Story highlights Diego Neria Lejarraga says he had a private audience with the Pope in January

Catholic doctrine holds sex change procedures don't change person's gender in church's eyes

Neria: "If this Pope has a long life, which all of his followers hope, I think things will change"

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.

"I've never lost faith, ever," Neria says. "But the other thing is the rejection."

He wrote to Pope Francis last year, saying his local bishop helped get the letter noticed. Next, according to Neria, came two phone calls from Francis. And then, a discreet audience on a Saturday evening, January 24, at the papal residence, Casa Santa Marta.

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