the mother or father, it’s no fun.” ” When the parents are n’t around, you have to pick the right people who will be accountable and able to send the kids to school and give them food and clothing.”
When one, two, and then more intercourse workers showed up at the Rev. during Italy’s tight COVID-19 lockdown, Francis developed an unexpected connection with the Torvaianica transgender community. They had lost all of their sources of income, so they went to Andrea Conocchia’s religion on the principal square of the area to ask for food.
As the pandemic and financial hardships persisted, Canocchia encouraged the people to read to Francis and request what they needed as he got to know them over time. They wrote their papers while seated around a stand one evening.
He recalled that” the first four letters ‘ pages were bathed in grief.” ” Why?” Father, I’m ashamed, and I ca n’t tell the pope what I did or how I lived because they told me that.
However, they did, and the pope’s main almsgiver, who afterwards accompanied the women for their COVID-19 vaccinations, provided the second assistance. Many of the people had no exposure to the vaccination and were not legally permitted to live in Italy at the time the pandemic occurred.
Francis later requested to meet them.
Salas joined a class from Torvaianica to express gratitude to Francis at his public audience on April 27, 2022, after receiving the shot at the Vatican. A dish of baked chicken empanadas, a classic comfort food from their shared country, was brought by the Argentinian pope.
Salas recalled Francis ‘ next action, which she displayed on her phone:” He told the gentleman who receives the gifts to leave them with him, saying” I’m taking’em with me for lunch,” she said. ” I started to cry at that point.
Francis ‘ response to Salas and the others deeply altered Canocchia as a priest, teaching him the importance of paying attention to and listening to his flock’s struggles, especially those who are most marginalized.
For the girls, it is merely a recognition of their importance.
Torres Lopez remarked,” At least they remember us, that we are on Earth and have n’t been abandoned and left to the whims of the wind.”
