Pope Leo to Share Jubilee Lunch with Transgender Catholic Activists
Meeting seen as symbolic test of new pontiff’s commitment to "inclusion."
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV will meet and dine with Alessia Nobile, a transgender Catholic activist from Bari, during a special Vatican lunch on Sunday, Nov. 16, held as part of the Catholic church’s Jubilee of the Poor and the World Day of the Poor observances.
According to an article published by Christopher Hale on Substack, Nobile, 46, confirmed that he and four other men who identify as women were invited after Nobile requested an audience with the new pope, motivated by his concern that the Church might “turn back on LGBTQ rights” following the death of Pope Francis.
The unprecedented invitation places a transgender advocate at a public papal luncheon for the first time and is widely viewed as a gesture of continuity with Francis’ outreach to such groups.
Hale writes that Nobile’s relationship with the Catholic church shifted dramatically under Pope Francis, whom he described as a personal ally and spiritual father. Recalling their first meeting in which Nobile introduced himself as transgender in 2022, Nobile said Francis told him: “That doesn’t matter. Tell me your name.”
He encouraged him to share his story — “Go always with your head high!” — and invited him to sit in the front row at papal audiences. Their friendship included at least three encounters and a handwritten letter from Francis affirming that “in the eyes of God, we are all His children,” which left Nobile in tears. In that same letter, Francis addressed Nobile as, "Dear sister."
LifeSiteNews has reported that: “By all available public accounts, Francis did not tell Nobile that a man living as though he were a woman is contrary to nature and that the Church rejects transgender ideology.”
Nobile with the late Pope Francis. Photo: Christopher Hale/Substack
After Francis’ death, Nobile mourned him as a mentor, saying, “He was a father to us, he was always by our side.” Reportedly, Francis would tell Nobile: “You must tell your story, because if you don’t, prejudice grows. Don’t introduce yourself by saying ‘I am trans’; present yourself with your name.”
Following the conclave, Nobile reached out to Pope Leo XIV to request a private audience out of “fear that the Church could go backwards” on LGBTQ inclusion.
Nobile praised recent Italian synodal proposals calling for churches to “overcome discriminatory attitudes” toward LGBTQ persons but warned that such progress requires strong papal support.
During a recent interview, he said he hopes to ask Leo XIV: “I am a friend of Francis — will you be the father of all of us transgender children?”
The luncheon will be held in Paul VI Hall after the pope’s Mass for the World Day of the Poor, and Nobile sees it as more than symbolic hospitality. “I hope it will be an opportunity to speak with him,” he said, and to appeal for a Church that welcomes “all, no one excluded.”
Nobile's participation echoes Pope Francis’ own lunches with transgenders during the pandemic, and marks what is believed to be the first time a reigning pope will publicly share a meal with an openly transgender guest at an official Vatican celebration.
Observers say the encounter will be an early indicator of how Pope Leo XIV intends to carry forward the Church’s pastoral relationship with LGBTQ Catholics. Historically, the dinner brings together the poor, homeless, and "marginalized."
In an article for Catholic Online News, Jordan Blake writes, "For many Catholics watching closely, the issue is no longer just who gets invited, but what message such invitations send about the Church’s commitment to truth."
Previously, UOJ reported that a gay ABC anchor was confirmed in the Catholic church with his own husband as his sponsor.
