Pope Francis’ embrace of transgender Catholics has extended from the Vatican around the world to Indonesia, where he’s on a four-day official visit to the Southeast Asian island nation.
But trans women on a pilgrimage there to see the pontiff in person were left with only “dreams” of an audience with him after local bishops refused their request to meet him.
Related:
The Pope, who famously asked, “Who am I to judge?” in response to a question about gay priests, has openly engaged with the trans community in Rome, inviting the women to dine at the Vatican and donating Vatican funds to house and feed them.
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The Pope’s reputation for tolerance preceded him as a group of trans women in South Jakarta assembled their best outfits for his visit to a stadium in Jakarta where he appeared for a service addressing the Muslim-majority country’s small but vocal Catholic community.
“When we got Francis as the Pope, I realized that God was really listening,” Mami Yuli, a leader of the trans community in South Jakarta, told The New York Times. The devout Catholic has an image of the rosary tattooed on her chest.
“This is not the Pope but God himself visiting us,” she said.
Francis has encouraged local bishops in Indonesia to show tolerance for the trans community for years.
“Pope Francis has called for us several times not to judge them,” said the Rev. Agustinus Kelik Pribadi, the priest of Saint Stephen Catholic Church in South Jakarta. “We must listen.”
The newly extended Catholic embrace has welcomed dozens of trans converts to the Church in recent years, according to Rev. Adrianus Suyadi, a Jesuit priest at Jakarta’s Cathedral. Many have been baptized in the country’s capital, per an official policy formalized by Pope Francis for trans and LGBTQ+ people last year.
Fr. Suyadi and other priests also credit the city’s archbishop, Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo, for the welcoming attitude. They say the cardinal instructed priests to welcome transgender people into their parishes as part of a push to respect all human dignity.
“When I go to the church nobody judges me,” said trans Catholic Ms. Gondhoadjmodjo, 40, who was baptized in 2022. “That makes me more sure I want to be a Catholic.”
But for the South Jakarta trans community that made the pilgrimage to see the pope in person — dressed to the nines and loaded into a collection of cars for their trip north —the welcome did not extend inside the stadium or even near the entrance where they hoped to get a glimpse of Francis. They didn’t have tickets, they said, and their hoped-for invitation for an audience with the pope didn’t materialize.
Police kept the group, dressed in their sequined Sunday best and carrying a colorful banner, at a distance.
“They cannot receive us here,” said Devine Selviana Siahaan, one of the trans women. “But I still can talk to Francis in my dreams.”
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