The Pope has endorsed a report that essentially outlaws sex shift for transgender Christians in an official declaration on individual dignity, Dignitas Infinita. The Declaration is terrible and unyielding in tone, contemptuous of contemporary science, and judgmental of those who, in great faith, make decisions that conflict with the doctrines of the Church. Nothing new around, only another slap in the face for those who strive to live their God-given life as completely and honestly as they can.
Five years ago, the Vatican released its most recent message. Pope Francis watched both its creation and completion. It is correct to assume that he had a positive outlook. This attitude does little to exit from the densely argued and immovable restrictions on abortion, surrogacy, euthanasia and now the peculiarly termed ‘gender theory’ movement.
The Pope and another celibate ideological advisors have engaged in a spooky intellectual conflict with a ‘straw man.’ that being, an alleged activity, ‘gender theory,’ that seeks to ‘play God’ over identity change and the equal treatment of trans people in civic society. Clearly, the ‘Religious Right,’ especially evident in the US Catholic Church, has won the day in the Vatican. Once more, the politics of gender have overshadowed the rural instincts of the faith.
Transgenderism has evolved into the Catholic Church’s fresh Rubicon. In a contrived social war where the victims are stupid lives cast away in the interests of philosophy, holding on to this opposing line is now an “article of faith.” The Church runs the risk that general social bans will alienate and counterproductive. They undermine sincere attempts to understand the profundities of a complex human knowledge. They pass view without listening. The morality becomes careful and unfair, political and arrogant.
This has been a unique quality of the Francis pope to this day. He has fought against homophobia, questioned the status of refugees in the world, and urged valiant actions in the wake of the climate crisis. He has showed much passion for ideological purity and preferred a rural, realistic attitude. This makes his position with the Declaration’s stridency all the more upsetting.
The Declaration’s opposition to sexual shift therapies is unwavering. It recognizes that no legitimate purpose exists for someone to attempt to alter their natural identity based on gender recognition. The Church scoffs at any medical treatment that undermines the ‘natural order of things, just like IVF and another helped conception techniques. This ‘head in the sand’ approach to scientific and medical development has echoes of the most recent, devastating essay, Humanae Vitae, according to many. Catholics were stifled from using synthetic prevention under that Declaration. It is well known that Catholics frequently reject that training.
The only difference is that Humanae Vitae brought on a Catholic uprising, since the majority of Catholics have now left!
The unfortunate thing is that Pope Francis had the opportunity to set a more rural program. The description of what is called ‘existential dignity’ is the Declaration’s most useful ingredient. This describes elements of what are frequently referred to as a ‘dignified life. According to the Declaration,” some people may appear to lack nothing essential for life, but for various reasons they may still struggle to live with peace, joy, and hope.” As a result, these hardships “may drive people to experience their life conditions as ‘undignified’” (sec 8).
Pope Francis had the gift of acknowledging that gender dysphoria is true, as the health profession around the world now does. The Pope may have opened his mind and heart to some Catholics’ experiences rather than turning the issue of transsexuals into some faux cultural battle. That is, some people believe they were born with the wrong system. That these people are given more opportunities to live a dignified life than to experience unjustified life. However, the Declaration offers no desire. Instead, the Declaration, and in turn the Pope, implies that any proposal of alleviating suffering for people in these circumstances was ‘playing God’ and needed to be quashed.
Where is the Church’s core when it rejects animal life? Where is the theological framework that the Pope says must be based on human knowledge? Where do transgender people and their families voice?
The Church has struggled with human masculinity for years. It is stuck in the past and the ‘faithful’ have passed it by. Despite the language that the Roman Curia is a ‘church of the poor’ and has a vision to the peripheries, this Declaration demonstrates the fear and defensiveness of a Roman Curia filled with celibates who are uneasy about maintaining control and power.
But where to from here for Christians? An adult Catholic needs to follow their morality when it all boils down, when the stridency is stated and the regulations are in place. At the bases of the Church’s training is the purity of a person’s consciousness. Christians are free to make the best decisions for their people and life. They may also have to deal with Rome’s prohibition-like vibe, but they can safely make the individual calculus about what brings them life, or “peace, joy, and hope.” Also, let’s hope that their clergy will guide them in this rural and genuine direction. And lead them wherever it leads.
