Pope Francis was flying back to Rome from a papal visit to Georgia and Azerbajan when a reporter asked "given his firm denunciation of gender theory, how he could minister to Catholics who suffered from gender dysphoria."

Francis said he had ministered to such Catholics as a priest, bishop and now pope.

I’ve never abandoned them. When someone who has this condition comes before Jesus, Jesus would surely never say ‘go away because you’re gay.’

--Francis, displaying some lack of ability to distinguish between gender identity and sexual orientation

Francis recounted the story of a Spanish transgender man who wrote him a letter recounting his transition from a woman to a man who later married a woman.

And I received them. And they were happy.

--Francis

Francis praised the bishop who accompanied the man throughout his transition. But he criticized the man’s parish priest, who he said would yell “You’ll go to hell” when he saw him on the sidewalk.

Francis recounted that the man found a retired parish priest who had a different attitude: “He said, ‘How long has it been since you’ve gone to confession? Come on. Let’s confess so you can receive Communion.’

Understood? Life is life. Sin is sin.

--Francis

The pontiff acknowledged that the question of transgender Catholics poses a problem. It’s a problem of morality. It’s a human problem. And it must be resolved as it can be. But always with the mercy of God, within the truth.

While attention must be paid, he said, "in each case welcome, accompany, discern and integrate them” into the life of the church. “This is what Jesus would do today.”

He concluded by begging reporters flying with him on the papal plane: “Please don’t write ‘The pope blesses trans.’ Please.

What Francis seems totally opposed to is any attempt by transgender people to determine or explain the source of our human condition.