Transsexuals are children of God - pope

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 4 - Pope Francis has said that transsexuals are also the children of God in a new interview.
    "The first time a group of transsexuals came to the Vatican and they saw me, they went away crying, saying I had given them my hand, a kiss," the Argentine pontiff said in an interview with Spanish-language publication Vida Nueva given before he arrived in Lisbon this week for World Youth Day.
    "As if I had done something exceptional for them. But they are the children of God".
    In the same interview the pope said that his peace envoy for Ukraine, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the president of the Italian Bishops' Conference, would visit Beijing after his trips to Kyiv, Moscow and Washington for talks. (ANSA).