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Transgender people can be baptized Catholic, serve as godparents, Vatican says
VATICAN CITY, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Transgender people can be godparents at Roman Catholic baptisms, witnesses at religious weddings and receive baptism themselves, the Vatican's doctrinal office said on Wednesday, responding to questions from a bishop.
By Philip Pullella
The department, known as the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, was vague however, in response to a question of whether a same-sex couple could have a Church baptism for an adopted child or one obtained through a surrogate mother.
Bishop Jose Negri of Santo Amaro in Brazil sent the doctrinal office six questions in July regarding LGBT people and their participation in the sacraments of baptism and matrimony.
The three pages of questions and answers were signed by the department’s head, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, and approved by Pope Francis on Oct. 31. They were posted on the department’s website on Wednesday using the Italian word for “transsexuals”.
Francis, 86, has tried to make the Church more welcoming to the LGBT community without changing Church teachings, including one saying that same-sex attraction is not sinful but same-sex acts are.
In response to a question of whether transgender people can be baptized, the doctrinal office said they could with some conditions and as long as there is “no risk of causing a public scandal or disorientation among the faithful”.
It said transgender people could be godparents at a baptism at the discretion of the local priest as well as a witness at a Church wedding, but the local priest should exercise “pastoral prudence” in his decision.
“This is an important step forward in the Church seeing transgender people not only as people (in a Church where some say they don’t really exist) but as Catholics,” Father James Martin, a prominent Jesuit priest and supporter of LGBT rights in the Church, said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Francis has met with transgender people and in July, he told a transgender person: “Even if we are sinners, he (God) draws near to help us. The Lord loves us as we are, this is God’s crazy love.”
The document said a person in a same-sex relationship could also be a witness at a Catholic wedding, the office said, citing current Church canonical legislation which contained no prohibition against it.
The response was less clear regarding persons in same-sex relationships and their role in baptism, which is the initiation into the Church for infants, children or adults.
The Brazilian bishop sought guidance on whether a same-sex couple who had adopted a child or obtained it from a surrogate mother could have that child baptized in a Catholic ceremony.
The response said that for the child of a same-sex couple to be baptized, there had to be “a well-founded hope that it would be educated in the Catholic religion”.
There was a similarly nuanced response to a question whether a person in a same-sex relationship could be a godparent at a Church baptism. It said the person had to “lead a life that conforms to the faith”.
(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by David Gregorio)
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There is no such thing as “transgender”. It doesn’t exist.
You really are rather under-educated, aren’t you? It’s been known for centuries, but only relatively recently have people who truly believe – and who have had serious psychological evaluations to confirm this – that they are living in the wrong bodies had the opportunity to do something about it in terms of transitioning, surgically and chemically. Saying it doesn’t exist, then, is simply a symptom of obstinate refusal to believe in the face of evidence.
No need for insults!
Men cannot become women and women cannot become men. Ergo, no such thing as “transgender”. Psychological issues are nothing to do with “transgender”.
This is not news, nothing has changed.
What is vague about “The response said that for the child of a same-sex couple to be baptized, there had to be “a well-founded hope that it would be educated in the Catholic religion”.”? It is pretty clear. For any child to be baptised, there has to be “a well-founded hope that it would be educated in the Catholic religion”. That is far from new, and very clear. Zero vagueness.
“There was a similarly nuanced response to a question whether a person in a same-sex relationship could be a godparent at a Church baptism. It said the person had to “lead a life that conforms to the faith”.” Nuanced? Not at all, pretty clear, unsubtle statement of the conditions which are required.
Godparents and Confirmation sponsors are expected to contribute to the Catholic formation of the person Baptised or Confirmed, and therefore must be practicing Catholics in a state of grace themselves. Nothing new there either. This would apply to couples in same sex relationships or any unmarried couple. Pretty clear, if you ask me.
People of the LGBT +++++ etc have a right to believe what they want, be who they want to be, act how they want to act. I have no problem here. What i do feel is an absolute abomination is, when religion now has to bend, accommodate and compromise biblical principles to “make them feel accepted”. Since when is ones identity found , confirmed by others.. If you cant find that within yourself as a person, then you have no right to manipulate the church to accommodate your personal feelings of self worth and identity.
The Church and the Bible is clear on its feeling on all matters related to this topic… If you don’t like it then that is your choice….The church needs to stop compromising… The bible is not a book to be edited or interpreted as you see fit.
#stopcompromisingchurch
The has been edited and and interpreted as seen fit over the centuries – it is very well documented.
The Christian holy book also promotes slavery – although you have to be nice to them, apparently – and allows more than one wife, and specifies the dimensions of the rod with which one may beat one’s wife, as well as specifying the punishments for the faithful who do all manner of obscure things, including eating pork and wearing garments made of more than one type of material. So “The Bible” certainly is not the blueprint for how to live a modern life – and if you think it is, you could be in all sorts of trouble with the civil authorities. Religions evolve, and mainstream Xtianity in particular has evolved a long way from its roots. People who don’t believe this, and cling to older interpretations of its teaching, are cultists and are on the fringes of acceptable behaviour.