The Vatican has described the belief in gender fluidity as “a concession to the age-old temptation to make oneself God,” according to the Guardian UK.
The Vatican said this in an updated declaration of what the Catholic Church regards as threats to human dignity.
The new Dignitas infinita (Infinite Dignity) declaration released by the Vatican’s doctrinal office on Monday after five years in the making reiterates Pope Francis’s previous criticism of what he has called an “ugly ideology of our time.”
“Desiring a personal self-determination, as gender theory prescribes, apart from this fundamental truth that human life is a gift, amounts to a concession to the age-old temptation to make oneself God, entering into competition with the true God of love revealed to us in the gospel,” the 20-page document says.
Reiterating opposition to gender reassignment surgery, it adds: “It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.”
The Holy See distinguished between these sorts of surgeries and procedures to resolve “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or develop later. It said those abnormalities could be treated with the help of healthcare professionals.
The Vatican said Pope Francis had approved the document, which also reaffirms its condemnation of surrogacy, saying the practice represents “a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child.”
“A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract,” the document says. “Every human life, beginning with that of the unborn child in its mother’s womb, cannot be suppressed, nor become an object of commodity.”
The document says gay people should be respected and denounces the fact that “in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexualorientation.”
Catholic Church kicks against surrogacy, transgender; advocates respect for gay people