Plasencia, Spain (CNN)Has Pope Francis taken another step to push for tolerance in the Catholic Church? Yes, says Diego Neria Lejarraga, a transgender man who says he had a private audience with the Pope in late January, reportedly a first for the pontiff. Neria was born as a girl in Spain and raised as a devout Catholic. But after his sex change operation eight years ago, many people scorned him in church in his hometown of Plasencia in western Spain. Neria recalls heated discussions with a parish priest and some others in town. Afterward, he started staying away from Mass.
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Diego Neria Lejarraga says he had a private audience with the Pope in January
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Catholic doctrine holds sex change procedures don't change person's gender in church's eyes
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Neria: "If this Pope has a long life, which all of his followers hope, I think things will change"
He wrote to @placeholder last year, saying his local bishop helped get the letter noticed.