According to the Vatican, sex change operations pose grave threats to human dignity, placing them in opposition to death and abortion as sinful practices.
The Vatican’s theory business eventually issued Eternal Dignity, a 20- site charter that has been in the works for five years, on Monday.
After considerable update in recent months, it was approved by Pope Francis, who ordered its release.
In its most gladly anticipated area, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender idea” or the idea that person’s identity can be changed.
It stated that God created man and girl as distinct biological entities and that they were not to be able to stick with or attempt to “make oneself God.”
” It follows that any sexual- change treatment, as a rule, risks threatening the special respect the person has received from the moment of conception”, the document said.
It distinguished between switching clinics, which it rejected, and “genital anomalies” that are present at birth or that build later.
Those can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.
The article’s life, rumoured since 2019, was confirmed in recent days by the new director of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Brazilian Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, a nearby Pope Francis friend.
After he wrote a more potent document granting blessings to same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops all over the world, especially in Africa, he had cast it as a bit of a nod to conservatives.
The document takes sharp aim at nations that criminalize homosexuality, including many in Africa, while rejecting gender theory.
It echoed Francis ‘ assertion in 2023 that “being homosexual is not a crime” making the assertion now part of the Vatican’s doctrinal teaching.
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 of life solely because of their sexual orientation”.
The document somewhat refutes the Vatican’s earlier statements.
It restates 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.
It asserts that surrogacy violates both the child’s dignity and that of the surrogate mother in a recently articulated position.
The Vatican document emphasizes the resulting child almost more than the potential exploitation of poor women as surrogates, despite the considerable attention paid to this issue.
The child is entitled to a fully human ( naturalized ) birth, a life that exhibits both the dignity of the giver and the recipient, according to the document.
According to the statement,” the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be converted into a “right to a child” without regard for the child’s dignity as the child’s recipient of the gift of life.”
In 2019, the Congregation for Catholic Education ( CDE ) insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to bring about new life, rejecting the notion that people can choose or change their genders.
It called gender fluidity a symptom of the” confused concept of freedom” and “momentary desires” that characterise post- modern culture.
The more reputable Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s new document uses that year’s 2019 education document, but it modifies the tone.
Significantly, it does n’t repurpose a previous doctrinal document’s 1986 phrase, which stated that homosexuals deserve to be treated with respect and dignity but that homosexual behavior is “intrinsically disordered.”
Francis has urged the Catholic Church to welcome all of its children, making outreach to LGBTQ+ people a hallmark of his papacy, and he has emphasized that this includes ministering to trans Catholics.
The publication of the document comes at a time when transgender people face some criticism, including in the US, where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of legislation that would restrict access to medical care for transgender youths and, in some cases, transgender adults.