‘Threats to human dignity’ — Vatican condemns gender-affirming surgeries, abortion

The Vatican has condemned gender-affirming surgeries, abortion, surrogacy, and euthanasia, describing them as “grave threats to human dignity”.

This comes months after Pope Francis formally permitted Catholic priests to bless same-sex unions, noting that “such blessings should not be conducted with any church rites that offer the impression of a marriage”.

Gender-affirming surgeries are those that reshape the genitals, which are also known as genital reassignment surgery or genital reconstruction surgery.

In the twenty-page declaration issued on Monday by Víctor Fernández, the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, titled ‘Infinite Dignity’, the Vatican expressly rejected any form of gender theory or the notion that one’s gender could be changed.

It said gender theory is the “worst danger” facing humanity today.

“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 statement reads in part.

“This is not to exclude the possibility that a person with genital abnormalities that are already evident at birth or that develop later may choose to receive the assistance of healthcare professionals to resolve these abnormalities.

“However, in this case, such a medical procedure would not constitute a sex change in the sense intended here.

“Regarding gender theory, whose scientific coherence is the subject of considerable debate among experts, the Church recalls that human life in all its dimensions, both physical and spiritual, is a gift from God.

“This gift is to be accepted with gratitude and placed at the service of the good. 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 Vatican also condemned surrogacy, noting that it violates the dignity of both the child and the woman.

It added that abortion, irrespective of the terminology used, should be rejected by the society.

“The Church also takes a stand against the practice of surrogacy, through which the immensely worthy child becomes a mere object. First and foremost, the practice of surrogacy violates the dignity of the child,” it added.

“Surrogacy also violates the dignity of the woman, whether she is coerced into it or chooses to subject herself to it freely. For, in this practice, the woman is detached from the child growing in her and becomes a mere means subservient to the arbitrary gain or desire of others.

“Given such a grave situation, we need now more than ever to have the courage to look the truth in the eye and to call things by their proper name, without yielding to convenient compromises or to the temptation of self-deception.

“In this regard, the reproach of the Prophet is extremely straightforward: ‘Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness’ (Is. 5:20).

“Especially in the case of abortion, there is a widespread use of ambiguous terminology, such as ‘interruption of pregnancy,’ which tends to hide abortion’s true nature and to attenuate its seriousness in public opinion.”