LGBT+ Campaigner meets Pope Francis

In mid-November, Pope Francis met with Jayne Ozanne, a prominent gay evangelical Anglican campaigner against so-called “conversion therapy”.

During the meeting, which took place after Mass in the Pope’s private chapel, Ms Ozanne presented the Pope with a copy of her memoir, Just Love, and the findings of a 2018 survey into faith and sexuality.

In Just Love Jayne describes her experience as a gay Christian including the impact of “conversion therapy” had on her. She was hospitalised, and ostracised by many conservative Christians after she recovered and came out as gay.

Jayne told the Pope that she had grown up in a Church that told her “she could never be a wife, a mother or a grandmother”, that she had tried to make herself straight through “conversion therapy”, and that such treatments led many young people to consider suicide. Her prayer is “for everyone to know they are precious children of God, just as they are”, she told the Pope.

Asked by a translator if he knew what “conversion therapy” was, Francis replied that he did. He said to Ms Ozanne: “Please pray for me as I pray for you.”

Source: Liz Dodd, The Tablet and https://jayneozanne.com/

Jayne’s autobiography, Just Love: A journey of self-acceptance, was published by Darton,Longman & Todd in 2018.

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