Pope Francis approved it last month after requesting that it also mention “poverty, the situation of migrants, violence against women, human trafficking, war, and other themes”, Fernandez said in a statement.
Gender theory
On gender theory, it said “desiring a personal self-determination ... 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 declaration said that “any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception”.
It acknowledged the possibility of surgery to resolve “genital abnormalities”, but stressed that “such a medical procedure would not constitute a sex change in the sense intended here”.
New Ways Ministry, an advocacy group for LGBTQ Catholics, criticised the document, saying its “outdated theology” would contribute to continued discrimination against non-heterosexual people.
“The Vatican is again supporting and propagating ideas that lead to real physical harm to transgender, nonbinary, and other LGBTQ+ people,” Francis DeBernardo, the group’s executive director, said in a statement.
The Vatican has, nevertheless, tried to reach out to transgender people, who have been cleared by the DDF to be baptised and serve as godparents, and have been among invitees to the Vatican.
Abortion, euthanasia, death penalty
Fernandez, a liberal theologian and friend of the pope, a fellow Argentine, defended Francis’ right to update Church positions in line with the times, noting how, in the past, it had gone from supporting to condemning slavery.
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“It now seems that Pope Francis cannot say anything different from what has been said before, as if the teachings of the Church had been permanently set by previous popes,” the cardinal lamented.
The declaration doubled down on the Vatican’s standing condemnation of abortion, euthanasia and the death penalty.
It also mentioned sexual abuse as a threat to human dignity - calling it “widespread in society”, including within the Catholic Church - as well as cyberbullying and other forms of online abuse.
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