The Vatican has issued a doctrine of "Infinite Dignity," opposing sex changes, surrogacy, euthanasia, and gender ideology.
The 20-page declaration was issued on Monday at the direction of Pope Francis.
The doctrine, Dignitas Infinita, or "Infinite Dignity," states, "Regarding gender theory, whose scientific coherence is the subject of considerable debate among experts, the Church recalls that human life in all its dimensions, both physical and spiritual, is a gift from God. This gift is to be accepted with gratitude and placed at the service of the good. 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." 🚨Just in: The Vatican has blasted sex change surgery, surrogacy and gender theory as a grave threats to human dignity. pic.twitter.com/Zb5iYzc4H4
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"Another prominent aspect of gender theory is that it intends to deny the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings: sexual difference," the declaration continues. "This foundational difference is not only the greatest imaginable difference but is also the most beautiful and most powerful of them. In the male-female couple, this difference achieves the most marvelous of reciprocities. It thus becomes the source of that miracle that never ceases to surprise us: the arrival of new human beings in the world."
The Catholic Church also took a stand against the practice of surrogacy, "through which the immensely worthy child becomes a mere object."
The document quoted Pope Francis referring to the practice as "trafficking."The path to peace calls for respect for life, for every human life, starting with the life of the unborn child in the mother’s womb, which cannot be suppressed or turned into an object of trafficking. In this regard, I deem deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs. A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract. Consequently, I express my hope for an effort by the international community to prohibit this practice universally.
The Church said, "The legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a 'right to a child' that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life."
"Surrogacy also violates the dignity of the woman, whether she is coerced into it or chooses to subject herself to it freely," Dignitas Infinita states. "For, in this practice, the woman is detached from the child growing in her and becomes a mere means subservient to the arbitrary gain or desire of others. This contrasts in every way with the fundamental dignity of every human being and with each person’s right to be recognized always individually and never as an instrument for another."
On euthanasia and assisted suicide, the Catholic Church said, "There is a special case of human dignity violation that is quieter but is swiftly gaining ground. It is unique in how it utilizes a mistaken understanding of human dignity to turn the concept of dignity against life itself."
The Church noted that laws permitting euthanasia or assisted suicide are often called “death with dignity acts.”
"With this, there is a widespread notion that euthanasia or assisted suicide is somehow consistent with respect for the dignity of the human person," the document states. "However, in response to this, it must be strongly reiterated that suffering does not cause the sick to lose their dignity, which is intrinsically and inalienably their own. Instead, suffering can become an opportunity to strengthen the bonds of mutual belonging and gain greater awareness of the precious value of each person to the whole human family."
Pope Francis addressed sex changes by saying, “Creation is prior to us and must be received as a gift. At the same time, we are called to protect our humanity, and this means, in the first place, accepting it and respecting it as it was created.”
Though the church opposes sex changes, they left open an exception for those who were born with genital anomalies.
"It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception. This is not to exclude the possibility that a person with genital abnormalities that are already evident at birth or that develop later may choose to receive the assistance of healthcare professionals to resolve these abnormalities. However, in this case, such a medical procedure would not constitute a sex change in the sense intended here."
The doctrine was issued on the 75th anniversary of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
