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Pope Francis, who has made reaching out to LGBTQ Catholics a hallmark of his papacy, has made clear that transgender people can be baptized, serve as godparents and be witnesses at church weddings, promoting his vision of a church more inclusive.
The Pope’s acceptance of the participation of transgender people in the Church was revealed in a vatican document which he approved on October 31 and which was published online on Wednesday. Some advocates of a more inclusive Church found it an “important” and encouraging step on the path Francis has charted toward a Roman Catholic Church that is more focused on opening its doors than keeping people out.
“Welcoming transgender people more fully into the sacraments is a good step,” Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Maryland-based group that advocates for gay Catholics, said in a statement. The decision “signals that Pope Francis’ desire for a pastoral approach to LGBTQ+ issues is taking hold,” he added.
The immediate public response from American bishops, who have taken more restrictive stances on transgender issues, was generally muted. In a statement, a spokeswoman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops emphasized that the issue of a transgender person’s participation in the sacrament of baptism and other spiritual rituals was separate from the issues of medical interventions for transgender people. “These are different and distinct issues,” she said.
Last spring, the US bishops’ conference issued its own doctrinal document stating that chemical and surgical interventions aimed at achieving gender transitions were “not morally justified” and instructed Catholic hospitals not to perform them.
In his 10 years of papacy, although Pope Francis has made clear his opposition to same-sex marriage, he has frequently spoken about making the Catholic Church more welcoming to LGBTQ people. This year, Francis condemned “unjust” laws that criminalize being gay and urged bishops to welcome LGBTQ people into the church, especially in countries where such draconian laws exist. LGBTQ advocates called that statement “historic.”
And although Francis has repeatedly said that the church should reach out to everyone, including LGBTQ Catholics, he has not changed church teaching, which says that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.”
In the United States, individual parishes and even dioceses vary widely in their approach to transgender people in pews. The Archdiocese of Omaha, for example, requires that students in Catholic schools “conduct themselves in accordance with their God-given biological sex.”
The Vatican said the document Francis approved last month simply clarified church teachings and did not constitute new policy or a policy change.
“There are no doctrinal changes here; the importance of the document is typical of the entire papacy of Francis; that is, it requires a very pastoral approach to some very thorny issues of the church today,” said Nicholas P. Cafardi, a prominent canon lawyer in Pennsylvania.
The document, he said, focuses on the good of the entire ecclesial community.
The document was written in direct response to questions raised by a Brazilian bishop about the church’s teachings on the participation of transgender and homosexual people in any sacrament. In keeping with Francis’s papacy, full of swings on issues where progressives are eager for change, he included several considerations and warnings.
It was signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the newly appointed head of the Vatican’s office on church doctrine, who is hated by church conservatives for his apparent progressive leanings.
The document, published in Portuguese and Italian translations—says that under certain circumstances, transgender people—whether they have undergone hormonal treatment or surgery—can be godparents at Catholic baptisms, serve as witnesses at religious weddings, and receive baptism themselves.
Transgender people can be baptized “if there are no situations in which there is a risk of causing public scandal or disorientation among the faithful,” he says. The document did not elaborate on what would be considered a scandal. And children and adolescents who question their assigned gender may be baptized “if they are well prepared and willing,” the document says.
Transgender people can also be godparents at a baptism, although a local priest must exercise “pastoral prudence” and ensure there is no risk of scandal or “educational disorientation” among the church community.
The document says nothing in current church law prohibits LGBTQ people from acting as witnesses in a marriage ceremony. It also says that a same-sex couple could baptize a child adopted, or born to a surrogate mother, as long as there is “a well-founded hope that he will be educated in the Catholic religion.”
On allowing people in same-sex relationships to be godparents, the Vatican suggested the situation was more complicated. A sponsor could be anyone, including a gay person, who “leads a life in accordance with the faith,” the document says.
But people in same-sex relationships similar to marriage, which the church opposes, did not conform to the faith and should not become godparents, he says. If same-sex couples live together openly and in “stable marriage-like relationships,” the document says, they are in a “different situation.”
Adding to the nuances and potential room for maneuver, the document says those people could be invited to witness the baptism and leave some discretion to the local priest, and asks pastors to “meditate wisely in each case to safeguard the sacrament of baptism.” ”.
Despite its nuances and theological issues, the document was received by its defenders as a clear sign of progress.
Madeline Marlett, a transgender Catholic in Massachusetts, said the document was a welcome step in appearing in a reassuring official format, unlike some of Francis’ more spontaneous statements in interviews and other informal settings.
“It’s a real document, not just a passing comment,” said Marlett, 26, who leads the young adults group for DignityUSA, an organization that supports LGBTQ Catholics. “That gave me a little joy and a little hope.”
Still, he noted that this is not a radical change in the church’s approach and seemed aimed more at affirming leaders who were already welcoming to transgender people, rather than instructing hardliners to change. .
The Rev. James Martin, a New York-based LGBTQ outreach advocate, said in a post on a church where some say they don’t really exist), but as Catholics.”
DeBernardo noted that in 2015, another bishop had sought guidance from the Vatican office on church doctrine, asking whether a transgender person in Spain could be a godfather. DeBernardo’s organization wrote that the bishop initially rejected the transgender person’s request, but later asked the Vatican for clarification.
The Vatican office for church teaching, which was then headed by an ultraconservative theologian, said the transgender person did not fit the faith or the position of godfather.
Bishop Rafael Zornoza Boy of the Spanish diocese of Cádiz and Ceuta said the Vatican doctrine office he wrote to her at that time, “Transsexual behavior itself publicly reveals an attitude opposed to the moral requirement of resolving one’s own problem of sexual identity according to the truth of one’s own sex.” He added: “In fact, Pope Francis has stated on several occasions, in continuity with the teaching of the Church, that such behavior is contrary to human nature.”
But the Vatican has cautioned against reading that case as precedent, saying it was a prior interpretation of a specific case. .
How transgender policy will be applied at the local level “may be scattered,” DeBernardo said in a phone interview Thursday, especially because “there is still a lot of opposition to including transgender people in Catholic settings.”
Now that the church’s position has been clarified, transgender people can appeal to a bishop if they are denied these rights, “but it takes a lot of determination,” he added.
Because the decision has rooted state However, according to the Vatican’s doctrinal office, “it is going to be more difficult for local bishops not to enforce it,” he said.
The document, DeBernardo said in a statement, “demonstrates that the Catholic Church can (and does) change its mind about certain practices and policies.”
Jason Horowitz reported from Rome, Elisabetta Povoledo from Verbania, Italy and Ruth Graham from Dallas.