Responding to pro-LGBTQ+ reviewers of the Vatican’s latest charter, a leading U.S. Prelate has argued that the church “listens with the child’s heart to a child, but it doesn’t believe that the child receives everything they ask for.” Following its release last year, Dignitas Infinita received more reactions and this reports in today’s post.
Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington, D.C. During an interview with Crux, he was questioned about Dignitas Infinita, especially in light of the Synod on Synodality that is wrapping up this time. Gregory replied that the charter “is a delightful sum of the Church’s spiritual and philosophical training,” and then specified:
“‘In terms of [Pope Francis’] outreach to the LGBT community, he’s also made it clear that he has great love and affection and respect for people who have a different sexual orientation. There are those who will now say, “What he should have done is review all of that group’s conduct.”’ Well, he can’t if he’s going to be true to the Church’s past and its training. He may encourage others to see, enjoy, and accept the Church’s spiritual teaching as well as the background of our faith. . .
Francis now has a deeper understanding of the Church that they want to relate to, that they do pertain to, not just want to relate to, but they do relate to, and its principles of spiritual perception.
“I used this in one of my listening lessons in the Archdiocese of Washington, I said the most loving family, at least in my own knowledge, but watching it in other circumstances, communicates with the spirit of the family to a baby, but it doesn’t believe that the child gets everything they ask for.”
Dignitas Infinita, according to Gregory, “lays the groundwork” for “further dialogue,” with emphasis on “intense topics” of human interaction and interdependence.”
Colleen Dulle, sponsor of the “Inside the Vatican” audio at America Media, wrote about the charter for Sacred Heart University’s religion reform website. She stated in clear words that Dignitas Infinita failed, explaining at one place:
“[T]he document, which speaks on behalf of ‘the Church,’ fails to take the Church to account for the discrimination it denounces, in what at this point reads like a boilerplate statement before negative comments on LGBTQ+ people: “‘every sign of unjust discrimination’ is to be carefully avoided. In contrast to other passages that state that” the Church and society had not ceased fighting …” and that” the Church also takes a stand against…, it uses quiet language to say that “it should be denounced as against human dignity that not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of living only because of their sexual preference’ It fails to say anything at all about the fact that people are imprisoned, tortured or killed because they are transgender. In fact, it does not use the word ‘transgender’ at all.
Despite the years of research and preparation put into this document, “Dignitas Infinita” notably lacks any meaningful discussion of the theory it rejects, makes contradictory assertions regarding gender presentation as a matter of sex, and ignores violence and discrimination against the very transgender people Pope Francis has gone so far as to minister to. . . In ‘Dignitas Infinita,’ [the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith] has failed.”
On her podcast with Fr., Dulle and I had a conversation on Dignitas Infinita. Sam Sawyer, SJ, editor of America, and Michael O’Loughlin, executive director of Outreach. In the episode, Sawyer praised the declaration, and encouraged critics not “to throw out the baby with the bath water here.” O’Loughlin said his impression was that LGBTQ+ Catholics were disappointed, but not surprised, and he said the declaration was “a step forward for the gay and lesbian Catholic community—the church calling for Catholics not to support laws that criminalize homosexuality.”
Katelyn Burns, a transgender journalist and former Catholic, wrote at MSNBC about the declaration’s impact on her, someone who was raised in the church, but will not return due to anti-trans teachings. Burns explained, in part:
I was raised Catholic, and I received every sacrament, from baptism to First Communion, but the church’s message this week most likely destroyed any hope I ever had to return to Catholic services. . .
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve thought often of returning to my faith in some form. I long for the neighborhood I once lived in. As I consider the Bible stories I grew up with, there is still a strange comfort in the Bibles. The Good Samaritan has lessons to be learned, and I find it inspiring to watch as Jesus escorts the traders out of the temple. I smile when Jesus says to his disciples,” Eunuchs can inherit the kingdom of heaven.” However, the church’s dictate on Monday is a great departure from the Jesus I learned about who embraced the oppressed and the eunuchs of antiquity. . .
The Catholic Church has made it clear for centuries that we are not welcome. Most recently, the church has referred to our life-saving medication as a threat to human dignity. However, in my opinion, large international religious organizations completely devoid of dignity by encouraging the potential genitalia of a small and marginalized population. . .
I would love to visit my church, but their views on me and my neighborhood make it impossible to do so. I’m not willing to give up on my trans identity or my medical care, but I’ve made a promise never to touch the holy water.”
FutureChurch, a U.S. The declaration was criticized by a Catholic reform group for “clinging to long-overdue and harmful ideas of gender essentialism that particularly disregard their lived experiences.”” The statement continued, in part:
“To the LGBTQ+ community, particularly those who are transgender or non-binary: know that you are a beloved child of God and an equal member of the Body of Christ. You are, in fact, beautiful manifestations of God’s fullness and glory. FutureChurch celebrates and affirms you and the contributions you make to our country and our church. We are blessed by you, and we stand with you as we seek a church that accepts you as God created you and a church that stands up for and defends your dignity and rights.”
We Are Church International questioned whether a document that had been in development five years ago, such as when clergy were able to abuse or kill people, had not also given the opportunity to study human dignity within the Church itself. The statement continued, in part:
The document’s attempt to uphold and defend human dignity is undermined by its astonishing ignorance of transgender and nonbinary people’s lives. Gender identity is far more than an individual’s choice; it is based on a realization of who God created each of us by taking into account all factors, including one’s physical appearance. There is a pressing need to approach the subject with more contemporary scholarship and openness than ideological prejudice.
The phrase “Dignitas Infinita” refers to the fact that human dignity is infinite, but it could also be understood as implying that the Church’s position on human dignity has not yet been fully considered.”
—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, April 15, 2024
