The Vatican on Monday labeled gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as serious violations of human dignity, putting them on a par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that reject God’s plan for human life.
Titled ‘Infinite Dignity’, the 20-page statement – which has been in the works for five years – focuses on what it describes as threats to human dignity, including poverty, the death penalty, war, sexual abuse and the abuse of women.
After a substantial revision in recent months, the text was approved on March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.
In its most highly anticipated section, the Vatican reiterated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that a person’s sex can be changed.
It stated that God created man and woman as biologically distinct, separate beings, and that humans should not tinker with that plan or try to “make themselves God.”
“It follows that any gender reassignment intervention, as a rule, carries the risk of endangering the unique dignity that the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.
The 20-page statement, titled “Infinite Dignity,” was approved on March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.
The document distinguished between gender confirmation surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or develop later.
These abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of healthcare professionals, the report said.
The document is largely a restatement of Catholic beliefs on these topics, but does not isolate any one issue – such as abortion – but says it emphasizes the equal dignity of all people, regardless of their circumstances.
On abortion, it reiterates what the Pope has said before: that the “defense of unborn life is closely linked to the defense of every other human right.”
The document also mentions surrogacy, which is said to “violate” both the dignity of the child and the woman, who “becomes a mere means subservient to the arbitrary gain or desire of others.”
Although much attention to surrogacy has focused on the possible exploitation of poor women as surrogate mothers, the Vatican document states that the child “has the right to have a wholly human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that has both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.’
“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be converted into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect that child’s dignity as a recipient of the gift of life.”
Pope Francis recently called for a ban on the practice of surrogacy.
Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and inconsistent with its stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children.
They warned that this could have real consequences for trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.
“While it lays out a wonderful reason why every person, regardless of life’s circumstances, should be respected, honored and loved, it does not apply this principle to people of different genders,” says Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry. who advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.
The existence of the document, which has been rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close confidant of Francis.
He had cast it as a nod to conservatives after writing a more explosive document endorsing blessings for same-sex couples, sparking criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.
And yet the document focuses explicitly on countries – including many in Africa – that criminalize homosexuality.
The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that in some places not a few people are imprisoned, tortured and even deprived of the good things of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”
The document is a kind of repackaging of previously formulated Vatican positions, now read through the prism of human dignity.
It reiterates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking and forced migration.
The Vatican had previously published its most articulate position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their gender and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sexual organs to create new life.
The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 teaching document, but tones down the tone. Significantly, it does not repeat the 1986 language of an earlier doctrinal document that stated that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, but that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.”
At a press conference to introduce the document, Fernandez acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very powerful and that there might be a better way, “in other words,” to express the church’s view of sex as a perfect union between spouses. and woman to create new life.
“It is true, the expression could find other words to express this mystery,” he said.
The Rev. James Martin, who has called on the Catholic Church to provide greater outreach to LGBTQ+ Catholics, said the gender terminology is similar to previous statements. But he welcomed the condemnation of the legislation and violence against LGBTQ+ people.
‘That cannot be repeated often enough as an infringement on human dignity. The LGBTQ person, like everyone else, has infinite dignity,” he said in an email.
Francis has made reaching out to LGBTQ+ people a hallmark of his papacy, ministering to trans Catholics and insisting that the Catholic Church must welcome all of God’s children.
But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “greatest danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to erase God-given differences between men and women. In particular, he has denounced the West’s ‘ideological colonization’ in developing countries, where development aid sometimes depends on adopting Western ideas about gender and reproductive health.
Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of actual transgender people, especially in its distinction between transgender and intersex people.
“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care – which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) – could endanger or diminish the dignity of trans people is not just hurtful. but dangerously ignorant,” says Mara Klein, a non-binary transgender activist who has taken part in Germany’s church reform project.
‘If, on the other hand, you see that surgical procedures on intersex people – which when performed without consent, especially on minors, have often caused enormous physical and psychological damage to many intersex people until now – are viewed positively, this only seems to reinforce the underlying hypocrisy further expose,” says Klein. .
The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States, where Republican-led state lawmakers are considering a new set of bills that would limit medical care for transgender youth — and in some cases, adults. In addition, bills are also being considered to regulate youth pronouns, sports teams and school toilets, as well as some books and school curricula.
“On top of the increasing hostility toward our communities, we are confronted with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.