The Vatican reaffirmed on Monday its opposition to sex change, gender theory and surrogate parenting, as well as abortion and euthanasia, four months after supporting a blessing for same-sex couples, Reuters reported.
The Vatican’s doctrinal office (DDF) published the declaration the “Dignitas infinita” (Infinite dignity) after fierce opposition from conservatives, especially in Africa, against its document on LGBT issues. The paper has undergone significant changes over the past five years.
Pope Francis approved it, requesting that it also mention “poverty, the situation of migrants, violence against women, human trafficking, war, and other themes,” according to the head of the DDF, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez.
The declaration states that surrogate parenthood violates the dignity of both surrogate mother and child, recalling that in January Francis called it “despicable” and called for a global ban. Regarding gender theory, the document stated that “desiring a personal self-determination, as gender theory prescribes, apart from this fundamental truth that human life is a gift, amounts to a concession to the age-old temptation to make oneself God, entering into competition with the true God of love revealed to us in the Gospel.”
Gender theory, often called gender ideology by its critics, suggests that gender is more complex and fluid than the binary categories of male and female, and depends on more than visible sexual characteristics. The declaration states that “any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.”
It acknowledged that some people might undergo surgery to correct “genital abnormalities”, but stressed that “such a medical procedure would not constitute a sex change in the sense intended here”.
At the same time, the text also condemned 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 declaration reiterated the Vatican’s condemnation of abortion, euthanasia, and the death penalty, citing Francis, his predecessors Benedict XVI and John Paul II, as well as previous Vatican documents. It also cited sexual violence as a threat to human dignity, calling it “widespread in society,” including within the Catholic Church, as well as violence against women, cyberbullying and other forms of online violence.
