Pope tells transgender person: 'God loves us as we are'

FILE PHOTO: Pope Francis leads the Angelus prayer from his window at the Vatican, July 9, 2023. Vatican Media/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has told a young transgender person that "God loves us as we are", his latest outreach gesture towards the LGBT community.

His comments, released by Vatican media on Tuesday, were in a podcast in which Francis listened and responded to audio messages from young people ahead of a Catholic youth festival which he will attend in Portugal next week.