It’s moments like these when Pope Francis’ pastoral attitude and openness to secular liberals is beneficial.
On Monday, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released a major doctrinal declaration on human dignity. Titled Dignitas infinita, the document addresses numerous violations of human dignity, including abortion, violence against women, human trafficking, war, poverty, euthanasia, sexual abuse, and the marginalization of people with disabilities.
The document has captivated the attention of Western media due to its statements on issues that have emerged as major controversies in the 21st century: surrogacy, “gender theory,” and “sex change.” The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is headed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel “Tucho” Fernández, confronted these topics in accordance with the longstanding teachings of the Catholic Church — and with a forcefulness that is unusual for Francis’ papacy.
“[A]ny sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document states. This declaration that so-called phalloplasties and vaginoplasties threaten a person’s “unique dignity” drew consternation from self-identified transgender activists and Western media outlets.
Mara Klein, who identifies as both “nonbinary” and “transgender” and was a delegate to the Synodal Way in Germany, told the Associated Press that the Vatican’s statement on “sex-change intervention” was “dangerously ignorant.” She said, “The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant.” Meanwhile, New Ways Ministry, a fringe American activist group that advocates for the Catholic Church to adopt progressive ideology, claimed that the document “fails terribly by offering transgender and nonbinary people not infinite, but limited human dignity.” In addition, the New York Times declared in the middle of its reporting on Dignitas infinita that the Vatican is engaged in a balancing act between respecting people’s dignity and proclaiming Catholic doctrine. The Vatican, it said, “took pains” in the document “to strike a balance between protecting personal human dignity and clearly stating church teaching.” This is a “tightrope” that Francis “has tried to walk” throughout his papacy, the newspaper claimed.
Contrary to what these outlets have reported, the Vatican is not saying that undergoing a phalloplasty diminishes the infinite dignity that a person possess by means of his or her creation in the image and likeness of God. Rather, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith is saying that a “sex-change intervention” creates undignified “life conditions” for a person and can diminish a person’s moral dignity, which occurs when a person “exercis[es]” his or her “freedom against the law of love revealed by the Gospel.” This argument follows from Dignitas infinita’s elucidation of “a fourfold distinction of the concept of dignity.” In this understanding, human beings possess indelible “ontological dignity” simply by their existence and creation by God that “can never be annulled,” but a person’s “existential dignity,” “moral dignity,” and “social dignity” can be lessened. The document explains: “Every individual possesses an inalienable and intrinsic dignity from the beginning of his or her existence as an irrevocable gift. However, the choice to express that dignity and manifest it to the full or to obscure it depends on each person’s free and responsible decision.” Moreover, while a person’s ontological dignity cannot possibly be lessened, it is violated through so-called sex-change surgeries.
The document explains the Church’s opposition to “sex-change interventions” by asserting that humans “are inseparably composed of both body and soul” and that the body “serves as the living context in which the interiority of the soul unfolds and manifests itself.” It then quotes Pope Francis’ earlier teaching that humans are to accept God’s creation as it was given to us. “[C]reation,” said Pope Francis, “is prior to us and must be received as a gift. At the same time, we are called to protect our humanity, and this means, in the first place, accepting it and respecting it as it was created.”
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In spite of the vocal opposition to the Vatican’s denouncement of “gender-affirmation surgeries,” it is not being disregarded. This is partly because the Vatican under Francis has garnered greater attention from secular liberal elites due to the perception that the pope is seeking to liberalize the Church. For example, even the White House was asked to respond to the Vatican’s document. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to give Joe Biden’s assessment of the document but stated, “[T]he president will continue to be an advocate for the rights, safety and dignity of the LGBTQ+ community, including transgender people here in the U.S.” In addition, some outlets blasted out articles mischaracterizing the document as the Vatican’s decision on whether to permit sex-change surgeries — a confusion that partially stems from Pope Francis’ liberal image. For instance, the U.K.’s Independent headlined its article on the document: “The Vatican issues declaration on sex change operations after five years of deliberation.”
Pope Francis’ outreach to people who identify as transgender helps to frame the document as an effort to safeguard human dignity rather than as an attack against them. “Francis has made it a hallmark of his papacy to meet with gay and transgender Catholics,” noted the New York Times in its coverage of the document, while CNN’s Vatican correspondent said, “We should also state that Pope Francis has shown a pastoral welcome to those who are transgender Catholics, to the LGBTQ community more broadly.” Additionally, the pope’s strong opposition to laws that criminalize homosexuality as well as his advocacy for nondiscrimination against people who identify with the LGBTQ community, both of which are reiterated in Dignitas infinita, ease how the document is perceived by LGBTQ activists. For example, Father James Martin’s only response to the document was to state that he was “grateful that the Vatican has reiterated its official condemnation of every kind of violence against LGBTQ people.”
In this way, Dignitas infinita represents Pope Francis’ effort to leverage his status as a liberalizing, pastoral pope to proclaim the Church’s message on crucial yet contentious topics. It is Pope Francis at his best. While some, such as the Washington Post, have interpreted Dignitas infinita as an “olive branch” to conservatives following a series of progressive declarations, notably including the statement on same-sex blessings, a more charitable and perhaps more accurate reading is that the pope independently wishes to denounce these controversial modern evils. The fact that Dignitas infinita has been in development for five years, and Pope Francis has long forcefully condemned issues like gender ideology and surrogacy, serves to support this interpretation. Still, it is likely that the document was strategically timed for this moment when outreach to conservatives is critical.
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If this is the moment when Pope Francis is cashing in on his good will with secular liberals to denounce modern evils, he is not holding anything back.
Pope Francis’ Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith says on surrogacy that every child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin” and that surrogacy is “a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child.” On euthanasia, the Vatican department states that “there are no circumstances under which human life would cease from being dignified and could, as a result, be put to an end.” On abortion, it quotes Pope John Paul II’s declaration that “procured abortion is the deliberate and direct killing, by whatever means it is carried out, of a human being.” On gender theory, the document says that it “intends to deny the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings: sexual difference,” which it describes as “not only the greatest imaginable difference but … also the most beautiful and most powerful.”
At a time when “surrogacy” is increasing rapidly, the legalization of euthanasia is proliferating, abortion is increasingly accepted around the world, and radical gender ideology is sweeping cultures, a strong and definitive disavowal by the Vatican was sorely needed. Credit goes to Pope Francis for bringing it about.