(USNewsMag.com) – In an official declaration this week, the Vatican said that so-called “gender-affirming care” as well as surrogacy go against God’s design for human life and violate human dignity.
In a 20-page document titled “Infinite Dignity” released by the doctrine office of the Vatican, the Catholic Church took a firm stance on transgender surgeries and surrogacy, putting the practices in the same category as abortion and euthanasia as going against God’s plan. The declaration, which was in the works for over five years, underwent substantial revisions over the past few months before it was finally approved by Pope Francis on March 25th and ordered for publication.
The letter came as somewhat of a shock to many Catholics, considering the pope has made various outreach efforts to LGBTQ believers throughout his papacy. Although perceived as a setback to individuals who identify as transgender as well as Catholic, the official declaration is in line with previous statements by the papacy that although the church should welcome such individuals, “gender ideology” itself should not be welcome into its doctrine.
The letter reinforced the Vatican’s position on what they called “gender theory,” maintaining that the concept of being able to change from one gender to another is false and should be rejected by the Catholic Church. The letter said people should not try to make themselves into God by tampering with God’s creation, stating that men and women were made biologically different by God for a reason.
The declaration follows that any “intervention” to try and change men into women or women into men “risks threatening the unique dignity” each person receives “from the moment of conception.” The letter also made a distinction between gender-affirming care surgical procedures and those used on people born with “genital abnormalities.”
The letter also addressed surrogacy, which the Vatican believes violates the surrogate mother’s dignity as well as the child born this way. The ethical nature of the practice has been long-debated since it began, with opponents arguing it amounts to a form of human trafficking by allowing women to rent their wombs and children to be designed and purchased.
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