VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Dozens of gender-confused individuals and “transgender” activists attended a Vatican lunch for the Jubilee of the Poor on Sunday.

Several “transgender” attendees and the radical pro-LGBT priest Father Andrea Conocchia expressed gratitude to the Vatican and Pope Leo XIV for the November 16 jubilee lunch, which also marked the ninth World Day of the Poor.

According to the Daily Compass, the Pope did not specifically invite the gender-confused individuals, as the more than 1,300 tickets for the meal were distributed through various organizations and parishes.

Approximately 50 people who identify as “transgender,” including five gender-confused activists, attended alongside the homeless, migrants, the elderly, and other “marginalized” guests for the special lunch inside the Paul VI audience Hall.

“Heartfelt thanks to Pope Leo for this opportunity to meet and share lunch,” Fr. Conocchia said about the lunch. “(The event) seems to me to be a great sign of openness, attention, and closeness to the entire [so-called] LGBT community. It can be an opportunity to walk together and is important as a sign, also to get to know and recognize ourselves in the ecclesial community.”

READ: 5 transgender activists will dine with Pope Leo at ‘Jubilee of the Poor’ event Sunday

Fr. Conocchia previously took groups of “transgender” individuals to meet with Pope Francis several times during his pontificate. In 2023, the priest took several men who identified as “transgender women” to a similar luncheon at the Vatican. One man who had “transitioned” in order to appear like a prepubescent girl notably sat opposite Francis at the table.

The Catholic Church has consistently condemned gender ideology and transgenderism, with several clerics speaking out against these ideologies, including Cardinal Raymond Burke, who, in a 2024 commencement speech at Thomas Aquinas College, condemned them as an “attack on reason and nature.”

“(T)o say that I can change my nature: I was born a male and that I can, through the use of various chemicals and mutilation, make myself a woman – this is an attack on reason, on nature,” Cardinal Burke said.

Some may have downplayed Pope Francis’ meal invitations to these gender-confused individuals, noting that Our Lord dined with sinners. While this is true, He always called them to repentance, and there have been no reports the pontiff did so during these meals.

Just weeks ago, Conocchia told the heterodox website National Catholic Reporter (NCR) that he was “full of hope” that Leo would continue his predecessor’s backing for the “transgender community.”

The priest also attended the scandalous LGBT “pilgrimage” organized by “La Tenda di Gionata” (“The Tent of Jonathan”), an Italian pro-LGBT group, and joined by Father James Martin’s “Outreach” activism group at the Vatican back in September. Conocchia described the sacrilegious event as “very powerful” and “cheerful” and praised the American pontiff for allowing it to take place.

WATCH: Thousands of ‘LGBT Catholics’ process into St. Peter’s Basilica for Jubilee Year pilgrimage

“Maybe for (Leo), just being able to have the pilgrimage celebrated already seems like something,” he said. “It could be a good start. We’ll see how things develop from here. I wish for continuity amid diversity.”

The pilgrimage saw more than 1,000 so-called “LGBT Catholics” parade through the Holy Doors into St. Peter’s Basilica. At least one of the attendees wore a t-shirt that said “(expletive) the rules,” shocking many faithful Catholics.

Some liberal news outlets had claimed that Pope Leo had “snubbed” the gender-confused attendees at the lunch by not inviting them to sit at the head table, as Pope Francis had done previously. However, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner who helped organize the event, denied that anyone was “snubbed,” noting that this year, tickets to sit at the pontiff’s table had been handed out randomly to poor parishioners who had attended a Mass before the lunch and that the gender-confused men had arrived late to the event and so did not receive those tickets.

The “transgender” guests who spoke after attending the event had said they were happy just to be present at the meal with the pope. Conocchia described the event as “fraternal” and ‘joyful.”

“That he’d mingle, that he (sat) close to (us), that’s a good sign, right?” said prominent gender-confused activist “Alessia Nobile.” He also handed Leo a letter on behalf of the so-called “trans community,” to which the pontiff apparently smiled in response.

The activist had previously described Pope Francis as a friend and mentor. He first met the deceased pope in June 2022 during an audience with five other self-professed “transgender women.” Francis met with Nobile multiple times and invited him to his public general audiences. The late pope also wrote him a personal letter in which he addressed the male transgender activist as “dear sister.”

As with Leo, according to available public accounts, Francis did not tell Nobile that a man living as though he were a woman is contrary to nature.

Marcella Di Marco, a 52-year-old gender-confused man who identifies as “transgender,” did express some disappointment that members of the group were not included at Leo’s table, but emphasized his belief that the pontiff showed that the Church will not “close the door” that Francis had opened.

“(W)e still received a sense that the church is not going to close the door that it opened,” he said. “Pope Leo is different from Francis, but he knows we have hard lives, and I believe his heart is open to us.”