A community of trans women has found support and hope in TORVAIANICA, Italy ( AP ) thanks to a remarkable relationship they developed with the pope during the worst of the pandemic. Pope Francis ‘ recent gesture of welcome for transgender Catholics has resonated strongly in this working-class seaside town south of Rome.
These people now attend Francis ‘ Wednesday common people on a monthly basis, where they are given VIP seats, thanks to the local church pastor. They get handouts of medication, money, and shampoo every day. The Vatican bussed them into its medical center 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. For the Torvaianican transgender community that is marginalized, it is simply the most recent act of participation from a bishop who has made reaching out to the LGBTQ+ community an integral part of his church in both word and deed.
The temple was previously closed to us. According to Andrea Paola Torres Lopez, a Brazilian trans 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 doors opened for us.”
Francis ‘ most recent effort was a report from the Vatican’s theory office that claimed transgender people could occasionally be baptized and serve as guardians and testimony in weddings. It came after a recent statement from the bishop himself that suggested same-sex people might be granted temple gifts.
In both instances, the new declarations overturned the same-sex gifts announced in 2021 and the complete bans on trans people serving as guardians issued by the Vatican philosophy office in 2015.
Given that the church that formally teaches that queer functions are “intrinsically disordered” has much felt ostracized and discriminated against, prominent 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. The new synod of priests and laypeople at the Vatican backed off language that explicitly called for inviting LGBTQ+ Catholics. Cardinals and other traditional Catholics have vehemently criticized his strategy. Additionally, according to a Pew Research Center study from 2022, just 37 % of Christians in the United States believe that the sexual assigned at birth determines whether someone is male or female.
GLAAD and DignityUSA claimed that Francis ‘ firmness of inclusion would urge political and cultural leaders to stop persecuting, excluding, and discriminating against transgender people in light of his most recent remarks about trans participation in church ceremonies.
It served as a more personalized message to the trans community in Torvaianica—a material indication that the bishop was aware of them, had heard their tales, and wanted to inform them that they belonged to his temple.
For trans women like herself, being a grandparent 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 standards gave her more confidence that she might one day fully revert to the trust she was baptized in but abandoned after coming out as transgender.
She stated that” this Pope Francisnorm brings me closer to finding that total serenity,” which she believes is required to fully reconcile with the trust.
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 northeastern 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 capable of sending the kids to school and giving them food and clothing.”
During Italy’s tight COVID- 19 shutdown, Francis ‘ unexpected connection with the Torvaianica trans community started when one, then two, and then more intercourse workers showed up at the Rev. They had lost all of their sources of income, so they went to Andrea Conocchia’s temple on the principal square of the area to ask for food.
As the pandemic and financial hardships persisted, Canocchia got to know the ladies better and encouraged them to read to Francis to request assistance. They wrote their papers while seated around a stand one evening.
He recalled that” the websites of the characters from the first four were bathed in grief.” ” Why?” I ca n’t tell the pope what I did or how I lived because they told me,” Father, I’m ashamed.
However, they did, and the pope’s key almsgiver, who afterwards accompanied the women for their COVID-19 vaccinations, provided the second assistance. Many of the people were not legally permitted to reside in Italy at the time the pandemic occurred, and they had no access to the vaccination.
Francis later requested to meet them.
Salas was one of those who received the shot at the Vatican before joining a team from Torvaianica to express gratitude to Francis on April 27, 2022, during his general market. A dish of baked chicken empanadas, a classic comfort food from their shared country, was brought to the Argentine pope by the woman.
Salas recalled what Francis did after displaying the picture of the trade on her telephone:” He told the person who receives the presents to keep them with him, saying’ I’m taking them for meal,” she said. ” I started crying at that point.”
Francis ‘ response to Salas and the others genuinely 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’s just a recognition that they’re important.
Torres Lopez remarked,” At least they remember us, that we’re on Earth and have n’t been abandoned and left to the whims of the wind.”
