The Pope has supported a document that essentially outlaws trans Christians in an official declaration on individual dignity, Dignitas Infinita. The Declaration is both severe and unyielding in tone, contemptuous of new technology, and judgmental of those Christians who, in good faith, make decisions that conflict with the doctrines of the Church. Nothing new here, only another slap in the face for those who strive to live their God-given life as completely and honestly as they can.
This most recent Vatican message took five years to produce. Pope Francis was present throughout its conception and ultimate design. 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 other 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. Naturally, 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 this adversarial collection is now an ‘article of faith. The Church runs the risk that general social prohibitions will alienate and be counterproductive. They undermine sincere attempts to understand the profundities of complex animal knowledge. They pass view without listening. The morality becomes careful and unfair, political and arrogant.
This has been a unique quality of Pope Francis up until this point. 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 is unwavering in its opposition to sexual change solutions. It acknowledges that a person’s desire to change their genetic essay based on gender identification is illogical. The Church blasted any medical intervention that violates the ‘natural order of things, just like IVF and other supported conception techniques. This ‘head in the sand’ approach to scientific and medical development has reflections of the most recent, devastating essay, Humanae Vitae, according to many. Catholics were stifled from using synthetic prevention under that Declaration. Christians are well-known for rejecting that training in a large way.
The only difference is that Humanae Vitae brought on a Catholic uprising, since the majority of Catholics have now left!
The terrible thing is that Pope Francis had the opportunity to chart a more rural path. The explanation of what is known as ‘existential dignity’ is the Declaration’s most useful factor. 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 had opened his mind and heart to the realities of some Christians rather than turning the issue of transsexuals into some fake social conflict. That is, some people believe they were born with the bad system. That these people are given more opportunities to live a dignified life than to experience an unjustified life. However, the Declaration offers no desire. Instead, the Declaration, and in turn the Pope, implies that any proposal of alleviating anguish 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 are the tones of trans people and their families?
The Church has had a difficult time regulating gender for centuries. 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 must follow their conscience when it all comes to the table, when the stridency is stated and the regulations are in position. 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 mathematics over what, in the words of their parents, brings them life, “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.
