Transgender individuals may be godparents at Roman Catholic baptisms, witnesses at non secular weddings and obtain baptism themselves, the Vatican’s doctrinal workplace stated on Wednesday, responding to questions from a bishop.
The division, often called the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Religion, was obscure nonetheless, in response to a query of whether or not a same-sex couple might have a Church baptism for an adopted little one or one obtained via a surrogate mom.
Bishop Jose Negri of Santo Amaro in Brazil despatched the doctrinal workplace six questions in July concerning LGBT individuals and their participation within the sacraments of baptism and matrimony.
The three pages of questions and solutions had been signed by the division’s head, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, and authorized by Pope Francis on Oct. 31. They had been posted on the division’s web site on Wednesday utilizing the Italian phrase for “transsexuals.”
Francis, 86, has tried to make the Church extra welcoming to the LGBT group with out altering Church teachings, together with one saying that same-sex attraction is just not sinful however same-sex acts are.
In response to a query of whether or not transgender individuals may be baptized, the doctrinal workplace stated they may with some circumstances and so long as there’s “no danger of inflicting a public scandal or disorientation among the many devoted.”
It stated transgender individuals may very well be godparents at a baptism on the discretion of the native priest in addition to a witness at a Church wedding ceremony, however the native priest ought to train “pastoral prudence” in his resolution.
“This is a vital step ahead within the Church seeing transgender individuals not solely as individuals (in a Church the place some say they don’t actually exist) however as Catholics,” Father James Martin, a outstanding Jesuit priest and supporter of LGBT rights within the Church, stated on X, previously often called Twitter.
Francis has met with transgender individuals and in July, he informed a transgender individual: “Even when we’re sinners, he (God) attracts close to to assist us. The Lord loves us as we’re, that is God’s loopy love.”
The doc stated a individual in a same-sex relationship may be a witness at a Catholic wedding ceremony, the workplace stated, citing present Church canonical laws which contained no prohibition in opposition to it.
The response was much less clear concerning individuals in same-sex relationships and their function in baptism, which is the initiation into the Church for infants, kids or adults.
The Brazilian bishop sought steering on whether or not a same-sex couple who had adopted a baby or obtained it from a surrogate mom might have that little one baptized in a Catholic ceremony.
The response stated that for the kid of a same-sex couple to be baptized, there needed to be “a well-founded hope that it might be educated within the Catholic faith.”
There was a equally nuanced response to a query whether or not an individual in a same-sex relationship may very well be a godparent at a Church baptism. It stated the individual needed to “lead a life that conforms to the religion.”
—Reporting by Philip Pullella; Modifying by David Gregorio