Pope Leo XIV will meet and dine with Alessia Nobile and other trans Catholic activists this Sunday, during a special Vatican lunch marking the Church’s Jubilee of the Poor, Catholic journalist Christopher Hale reports.
The annual event coincides with the World Day of the Poor and includes Mass in St Peter’s Basilica followed by a communal meal for people who are homeless, vulnerable, or socially marginalised.
During Transgender Awareness Week and as part of Jubilee, Pope Leo will meet with a group of trans women including trans activist Alesia Nobile, close friends of Pope Francis, in an invitee special luncheon this Sunday.
— Pope Crave (@ClubConcrave) November 14, 2025
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Nobile, 46, was one of five transgender women invited after she formally requested an audience with the new Pope, who was born in Chicago and who holds dual American and Peruvian citizenship. The 69-year-old was elected on Thursday 8 May after a two-day papal conclave following the death of 88-year-old Pope Francis.
Her hope is to ensure the inclusive spirit fostered under Pope Francis is not lost following his death. “I ask Leo not to go backwards on rights,” she told Italian media.
In her interview, Nobile explained how her journey in the Church has been marked by rejection: as a teenager she endured secret “exorcism” rites by a school religion teacher and pressure on her family to consider electroshock therapy. Despite this trauma, she remained a practising Catholic and later wrote about her experiences in her memoir, La bambina invisibile.
“In the eyes of God, we are all His children”
She also explained how her life changed under Pope Francis. After their first meeting in 2022, Francis became a mentor and friend, urging her to tell her story “so prejudice does not grow” and reminding her that “in the eyes of God, we are all His children”.
