The Vatican on Monday released a document condemning transgender surgeries, gender theory and surrogacy as “grave violations” of human dignity, equating them with murder, human trafficking, abortion and euthanasia.
The 20-page declaration, entitled Dignitas Infinita, Latin for “Infinite Dignity,” was over five years in development, and was approved for publication by Pope Francis on March 25.
“Infinite Dignity” addresses and expands the teaching of the Catholic Church on more than a wide array of “grave violations” of human dignity, including poverty, war, human trafficking, sexual abuse, violence against women, abortion, assisted suicide, and more.
The document cites Pope Francis’ teaching that it is the mission of the Catholic Church “to reaffirm that every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration, while ‘every sign of unjust discrimination’ is to be carefully avoided, particularly any form of aggression and violence.”
While condemning discrimination and violence, however, the Vatican outlined a firm stance against “gender theory,” which it criticized as an individual attempting to play God.
“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,” the document reads.
Gender theory, in the view of the Vatican as set forth in the document, “envisages a society without sexual differences, thereby eliminating the anthropological basis of the family.”
The Vatican affirmed that “all attempts to obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman are to be rejected.”
“We cannot separate the masculine and the feminine from God’s work of creation, which is prior to all our decisions and experiences, and where biological elements exist which are impossible to ignore,” Francis is quoted as saying in the Vatican document.
Putting forth a similar argument against sex change surgeries, the Vatican declared that “the human body shares in the dignity of ‘the image of God,” and that means “accepting [the body] and respecting it as it was created.”
“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 stated.
The Vatican was clear to indicate that this teaching is not meant to include people born with genital abnormalities, sometimes described as intersex, who “may choose to receive the assistance of healthcare professionals to resolve these abnormalities.”
On the topic of surrogacy, where a woman carries and delivers a baby for someone else, Pope Francis put the practice on par with turning a baby into “an object of trafficking.”
“The path to peace calls for respect for life, for every human life, starting with the life of the unborn child in the mother’s womb, which cannot be suppressed or turned into an object of trafficking,” Francis stated. “In this regard, I deem deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs.”
“A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract,” the Pope stated.
The highly anticipated document marks a significant conservative turn for the Catholic Church and an apparent pivot by Pope Francis, who during his papacy has tended to take a more liberal stance on “LGBTQ+” issues.
In December, Francis formally approved letting Catholic priests bless same-sex couples, while maintaining the Church’s strict ban on gay marriage.
New Ways Ministry, an organization which describes itself as “a Catholic outreach that educates and advocates for equity, inclusion, and justice for LGBTQ+ persons,” fiercely criticized the Vatican document in a Monday statement.
“The new Vatican document, Dignitas Infinita, fails terribly by offering transgender and nonbinary people not infinite, but limited human dignity,” New Ways Ministry executive director Francis DeBernado said. “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.”
Debernado said the Vatican is “supporting and propagating ideas that lead to real physical harm to transgender, nonbinary, and other LGBTQ+ people.”
Is Pope Francis dying? I’m shocked but maybe now the Catholic Church has finally figured out it needed a course correction from all the Leftists who have infiltrated it for decades. As for Francis BeBernardo is concerned, I’m sick and tired of your heretical drivel and so are many other Catholics and Christians.
They first and foremost should condemn the coverup of empowering and institutionalizing pedophiles in the Catholic Church. Heck, Pope Francis had the audacity to give a benediction for Cardinal Law at St. Peter’s Basilica. St. Peter’s Basilica is the third most holy site in the Catholic religion.
Then what about letting women be priests? Nope, cannot do it because that would be a sin against God by the teaching Catholics.
Glad to see the Vatican to come out against these incredible atrocities. What took so long to come out against something that is so obviously against God’s word and teaching.
FINALLY!! Francis, Francis…shake my head! Look at all the unnecessary chaos, confusion and schism, he’s caused, all for a new world “order” cabal and the most unholy dismantling of Holy Mother Church ever. Now, take the next step in a bigger way, EXCOMMUNICATE those clergy, all “practicing Catholics”, including all politicians, who support abortion, homosexual “marriage”, child mutilation trans surgery and start bringing The Church back to pre Vatican2 order. Then, The Church may have a chance of credibility again, sincerely saving souls and bringing solid Faith back to faithful, not this watered down pagan package the world has today!