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Pope Francis hosted a group of transgender women for lunch in the Vatican on Sunday, as he deepened an unlikely relationship that has come to underline his drive to make the Catholic Church more inclusive for a small transgender community.
On Sunday, a small group of transgender women from Torvaianica, south of Rome, attended a lunch hosted by the Pope on the Church's World Day of the Poor. They were welcomed along with around 1,200 poor and homeless people.
Their invitation to the Vatican would have been unthinkable prior to Pope Francis' papacy. Their invitation grew out of a relationship with a local Catholic priest who had offered assistance to transgender women in Torvaianica during the Covid-19 pandemic.