The Vatican published a declaration reaffirming Catholic doctrine on issues like abortion, surrogacy and gender theory.
Several progressive Catholic groups criticized the document, arguing it fails to recognize transgender and non-binary identities, forces women into childbirth, and conflicts with Pope Francis’ more inclusive approach.
Dignitas Infinita “fails terribly by offering transgender and nonbinary people not infinite, but limited human dignity,” New Ways Ministry executive director Francis DeBernardo stated.
“In its approach to gender, the document relies on the outdated theology of gender essentialism which claims that a person’s physical appearance is the central evidence of a person’s natural gender identity,” DeBernardo added.
Similarly, , the of the pro-abortion , lamented that Catholic doctrine on abortion, contraception, and pregnancy has “forced countless women, many of them the poorest of the poor, to give birth,” which constitutes “violence against women.”
“Yet again, a group of all-male, celibate clergymen are telling women and gender-expansive people that their lived experiences are not real or valid,” Catholics for Choice president Jamie Manson said.
“We don’t buy that women who choose abortion and Catholics who support abortion rights are ‘evil’ as this document suggests,” she said.
“As a transwoman, I am told by this document I am playing God and misapplying my moral freedom,” DignityUSA leader Maddie Marlett said. “This is not the reality of my life. My journey to self-acceptance was through realizing my self-worth as God’s creation.”
“This document’s adherence to long outdated beliefs about human anthropology conflicts with Pope Francis’ work to refocus the Catholic church as a listening church,” DignityUSA’s Executive Director Marianne Duddy-Burke said.
“It is also baffling that the Pope’s personal encounters with deeply faithful transgender people have not led the Vatican to take into account their stories of how gender-affirming care has allowed them to live full, rich, productive lives, and for them to finally experience the unity of body and soul,” she said.
The declaration stated the dignity of the unborn is equal to all humans from conception to death.
The unborn child “has an intrinsic character and is valid from the moment of conception until natural death,” the text read.
Unborn children are, “the most defenseless and innocent among us,” the declaration stated.
It rejected gender theory for denying sexual difference and canceling distinctions to make all equal.
Gender theory is “extremely dangerous since it cancels differences in its claim to make everyone equal,” it added.
Gender theory “intends to deny the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings: sexual difference,” the declaration stated. “This foundational difference is not only the greatest imaginable difference but is also the most beautiful and most powerful of them.”
LGBT advocacy groups said the document relies on outdated theology of essentialist gender identities that ignores people’s lived experiences.
They had hoped Pope Francis would enact greater changes in Catholic positions on these issues.
