NY Times: Vatican Says Gender Change And Fluidity Are Threat To Human Dignity; WSJ: Pope Francis Slams Door On 'Cafeteria Catholics'

New York Times, Vatican Document Casts Gender Change and Fluidity as Threat to Human Dignity:

The statement is likely to be embraced by conservatives and stir consternation among L.G.B.T.Q. advocates who fear it will be used as a cudgel against transgender people.

The Vatican on Monday issued a new document approved by Pope Francis stating that the church believes that gender fluidity and transition surgery, as well as surrogacy, amount to affronts to human dignity.

The sex a person is assigned at birth, the document argued, was an “irrevocable gift” from God and “any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.” People who desire “a personal self-determination, as gender theory prescribes,” risk succumbing “to the age-old temptation to make oneself God.”

Regarding surrogacy, the document unequivocally stated the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition, whether the woman carrying a baby “is coerced into it or chooses to subject herself to it freely.” Surrogacy makes the child “a mere means subservient to the arbitrary gain or desire of others,” the Vatican said in the document, which also opposed in vitro fertilization.

The document was intended as a broad statement of the church’s view on human dignity, including the exploitation of the poor, migrants, women and vulnerable people. The Vatican acknowledged that it was touching on difficult issues, but said that in a time of great tumult, it was essential, and it hoped beneficial, for the church to restate its teachings on the centrality of human dignity.

Even if the church’s teachings on culture war issues that Francis has largely avoided are not necessarily new, their consolidation now was likely to be embraced by conservatives for their hard line against liberal ideas on gender and surrogacy.

The document, five years in the making, immediately generated deep consternation among advocates for L.G.B.T.Q. rights in the church, who fear it will be used against transgender people.

New York Times, Four Takeaways From the Vatican’s Document on Human Dignity:

The document restated the Roman Catholic Church’s rejection of abortion, gender fluidity and transition surgery.

1. The pope’s inclusivity has limits. ...
2. Gender fluidity erodes human dignity, the document says. ...
3. The Vatican ties surrogacy to commercialization. ...
4. The sex a person is born with is seen as a gift from God. ...

Wall Street Journal Op-Ed:  Pope Francis Shuts Down the Cafeteria, by Raymond J. de Souza (Priest, Ontario):

The pope affirms that Catholics can’t pick and choose between life and social ethics.

Is Pope Francis trying to close the cafeteria?

On an Easter Sunday appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Cardinal Wilton Gregory, archbishop of Washington, lamented that President Biden is a “cafeteria Catholic” who “picks and chooses dimensions of the faith to highlight while ignoring or even contradicting other parts.”

This week the Vatican published a “declaration” from its doctrinal office titled “Dignitas Infinita,” or “infinite dignity,” in which Pope Francis strongly affirmed the “inherent” dignity of every human being and identified a list of assaults against it: abortion, surrogate childbearing, euthanasia, capital punishment, poverty, war, the travails of migrants, human trafficking, sexual abuse, marginalization of the disabled and digital violence. ...

Mr. Biden likes Pope Francis on immigration but not abortion. He thinks the pontiff is bringing him a menu. Pope Francis, for his part, thinks the president mistakes table d’hôte for à la carte. ...

Is my body, my identity, something over which I exercise autonomous power, so that my will can determine what and who I am? Or do I have a nature that I and others must respect? While that needn’t be a theological argument, it often is. For if I can remake myself into something contrary to my given nature, I desire to be a creature no longer but a creator, a god.

The debate over dignity is a debate about who God is. The Catholic answer: Only God is God—we aren’t.

• National Review, Vatican Declares Transgender Surgeries, Surrogacy, Gender Theory Threats to Human Dignity
• The New Yorker, The Vatican’s Statement on Gender Is Unsurprising, and a Missed Opportunity
• NPR, The Vatican Says Surrogacy and Gender Theory Are 'Grave Threats' to Human Dignity
• Religion News Service, New Vatican Document Combines Modern Transparency With Eternal Teaching
• Religion News Service, New Vatican Document Condemns Gender Theory, Surrogacy
• Religion News Service, Transgender Catholics Say New Vatican Document Shows No Understanding of Their Lives
• Wall Street Journal, Vatican Calls Sex Change Threat to Human Dignity
• Washington Post, Vatican Says ‘Sex-Change Intervention’ Risks Threatening Human Dignity

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