NEW: Transgender Activists to Dine with Pope Leo XIV during Sunday's Jubilee for the Poor

Papal luncheon with trans advocate Alessia Nobile set for Sunday at Vatican’s Jubilee of the Poor, highlighting a legacy of outreach and hopes for continued inclusion.

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Pope Leo XIV will meet and dine in a group setting with Alessia Nobile, a transgender Catholic activist from Bari, during a special lunch at the Vatican this Sunday, November 16.

The encounter will take place as part of the Church’s Jubilee of the Poor, an event coinciding with the World Day of the Poor that includes Mass and a communal meal with those in need.

Nobile, 46, has confirmed that she and four other transgender women were invited to the luncheon after she formally requested an audience with the new pope, motivated by her concern that the Church might “turn back on LGBTQ rights” after the death of her friend, Pope Francis.

The upcoming meeting — unprecedented in placing a transgender advocate at the pope’s luncheon — is seen as a continuation of Pope Francis’s legacy of outreach to marginalized people, and Nobile hopes it will reassure the LGBTQ community of the Vatican’s commitment to inclusion and dialogue.

A Faith Journey Marked by Rejection and Resilience

Alessia Nobile’s path in the Church has been difficult.

“I felt rejected by the Church and I was even subjected to an exorcism,” Nobile has recounted of her younger years.