On the Italian coast, about an hour’s drive from the hospital where Pope Francis is recovering from pneumonia, an unlikely group of Catholics are praying for his health.
Poor and transgender, these sex workers from Latin America consider the 88-year-old pontiff their saviour, an open-minded soul who not only invited them to the Vatican, but sent them money for food and rent.
“Pope Francis opened the doors. I never thought I’d be with him in the Vatican, talking with him... Being accepted into the Church is a treasure for me,” Andrea Paola Torres, a 54-year-old Colombian transgender woman known as Consuelo, said.
Torres is one of a group from Peru, Argentina, Brazil and elsewhere in South and Central America, living on the grim outskirts of Rome and waiting for clients…
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Star South Africa (Digital) - 1 Issue, 2025-03-14