It’s not often we agree with Pope Francis on social issues, but credit where it’s due, he knocked this one out of the park.
(At least on the big issue we’re highlighting here, anyway.)
Last week, the Vatican handed down an official declaration, updating the Catholic Church’s positions in light of new questions that have been raised. It’s a fairly dense document covering a lot of ground, some of which will be more controverial than others, some of which will be particular to Catholic belief, while others will apply to Christian views more generally.
We will leave a fulsome discussion of the entire contents to others whose calling and profession takes them into such deep waters, we would call attention to a section in particular that directly addresses one of the burning questions of the age.
In light of this doucment, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi will find their political carreers on a collision course with their faith… not just for the traditional Roman Catholic position on abortion, which is maintained, but for the very specific and laudible way it defends its position on traditional understandings of sex differences.
The document itself, “Dignitas Infinita, On Human Dignity” is structured a little like the catechism, in a series of numbered paragraphs. In this case, after the preamble, the numbered paragraphs are grouped by topic.
Paragraphs 55 through 60 express the official Catholic position on gender… and it will NOT sit well with the activist class. Sections are strongly worded enough that even the Babylon Bee had something to say about it.
Vatican Reluctantly Sides With God On Gender Theory https://t.co/7AsKHTUDs9 pic.twitter.com/INAXBTnRQf
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) April 8, 2024
55. The Church wishes, first of all, “to reaffirm 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.”[101] For this reason, 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.
56. At the same time, the Church highlights the definite critical issues present in gender theory. On this point, Pope Francis has reminded us that “the path to peace calls for respect for human rights, in accordance with the simple yet clear formulation contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose seventy-fifth anniversary we recently celebrated. These principles are self-evident and commonly accepted. Regrettably, in recent decades, attempts have been made to introduce new rights that are neither fully consistent with those originally defined nor always acceptable. They have led to instances of ideological colonization, in which gender theory plays a central role; the latter is extremely dangerous since it cancels differences in its claim to make everyone equal.”[102]
57. 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.
58. Another prominent aspect of gender theory is that it intends to deny the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings: sexual difference. 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.
59. In this sense, respect for both one’s own body and that of others is crucial in light of the proliferation of claims to new rights advanced by gender theory. This ideology “envisages a society without sexual differences, thereby eliminating the anthropological basis of the family.”[103] It thus becomes unacceptable that “some ideologies of this sort, which seek to respond to what are at times understandable aspirations, manage to assert themselves as absolute and unquestionable, even dictating how children should be raised. It needs to be emphasized that ‘biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated.’”[104] Therefore, all attempts to obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman are to be rejected: “We cannot separate the masculine and the feminine from God’s work of creation, which is prior to all our decisions and experiences, and where biological elements exist which are impossible to ignore.”[105] Only by acknowledging and accepting this difference in reciprocity can each person fully discover themselves, their dignity, and their identity.
Sex Change
60. The dignity of the body cannot be considered inferior to that of the person as such. The Catechism of the Catholic Church expressly invites us to recognize that “the human body shares in the dignity of ‘the image of God.’”[106] Such a truth deserves to be remembered, especially when it comes to sex change, for humans are inseparably composed of both body and soul. In this, the body serves as the living context in which the interiority of the soul unfolds and manifests itself, as it does also through the network of human relationships. Constituting the person’s being, the soul and the body both participate in the dignity that characterizes every human.[107] Moreover, the body participates in that dignity as it is endowed with personal meanings, particularly in its sexed condition.[108] It is in the body that each person recognizes himself or herself as generated by others, and it is through their bodies that men and women can establish a loving relationship capable of generating other persons. Teaching about the need to respect the natural order of the human person, Pope Francis affirmed that “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.”[109] 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.
A list of the headings will give some idea of the scope of the document:
A Fundamental Clarification
1. A Growing Awareness of the Centrality of Human Dignity
Biblical Perspectives
Developments in Christian Thought
The Present Era
2. The Church Proclaims, Promotes, and Guarantees Human Dignity
The Indelible Image of God
Christ Elevates Human Dignity
A Vocation to the Fullness of Dignity
A Commitment to One’s Own Freedom
3. Dignity, the Foundation of Human Rights and Duties
Unconditional Respect for Human Dignity
An Objective Basis for Human Freedom
The Relational Structure of the Human Person
Freeing the Human Person from Negative Influences in the Moral and Social Spheres
4. Some Grave Violations of Human Dignity
The Drama of Poverty
War
The Travail of Migrants
Human Trafficking
Sexual Abuse
Violence Against Women
Abortion
Surrogacy
Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide
The Marginalization of People with Disabilities
Gender Theory
Sex Change
Digital Violence
Conclusion
While a few of these topics would fit well with the left’s political agenda — the migrant issue in particular — it’s absolutely devastating to the gender agenda they are so devoutly committed to serving.
As the elections approach, it would be interesting to see how subsets of Catholics who have been traditionally more left-leaning grapple with the stark choice between the official Church position on this issue and the aggressive support of the opposite position by activists and apostates like Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi.
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