The 23-page report, which was called Dignitas infinita, or “infinite respect,” in Latin, was equivalent to a comprehensive statement on the human condition commemorating the 75th anniversary of the United Nations ‘ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It warned of the maladies of poverty, the suffering of refugees and present challenges to the concept of respect, including bullying.
However, its brevity and gender-affirming care chapters, which were probably its most projected, were shorter.
A number of more diverse methods have been approved in recent months by Francis in collaboration with Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, his new right-hand man and fellow Argentine who is now in charge of the strong Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith. These include the gifts of couples in same sex unions with small benedictions, and the consent of transgender people to be baptized and function as godparents. The Lord loves us as we are, Francis also said to a young trans Italian last month.
Those actions and others have sparked a strong traditional reaction, leading top clerics in Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia in particular to accept Vatican recommendations for blessing same-sex couples despite caveats that they cannot discuss any similarities to the sacrament of marriage. Francis has been criticized for doing so frequently in terrible terms.
The pope approved the document on March 25 but does not alter Francis ‘ more inclusive stance in any way. It asserts, for instance, that the Catholic Church “wishes, first of all, to reaffirm that every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration, while every sign of unjust discrimination is to be carefully avoided”.
But it does add context. It appeared to separate the need to promote gender-affirming surgery from the necessity of gender-affirming surgery. It quotes Francis as saying that” creation is prior to us and must be received as a gift.” At the same time, we are called to protect our humanity, and this means, in the first place, accepting it and respecting it as it was created”.
The document concludes that this means” sex- change intervention … risks threatening” human dignity. The church, however, saw nothing wrong with “people born with genital abnormalities” seeking medical treatment.
The document criticizes “gender theory,” which states that gender identities can be shaped by individual choice. In the past, Francis has consistently refrained from defending the idea, even drawing comparisons to 2015’s nuclear weapons.
The Vatican’s document on Monday rebuffed that claim, saying that the theory of gender “intentionally denies the greatest possible difference between living things: sexual difference.”
The document also exalts heterosexuality:” In the male- female couple, this difference achieves the most marvelous of reciprocities. The arrival of new people in the world becomes the source of that miracle that never stops surprising us.
The Vatican further reiterated Francis’s position that surrogacy is against the dignity of women and makes a child a “mere object”. The document warns against the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia, arguing that “human life carries a dignity that must always be upheld, that can never be lost.” Echoing long- held church teaching, the document condemns abortion as a “deliberate and direct killing”.
Fernandez points out that the pope requested that earlier drafts include sections on the human dignity lost as a result of poverty, violence against women, and other themes. Noting a surge in global conflict, the Vatican repeated Francis’s belief that a third world war is already being fought “piecemeal”. Additionally, the Vatican made an appearance at the Vatican to criticize wealthy nations for their tougher immigration laws. ” No one will ever openly deny that they are human beings, yet in practice, by our decisions and the way we treat them, we can show that we consider them less worthy, less important, less human”.
Its sharpest focus was on a subject Francis has frequently railed against: poverty. The Vatican argued that this does not account for rising inequality and the few’s hoarding of wealth, as international leaders have predicted. The Vatican, under Francis ‘ guidance, was once more criticized for blatant consumer culture and corporations that “empire of money” and reduce employees in an effort to increase profits.
According to the document,” the claim that the modern world has reduced poverty is made is made by using outdated standards that do not fit contemporary realities.” ” As a result, poverty can take a variety of forms, such as an obsession with reducing labor costs with no concern for its grave consequences”.
