A fresh Vatican report, which was released on April 8, details how the Catholic Church views people of all kinds, but it has raised questions among LGBTQ congregation and their supporters about how it defines gender-affirming procedures.
The document, entitled “Dignitas Infinita” (“Infinite Dignity”), was five years in the making and lays out the ways the Vatican believes the inherent dignity that each person possesses can be honored and protected. Although generally in line with the positions the Catholic Church has previously held, it is renowned for translating some of the church’s most liberal viewpoints into doctrine, which are basically formal church teachings, during a time when the present pope has been portrayed as trying to steer the organization in a more democratic, inclusive direction.
Broadly, the report shows “grave violations” of human dignity, including warfare, poverty, cruelty to refugees, and the misuse of girls. It also lists other perceived challenges, including pregnancy and what the Vatican describes as “gender ideology” and “sexual change”. In these clauses, the document criticizes gender-affirming practices and emphasizes that the Vatican views sex as a distinct binary between men and women.
“While Pope Francis has made greater achievements in affirming LGBTQ+ Catholics than any of his predecessors, his support of ‘Dignitas Infinita’ will be seen as turning the calendar back by transgender people, both within and outside the church,” R. Andrew Chesnut, the Bishop Sullivan Chair in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, told Vox.
The launch of “Dignitas Infinita” comes amid a larger social, cultural, and social conversation about transgender rights and healthcare, including a new UK report on the subject. Additionally, LGBTQ advocates and Catholics worry that it will worsen the climate in which some governments have passed laws that discriminate against trans people, including many GOP-imposed bans on gender-affirming care for children in the US.
“The file should not be dismissed as just an abstract religious discussion with several people consequences,” Francis DeBernardo, the senior director of New Way Ministries, an LGBTQ Catholic group, said in a statement. “Rather, the Vatican is again supporting and propagating ideas that lead to real physical harm to transgender, nonbinary, and other LGBTQ+ people”.
The Vatican document challenges inclusion attempts
Under Pope Francis, the Vatican has attempted to create a more diverse Catholic Church, including allowing women to cast their ballots for the first time at a major bishops’ meeting. This includes approving blessings for same-sex couples.
Additionally, Francis has personally addressed the trans community, applauding the baptizing of trans parishioners, and welcoming a group of trans women to a weekly gathering. However, as “Dignitas Infinita” exemplifies, such progress toward inclusivity has been halting, with the church still declining to permit marriage for same-sex couples and barring women from becoming priests.
The document’s treatment of trans people continues this pattern by emphasizing the need to acknowledge every person’s human dignity while offering “limited dignity” to trans people, DeBernardo said.
In particular, it asserts that gender-affirming procedures violate the dignity that a person is born with at conception, arguing that such medical care contravenes “the need to respect the natural order of the human person.” The document also broadly denounces “gender theory”, which includes “arguing that a person’s gender can be different from the sex that person was assigned at birth”, NPR’s Jason DeRose explains.
According to Chesnut, the critique of gender transition interventions by “Dignitas Infinita” as a rejection of God’s plan for human life suggests that those who have chosen to transition have violated divine will.
Jason Steidl, a professor of religious studies at St. John’s University who specializes in Catholicism, put it more bluntly. “This is the Newsmax version of Catholic theology,” he said.
Trans members of the Catholic Church who view the Vatican’s statements as undermining their experiences and their place in the church have been vocal critics of the Vatican. “Transgender people are beloved, intentional creations of God the same as cisgender men and women are,” Michael Sennett, a trans man and practicing Catholic in Massachusetts, told the Associated Press.
Steidl and others, however, see the doctrine as satisfying a more conservative arm of the Catholic Church.
Several clergymen around the world objected to the pope’s announcement in late 2023 that the Vatican would support priests blessing same-sex couples in some circumstances. Some of Francis’s more progressive deeds were opposed to him, including some in Africa, one of the regions where the Catholic Church has grown rapidly in recent years. They characterized them as “contrary to the will of God.”
The provisions targeting trans people in the Vatican’s document were likely an attempt to appease this segment of the church, according to Steidl, who is also the author of LGBTQ Catholic Ministry. Steidl told Vox that “Cardinal Fernandez, the head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith, had essentially stated that they were going to be throwing traditionalists a bone.”
Policies that target trans people are further exacerbated by the church doctrine
LGBTQ advocates worry that the Vatican’s document will only serve as additional ammunition for conservatives in the political and social arenas as they push for discriminatory policies, especially given the recent rise in political attacks against trans people.
Even though major medical organizations have deemed such care medically necessary, at least 19 GOP-led state legislatures in the US have passed laws that restrict or completely prohibit access to gender-affirming care. A report from the National Center for Transgender Equality shows that there has been a rise in homicides of transgender people in the US between November 2022 and November 2023 as the number of anti-trans laws has increased.
Additionally, European nations are more restrictive about the provision of health care for trans people, especially for minors. A recent report from the UK’s National Health Service questioned current pediatric transition practices and made new recommendations to cut down on the use of puberty blockers, a treatment the NHS has already stopped providing to minors with gender dysphoria.
LGBTQ advocates worry that the Vatican’s document will only serve to reinforce anti-trans rights sentiment on a global scale.
Steidl told Vox, “This document tells trans people that they are a threat to the world, that they are a threat to the order, and that they are a threat to the systems that God has established.” “Unfortunately, the Vatican is contributing to these movements that seek to hurt trans people, that seek to eliminate them”.
