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Pope Leo XIV will reportedly share a meal on Sunday with five transgender individuals, including a prominent transgender activist, during a Vatican celebration marking the Jubilee of the Poor, which is dedicated to highlighting the dignity and rights of the impoverished and marginalised.
The lunch will take place in the Paul VI Hall following Mass for the World Day of the Poor, when hundreds of homeless and marginalised people are due to dine with the Holy Father.
Alessia Nobile, a prominent transgender activist who is Catholic and a biological male who identifies as a "transgender woman" – and thereby uses female pronouns – is set to attend the lunch, according to Italian media. Nobile reportedly asked to meet the new Pope out of concern that the Church might “turn back on LGBTQ rights” after the death of Pope Francis, whom Nobile considered a friend.
Nobile, 46, told Italian media that she hopes the gathering will allow her to speak with Pope Leo directly. “I hope this [lunch] will be an opportunity to speak to him and ask him not to backtrack on rights,” Nobile said.
Reflecting on a long friendship with Pope Francis, Nobile recalled how the late Pope would offer his greetings to her during Wednesday audiences even when visibly unwell. “Pope Francis immediately became a light in my journey as a believer,” Nobile said. “The Holy Father always wanted the front row for us transgender women.”
Nobile’s apparent invitation marks the first time a transgender advocate has taken part in such a papal meal, a gesture that many view as a pastoral outreach. When asked what she hopes to say to the new Pope, Nobile replied, “[That] I’m Francis’ friend, do you want to be the father of all of us transgender women?”
Nobile says she interprets Pope Leo's lack of public comment on transgender matters as encouraging rather than discouraging. “They say ‘silence is consent’,” Nobile said. “I’m sure that Pope Leo shares Francis’s work and is just waiting for the right moment to embrace our reality.”
The Catholic Church teaches that every person, including those who identify as transgender, possesses inherent dignity as a child of God and must be treated with respect, compassion and sensitivity.
At the same time, Catholic teaching holds that human identity includes a God-given sexual nature that is not self-determined; the Church does not accept the idea that gender can be separated from biological sex, and it questions medical or social transitions that seek to redefine that reality.
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith explicitly states in Dignitas Infinita that “any sex‐change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception”.
Photo: Pope Leo XIV waves as he arrives for his weekly general audience at St. Peter square in the Vatican, 12 November 2025 (Photo by ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images)
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