The Vatican announced Wednesday that transgender people might be baptized and turn out to be godparents under certain conditions, in addition to function witnesses to church weddings. The statement, which was written in Portuguese, was made in response to a Brazilian bishop who asked the Vatican concerning the church’s stance on transgender people inside its congregations.
The Vatican’s document stated that transgender people, including those that have received hormone alternative therapy or sex reassignment surgery, might be baptized “under the identical conditions as other believers,” but provided that there is no such thing as a “risk of generating a public scandal or disorientation among the many faithful.” But the document didn’t make clear what a public scandal would entail.
Additionally, the statement allows for transgender “children and adolescents” to be baptized as well, and added that there is no such thing as a reason why transgender people cannot function witnesses at weddings. The document also specifies that a same-sex couple would give you the option to baptize a toddler who had been adopted or born via surrogate providing there may be “a well-founded hope that she or he will likely be educated within the Catholic religion.”
“The Vatican’s affirmation that transgender people ought to be welcomed within the church’s sacramental life signals Pope Francis’ desire for a pastorally-focused approach to LGBTQ+ issues is taking hold,” Francis DeBernardo — executive director at New Ways Ministry, a Catholic outreach that goals to construct bridges between the Catholic Church and the LGBTQ+ community — wrote in an editorial Thursday.
As for whether transgender people might be godparents, the Church was again vague — saying it could allow transgender people to fill these roles, again provided there was no danger of, again, what it termed a “scandal.”
The church said it leaves the choice as much as “pastoral prudence,” but without providing specifics, clarifying that “such a function doesn’t constitute a right” within the eyes of the church.
The lack of clarity within the document was of concern to DeBernardo, who wrote Thursday that “if church leaders don’t employ pastoral prudence with this guideline, it could possibly be utilized by other officials to ascertain other policies which might exclude such people from other areas of church life.”
“We hope that church leaders will apply these guidelines by following Pope Francis’ example of extravagant welcome, fairly than using them to proceed old restrictions,” DeBernardo added.
The church document was signed by Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, head of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, and was subsequently approved by Pope Francis last month, reported Reuters.
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Earlier this 12 months, Pope Francis and protestant leaders from England and Scotland denounced the criminalization of homosexuality, calling laws that discriminate against LGBTQ+ people each a “sin” and an “injustice.”
“People with homosexual tendencies are children of God,” said the pope in February. “God loves them, God is with them.”
In January of this 12 months, the pope said in an interview with the Associated Press that while homosexuality itself “shouldn’t be a criminal offense,” same-sex sexual relations are a “sin.” He also made some extent of claiming that parents of LGBTQ+ children shouldn’t “condemn” them.
This got here because the Church of England outlined proposals that will refuse same-sex marriages in its churches, saying that it could proceed to show that marriage is between “one man and one woman for all times.” The decision was reached after five years of debate.
— Translation assistance provided by Frederico Levy.
