The Vatican issues declaration on sex change operations after five years of deliberation

The document has been rumoured since 2019

The Vatican has declared sex change operations “grave threats” to human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that violate God’s plan for human life.

The Vatican‘s doctrine office finally issued Infinite Dignity, a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years, on Monday.

After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.

Pope Francis holds his weekly general audience, in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 3, 2024 (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory” or the idea that one’s gender can be changed.

It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said they must not tinker with that plan 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 transitioning surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later.

Those can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.

The document’s existence, rumoured since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, a close Pope Francis confidante.

He had cast it as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.

Pope Francis holds his skull cap to prevent it blowing in the wind (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

And while rejecting gender theory, the document takes pointed aim at countries - including many in Africa - that criminalise homosexuality.

It echoed Francis’ assertion in 2023 that “being homosexual is not a crime” making the assertion now part of the Vatican‘s doctrinal teaching.

The new document 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 document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions.

It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking and forced migration.

In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.

While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican document focuses almost more on the resulting child.

“The child has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver,” the document said.

“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life.”

The Vatican published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.

It called gender fluidity a symptom of the “confused concept of freedom” and “momentary desires” that characterise post-modern culture.

The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone.

Significantly, it doesn’t repurpose the 1986 language of a previous doctrinal document saying that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered”.

Francis has tried to make reaching out to LGBTQ+ people a hallmark of his papacy, ministering to trans Catholics and insisting that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.

The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the US where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths - and in some cases, adults.