It is a note published discreetly and without advertising on the website of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on Wednesday, November 8th. The document, dated October 31 and approved by Pope Francis and signed by the man who has been the new guardian of the dogma since September, Cardinal Victor Fernandez, affirms that transgender people and children born through surrogacy can be baptized.
“A transsexual, even if he has undergone hormone treatment and gender reassignment surgery, can be baptized under the same conditions as other believers, provided there are no situations that risk causing a public scandal or disorienting the faithful.” we read in these two and a half-page note, available in Italian on the Vatican website.
“The church is not a customs barrier”
“Transsexual children or young people can be baptized if they are well prepared and ready,” the authors of the statement continued.
The Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith takes up the words of Pope Francis and emphasizes: “The Church is not a customs barrier, but the fatherly house in which every person with their difficult life has a place.” We can still read it in this document , which goes on to say that baptism cannot be prevented “even if doubts remain about a person’s objective moral situation.”
This communication is addressed to the Brazilian Bishop of Santo Amaro, Msgr. José Negri, who in July sent the Vatican a series of six questions on the subject of the sacraments of homosexual and transsexual people. Without ever answering “yes” or “no”, but developing more nuanced answers, Cardinal Fernandez also believes that the child born through surrogacy to a homosexual couple can be baptized “as long as there is a reasonable hope that he will be baptized “raised in the Catholic religion.” This is the general standard that applies to all baptisms.
“Pastoral prudence”
More broadly, this new Vatican document also explores the possibility for homosexual people – what the Vatican calls “homosensitive people” – and transgender people to be godparents to a child or witnesses. “Under certain conditions, an adult transsexual who has also undergone hormonal treatment and a surgical procedure can be admitted as a godfather or godmother,” the statement says, although it makes it clear that this cannot be a “right”.
“Pastoral prudence requires that this possibility not be allowed when there is a risk of scandal,” especially “in the educational field of the ecclesial community,” explains the Vatican, which encourages what could be described as a form of discretion. A demand that some will not fail to criticize.
“Lead a life consistent with the faith and the role it will assume.”
Likewise, “nothing in current general canon law prohibits a transsexual person from acting as a witness at a wedding.” There is also nothing standing in the way of a homosexual person living together as a couple.
However, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith is less direct with regard to the case of a homosexual person in a relationship described as a godparent. Because the godfather or godmother, the note says, citing canon 874, must “lead a life consistent with the faith and the function that he or she will assume.” A theoretical incompatibility with homosexuality and living together as a couple, since the homosexual act is considered a sin by the Church.
Despite this canonical rule, the note still opens the possibility of a homosexual person living in a couple acting as a sponsor in the context of individual treatment. “Pastoral prudence requires that every situation be judiciously weighed in order to protect the sacrament of baptism and especially its reception, which is a precious good to be protected since it is necessary for salvation,” writes the Argentine theologian. He also affirms that “another person in the family circle,” other than the godfather or godmother, “can ensure the good transmission of the Catholic faith to the person to be baptized.”
The approach presented in this note, which is not to deprive people of the sacraments “even if there are still doubts” about their “objective moral situation,” also follows that of two others signed by the Vatican in early September Topics such as the blessing of homosexual couples or the communion of remarried divorcees were propagated. A principle that Pope Francis clearly expressed on World Youth Day, according to which “everyone” without exception can have their place in the Church. “Everyone, everyone, everyone,” he insisted to hundreds of thousands of young people in Lisbon. It is everyone’s church, there is room for everyone. »