‘Transgender’ individuals to welcome Pope Francis’ coffin at burial site

[Stone]

‘Transgender’ individuals to welcome Pope Francis’ coffin at burial site
As announced by Vatican News, some self-described transgender individuals be included in a welcoming party for Pope Francis’ remains at the Basilica of St. Mary Major.



Pope Francis meets with transgender activist group at weekly audience
LifeSiteNews

Apr 25, 2025
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews [adapted - not all hyperlinks included from original]) — A party of self-described transgender individuals will form part of a small group welcoming Pope Francis’ body to the Roman basilica where he will be buried on Saturday.

As announced by Vatican News – the in-house news outlet for the Vatican – some gender-confused individuals will be included in a welcoming party for Pope Francis’ remains at the Basilica of St. Mary Major.

A group of of some 40 people were already due to be present outside the basilica on Saturday afternoon in order to form an official welcoming party to the mortal remains of the late pope. This was explained by the Holy See Press Office as being reflective of the pope’s attention to the poor during his life.

But a little later, Vatican News quoted the words of one of Rome’s auxiliary bishop – Bishop Benoni Ambarus – who gave further details about who would constitute the party.

Ambarus said there will be “a small representation of transsexuals whom I know, whom we follow through a small community of nuns.”

Also present will be some of Rome’s poor, homeless, prisoners, and migrants.

Explaining this, Ambarus said, “There will also be prisoners met at the opening of the Holy Door in Rebibbia [prison]. It is a moving choice, because the Holy Father will be welcomed by the Mother he loved so much and by his beloved children who will surround him.”

“Ideally, it is as if all his beloved people were accompanying him on his last steps,” he added.

The precise details of who will be in the party are not yet public.

Francis is well known for his frequent hosting of transgender groups at the Vatican, along with key transgender activists such as Sister Jeannine Gramick.

Asked about this during a television interview earlier this year, Francis said “Proximity! That’s the word. Proximity to everybody. Everyone.”

Francis’ practicing of “proximity” has included a number of audiences and meetings with individuals actively living as though a member of the opposite sex, or key LGBT activists. He has also welcomed a group of purportedly transgender individuals as VIP guests at his weekly audiences, after Sister Genevieve Jeanningros facilitated the encounter between them and the pontiff.

Participants of these encounters have also recounted how meeting the Pope re-enforced them, rather than awakening them to their biological reality.

One woman, who lives as a man, commented that her meeting confirmed her in her “transgender identity.”

The Catholic Church calls all souls to the practice of chastity, but particular care is given to those suffering with same-sex attraction to offer the assistance needed but also to ensure that the fullness of Catholic morality is not compromised in this endeavor.

Teaching found re-iterated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to the natural law.” The catechism is very clear that homosexual activity can never be approved, and repeats that “[h]omosexual persons are called to chastity.”

The late pope’s LGBT record infamously began with his 2013 in-flight comments, “Who am I to judge?” when asked about the existence of a gay lobby within the Vatican and the practice of homosexuality. Such support took a marked increase in the wake of the Vatican’s March 2021 responsum condemning same-sex “blessings,” as Francis made numerous public statements praising and supporting advocates of LGBT ideology and same-sex civil unions.

Then in December 2023, he authorized the Declaration Fiducia Supplicans, which contained approval for “blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex.” Written by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández – prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith – and approved by Francis, the document caused instant and widespread consternation throughout the global Church.

Fiducia Supplicans was swiftly welcomed by LGBT advocates and heterodox clerics, while vocal opposition was found predominantly in Africa along with a steadily growing number of dioceses in the U.S., Europe, the U.K., and among religious orders.

Notable prelates – Cardinals Gerhard Müller and Joseph Zen and Robert Sarah, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, Bishop Athanasius Schneider – all penned their rejection of the document’s proposal for same-sex blessings, many doing so repeatedly. Sarah went as far as to state that Fiducia Supplicans proposes a “heresy that gravely undermines the Church, the Body of Christ, because it is contrary to the Catholic faith and tradition.”

Fiducia Supplicans’ publication arguably caused one of the greatest tumults in the Francis pontificate up until that time, with the global backlash against the text on a scale previously unseen in the prior 11 years of Francis’ reign.

LifeSiteNews readers are invited to continue praying for the repose of the soul of Pope Francis.