Pope Francis has been urged to overturn the Catholic Church’s ban on gender-affirming care (sex changes) for transgender people during talks with LGBTQ activists at the Vatican on Saturday

The Pope met with a group of “transgender, intersex, and ally Catholics”, in an event organized by dissident LGBT group New Ways Ministry.

Francis has repeatedly signaled support for the organization.

LifeSite News reports: They “urged” Francis “to move past the Church’s negative approach to gender-diverse people, and to encourage Church leaders to listen more attentively to the lives and faith of LGBTQ+ people.”

According to Reuters – whose Vatican correspondent has close links with NWM – Francis faced “calls to overturn the Catholic Church’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender people,” namely, calls to overturn the Church’s prohibition of “sex-change” surgery.

Amongst the group of 11 people were five people who shared their personal accounts with Francis, – according to NWM – including:

NWM describes itself as “a Catholic outreach that educates and advocates for equity, inclusion, and justice for LGBTQ+ persons, equipping leaders to build bridges of dialogue within the Church and civil society.”

A former description from 2021 was that NWM “educates and advocates for justice and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) Catholics, and reconciliation within the larger church and civil communities.”

Church’s teaching ‘ill-informed’

NWM’s executive director Francis DeBernardo said of the meeting that “we hope Pope Francis’ example of listening to LGBTQ+ people will inspire other Catholic leaders to do the same.”

“By their own admission,” he continued, “the Catholic hierarchy has issued pronouncements about gender and sexuality without first consulting the people most directly connected to these topics. Pope Francis is showing the church a new way of developing its teaching.”

The meeting, though sponsored by NWM, was arranged by Sister Jeannine Gramick – the dissident pro-LGBT nun, along with Robert Nugent, the co-founder of NWM.

Speaking after the encounter, Gramick praised Francis for his willingness to “listen to the experiences of intersex and transgender people.”

She attested that “it is only by listening to stories of these individuals, as well as the individuals who care for and about them, that the Church will be able to fully hear the voice of the Holy Spirit calling the Catholic community to break out of old, ill-informed teachings and practices.”