Those who thought that the change in the Office of the Doctrine of the Faith would result in no change took several months to change their minds. The change of course with the arrival of the cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez There was and is there for everyone to see in the Palace of the Holy Office. Not only in the style of the new prefect’s loquaciousness towards journalists, but also in terms of the content of the documents that come from the Curia’s most important dicastery for centuries. After accepting the Pope’s response to doubtful of Cardinals Walter Brandmüller, Raymond Burke, Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, Robert Sarah and Joseph Zen – the latter convinced that the new prefect inspired them – and after Fernández responded to the recommendations on communion for remarried divorcees proposed by Cardinal Dominik Duka, he won the attention of the whole world with the distribution of a new document approved by the Pope and which gives Continue to the baptism of transsexuals and children of homosexual couples, even if born through the practice of the rented womb, and to the acceptance of people Transsexuals and homosexuals Roommates as godparents. He did this in the answers to some questions addressed to his Dicastery by Monsignor José Negri, Bishop of Santo Amaro, about the possible participation of transsexuals and homosexuals in baptisms and marriages.
Homosexual godparents and godparents? You’ve been there before too
The document of the Dicastery, approved by father At the end of a hearing on October 31, he brings some important news that has sparked public and private protests within the church. But despite the title it’s nothing new that a homosexual can be a godfather or godmother at baptism. Even before Fernández’s answers to Monsignor Negri’s questions, the church actually he didn’t discriminate Men and women with homosexual tendencies. The Code of Canon Law regarding godparents stipulates as a condition for inclusion in the sponsorship that “he is Catholic, has already received Confirmation and the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist and is living a life.” compliant A godfather can therefore always be any homosexual person who leads an honest life and remains continent. Anyone who lives together cannot be a godfather or godmother doesn’t matter from the homosexual tendency because this is considered a condition incompatible with the mission he is supposed to undertake. The Jesuit Francesco Bersini in a letter from the late 1970s about the reception of divorced and remarried Regarding the sacraments and also the role of godparents, on the other hand, he explained that “the sacraments were instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church so that she could preserve and administer them, but not according to her own will” and that this “no”, that nothing has to do with pastoral hospitality, it motivates with the “loyalty to Christ and not to empty legalism.” The catechism is clearly directed against people with homosexual tendencies, teaching that “they must be received with respect, compassion and tenderness” and condemning “any kind of unjustified discrimination.”
Baptism and the rented womb
The Requests by Monsignor Negri represent a reality that exists in today’s society, but to which there are not always clear answers. For example, the Brazilian bishop asks how “homoemotional people can act as parents of a child who needs to be baptized and who has been adopted or obtained in some other way, e.gUterus for rent“. From the Ministry of Fernández there is no answer but it only repeats that “in order for the child to be baptized, there must be a reasonable hope that he will be brought up in the Catholic religion.” But what Negri wanted to know was clear: homosexuals who enter into a couple with a child adopted or obtained through the rental of a womb can both be included Parents in the baptismal register? If the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith prefers to stick with it exposed the question is limited to confirming – as has always been the case with children of unmarried couples – what is already provided for in canon law, namely that it is so lawful Baptize the child when there is “reasonable hope that he will be raised in the Catholic religion,” there are those who have already developed guidelines. This is the case of the Orientações pastorais and canônicas of the National Episcopal Conference of Brazil which says – as the canonist Don Marcio Fernando França explains in a scholarly work dedicated to this very subject – that “it will not be lawful adopt the terminology of civil law when it violates divine law.” The answer of the Brazilian bishops is therefore “no”, both people of the same sex cannot be called parents Baptism register. But the conference proposes solutions in its guidelines: it actually proposes using the term “adopter” and adding the names of the birth parents where they appear in the civil register. Therefore, the conference – of which Negri himself is a member – invites the use of “terminological differences between the civil and ecclesiastical registers” on the basis of what was supported by the canonist Don José San José Prisco, for the “in no case The names of two fathers or two mothers of the same sex must be entered in the baptismal register.”
The ministry contradicts itself
However, one of the answers to Monsignor Negri is: contradicts which was stated in a document published by the same ministry just eight years ago. In fact, Fernández replies: “Under certain conditions it is possible.” admit A godfather or godmother is an adult transsexual who has also undergone hormone treatment and gender reassignment surgery. The then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had responded to the same question from the Bishop of Cádiz and Ceuta, Monsignor Rafael Zornoza Boy: “the impossibility that this option is allowed, justifying it by saying that “the same behavior transsexual publicly expresses an attitude that contradicts the moral need to resolve his sexual identity problem according to the truth of his gender” and therefore “considers it obvious that this person does not have the right to live a life according to faith and purpose. “ Godfather and therefore cannot be admitted to the role of godmother or godfather.” This interpretation is also confirmed in a scientific work by the Argentine canonist Don Javier E. González Grenón from 2016 on the topic of coherence between faith and life as a godfather in baptisms or confirmations . In the article inspired by Amoris laetitia, the canonist quotes the reaction to Monsignor Boy and states: “It is clear that everyone who has one.” disturbed sexualityAnyone who is not in harmony with the faith and morality that this implies should not be a godfather.” However, in the conclusions that appeal to the priest’s judgment precisely on the basis of Amoris laetitia, Grenón recognizes that “it Conditions exist” that automatically exclude a believer from the possibility
“To be a godfather or godmother” and also includes transsexuals.
Within eight years, during the same pontificate, the Dicastery called to protect the ChurchCatholic Orthodoxy gave two different answers to the same question. A circumstance that could inevitably cause confusion.