VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis has told a young transgender person that “God loves us as we are”, his latest outreach gesture towards the LGBT community.
His comments, released by Vatican media on Tuesday (Jul 25), were in a podcast in which Pope Francis listened and responded to audio messages from young people ahead of a Catholic youth festival which he will attend in Portugal next week.
One of the young people was Giona, an Italian in their early 20s who said they were “torn by the dichotomy between (their Catholic) faith and transgender identity”.
Pope Francis replied that “the Lord always walks with us … Even if we are sinners, he draws near to help us. The Lord loves us as we are, this is God’s crazy love”.
The Catholic Church teaches that members of the LGBT community should be treated with respect, compassion and sensitivity, and their human rights respected.
Whether the Church can and should be more welcoming towards LGBT people, for example by offering blessings for same-sex unions, is a particularly sensitive topic.
Source: CNA
