Vatican condemnation of “gender theory” a moment of whiplash for LGBTQ Catholics

Editor’s note: This article is part of our ongoing coverage of the Vatican declaration “Dignitas Infinita.” In a spirit of synodality, we have invited authors with a range of views on gender identity and its relation to Catholic teaching to present analysis and opinion. We invite you to read more of our coverage, including:

• “Dignitas Infinita” falters when it doesn’t practice what it preaches
• “Dignitas Infinita” asks the church to consider the experiences of transgender people
• Papal biographer: Vatican is right on gender theory, but the church must walk with transgender people
• As a transgender Catholic, I don’t see gender diversity as a threat to our faith
• Transgender Catholics call the church to listen, says this Franciscan sister
• In “Dignitas Infinita,” the Vatican quarrels with a theory of its own making

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For over a decade, LGBTQ Catholics have grappled with what it means to balance having a pope who literally and figuratively embraces their community but who nonetheless approves documents that seem to call their very dignity into question. That reality is playing out again today, with the release of the Vatican declaration “Dignitas Infinita,” 12,000-word treatise articulating previous church teaching on a number of issues related to human dignity. 

Many Vatican analysts point out that rather than presenting new teaching, “Dignitas Infinita” more or less summarizes existing church doctrine touching on a number of issues related to human dignity, including war, poverty, sex abuse and human trafficking. The document, which has been in the works for the past five years, cites other popes and Vatican documents, but also tries to synthesize the thoughts of Pope Francis. 

The whiplash that accompanies being a Catholic and member of the LGBTQ community today is present even within this single document.

That’s because the sections that touch most closely on LGBTQ issues actually include a couple of bright spots—before offering strong condemnations of “gender theory” and “sex change” surgeries. 

The whiplash that accompanies being a Catholic and member of the LGBTQ community today is present even within this single document.

What does the new declaration say?

First, “Dignitas Infinita“ reiterates church teaching that “every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration, while ‘every sign of unjust discrimination’ is to be carefully avoided, particularly any form of aggression and violence.”

Then it goes a step further, condemning laws that criminalize homosexuality, stating, “it should be denounced as contrary to human dignity 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 sexual orientation.” 

For years, LGBTQ activists had urged Pope Francis to speak out against laws that criminalize homosexuality, particularly statutes and bills in some African countries that had the support of local bishops. Francis took this step last year, becoming the first pope to condemn laws in at least 67 countries that criminalize homosexuality, and now the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has further bolstered the notion that Catholics should not support these kinds of prohibitions. At a press conference following the release of the document, Cardinal Víctor Fernández, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, described it as “painful” to learn that some Catholics support laws criminalizing homosexuality and said “we do not agree with criminalization.”

James Martin, S.J., the founder of Outreach, said in a statement that he is “grateful that the Vatican has reiterated its official condemnation of every kind of violence against LGBTQ people, including imprisonment and execution. That cannot be repeated too often as an offense against human dignity. The LGBTQ person, like everyone else, has infinite dignity.”

The document is also notable for what it doesn’t contain, namely, some of the harsher language present in an earlier Vatican document about gender identity—and even some of the phrases spoken by Pope Francis himself around this topic. But those omissions will probably offer little comfort to the transgender Catholic community and their families and allies, who will undoubtedly be hurt by what is included. 

James Martin, S.J.: “The LGBTQ person, like everyone else, has infinite dignity.”

In five paragraphs condemning gender theory, and the subsequent section prohibiting “sex-change intervention,” “Dignitas Infinita“ explains why it believes evolving attitudes on gender represent a threat to human dignity on par with extreme poverty, violence against women and abortion.

“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 document states.

The document is also notable for something else it lacks: namely, any strong indication that the lived experiences of transgender people served as a source in formulating its contents. The language in the document feels clinical in its tone. There are many mentions of theory, but few instances of concrete realities. The term “transgender” does not appear a single time.

Given the pope’s twin emphases on creating a merciful and listening church, it strikes me as strange that this document seems to lack ideas for how Catholics are to approach difficult pastoral realities that will undoubtedly arise following the publication of today’s document. My mind goes back to 1986, when the Vatican published a document that condemned same-sex relations. Pastors of gay-friendly parishes back then were left in the cold when it came to responding to the anger their flocks felt after reading the document. That document led to the dismissal of LGBT Catholic groups from parishes and a mass exodus of gay and lesbian Catholics from the life of the church; and its harsh language has been used for decades by those who don’t want to see LGBTQ people fully embraced by the church.

Because “Dignitas Infinita” deals largely with theory and not lived realities, it runs the risk of having a painful history repeat itself. 

It will be difficult for some LGBTQ Catholics to square this doctrinal document with the pastoral reality of Pope Francis, who has made meeting with LGBTQ people a not-insignificant part of his papacy. 

Francis DeBernardo, the head of the Catholic LGBTQ group New Ways Ministry who recently met with Pope Francis in Rome, said in a statement that the document includes a “stunning lack of awareness of the actual lives of transgender and nonbinary people.” 

There are many mentions of theory, but few instances of concrete realities. The term “transgender” does not appear a single time.

Further, Mr. DeBernardo contends that the “authors did not listen intently to the lived experience of people who have discovered, often after painful and torturous journeys, that God has naturally created them with a gender identity beyond social expectations, usually based on physical appearance.”

Historical parallels

Whenever I speak to Catholic groups about LGBTQ issues, I’m almost always asked a question about how church leaders are managing issues related to the treatment of transgender people and their families.

Most of these talks are centered around my research on the church’s response to the H.I.V. and AIDS crisis in the 1980s and ’90s. As a gay Catholic, I’m interested in how lessons from that time can inform the church today.

So when people ask me how the church could do better, I usually respond by pointing to a story about a Catholic hospital in New York City that served a large patient population of gay men with H.I.V. and AIDS.

Protesters frequently targeted St. Vincent’s Hospital, because even though it served many gay men, they didn’t always feel welcome and cited verbal abuse and discrimination from some hospital staff. After one particularly boisterous protest, in which an activist desecrated a crucifix, the Sisters of Charity of New York were told by their lawyers that they could press charges and have the courts intervene as a way to quell the disruption. But the sisters discerned their response and decided instead that they needed to listen to the protesters to learn how they could better meet their needs. As a result of those listening sessions and changes in policy, St. Vincent’s went on to become an invaluable partner in the fight against H.I.V. and something of a landmark in LGBTQ history in the United States.

I see similarities in how the church approaches today’s admittedly thorny questions related to gender identity. There seems to be an instinct to point to doctrine before the laborious and difficult work of deep listening has taken place.

There seems to be an instinct to point to doctrine before the laborious and difficult work of deep listening has taken place.

The Vatican publishes many theological treatises each year and most Catholics in the pews will never know they exist, much less have their lives affected by them. Even in the LGBTQ community there may be a sense that we have endured worse and are still here. One more document might not be pleasant, but our faith in God and thirst for the sacraments remains resilient. But given the current cultural reality, it would be a mistake to think that the document doesn’t have the potential to cause serious repercussions.

Many dioceses in the United States are grappling with how to respond to the increased visibility of transgender people in parishes, ministries and schools. Some bishops have released guidelines addressing these topics, and “Dignitas Infinita“ will almost certainly result in many more diocesan guidelines that result in transgender people not feeling welcome in the church. 

That’s the fear of Marianne Duddy-Burke, who heads the LGBTQ group DignityUSA.

“Every time the Vatican puts out a statement that dehumanizes people, it is the final straw for some Catholics who have been struggling to remain connected to the church,” Ms. Duddy-Burke said in a statement. “These people feel pain and alienation when they or their loved ones are dehumanized. They no longer see the church as a home. Many grieve the loss of the sacraments, rituals that both comfort and challenge, and the communities where they can share their hopes and joys. We mourn these terrible wounds to the Body of Christ and pray that these people can find new spiritual homes.”

If transgender persons don’t feel that they would be treated with respect as a result of this document, might they put off seeking needed care?

At the same time, Catholic hospitals are trying to emphasize that their facilities are open to all people, including transgender people, even if they usually do not offer some surgical interventions referred to as gender-affirming care. It has been difficult for some institutions to thread that needle, and the fallout from this new document is likely to make that task even more difficult. In some places, Catholic hospitals are the only option for people seeking care, especially in underserved areas of the United States. If transgender persons don’t feel that they would be treated with respect as a result of this document, might they put off seeking needed care?

Not knowing how this document will trickle down into parishes and schools and possibly be used as a cudgel against an already marginalized group of people is also concerning. It’s not difficult to imagine a bishop tightening restrictions on gender identity in schools, citing this document, causing feelings of ostracization and perhaps even bullying among children and adolescents who are questioning their gender identity or sexual orientation. 

Pope Francis demonstrates often that he wants the church to be more merciful to the LGBTQ community, including as recently as November, when a group of transgender activists from Rome were invited to the Vatican for lunch to take part in the church’s commemoration of the World Day of the Poor. As the Associated Press reported, Francis and a group of transgender women forged something of a friendship, initially prompted by challenges related to the pandemic. They seemed to have kept up that relationship, resulting in their invitation to the Vatican.

One of the participants told the A.P. how much the pope’s gestures, including a decision that allows transgender Catholics to be godparents, meant to her.

Any church door open to LGBTQ people cannot be taken for granted.

“Before, the church was closed to us. They didn’t see us as normal people, they saw us as the devil,” Andrea Paola Torres Lopez, a Colombian transgender woman known as Consuelo, told the A.P. “Then Pope Francis arrived and the doors of the church opened for us.”

One lesson that has stuck with me in my decade of reporting on LGBTQ issues and the Catholic Church is that any church door open to LGBTQ people cannot be taken for granted. Those cracked doors are open because of the courage of generations of LGBTQ Catholics who told their stories, who held fast to their baptismal rights and responsibilities and who looked at future generations when they refused to let those doors be shut.