Vatican calls gender surgery violation of human dignity
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.
The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration in the works for five years. After revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication. From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, gender ideologies should not.
In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”
“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.
It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” by health care professionals, it said.
Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite
dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, like violence and discrimination.
“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.
Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document shows that the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”
“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the church.
The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the
Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.
Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he wrote a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.
And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”
It denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”
The White House said President Joe Biden, a Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world.”
On gender theory, press secretary Karine JeanPierre said it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”