The Vatican published on Monday April 8 a highly anticipated new text dedicated to respect for “human dignity,” which denounces abortion, a supposed “gender theory” and surrogacy while defending the rights of migrants and people LGBTQ.
Called “Dignitas infinita” (“infinite dignity”, in Latin), this document of around twenty pages approved by Pope Francis can be understood as a way of healing the internal divisions within the Church, four months later the controversy sparked by the opening of blessings for homosexual couples, particularly in the conservative camp.
We find there the key themes of Jorge Bergoglio’s pontificate, such as war, migrant rights, poverty, ecology or social justice, associated among others with bioethical questions or linked to digital violence. The text, the fruit of five years of work, was published by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the powerful Vatican body responsible for dogma which lists cases of “concrete and serious violations” of dignity.
Surrogacy (GPA) is described there as “in total contradiction with the fundamental dignity of every human being”. “The legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a “right to the child” which does not respect the dignity of this child as a beneficiary of the gift of life,” believes the Vatican. He also sees “a very dangerous crisis of the moral sense” in “the acceptance of abortion in mentalities, in customs and in the law itself”.
“Ideological colonization”
For the first time in such a specific way, the Vatican forcefully denounces the supposed “gender theory,” described by Pope Francis as “very dangerous ideological colonization.” “Any sex reassignment procedure risks, as a general rule, threatening the unique dignity a person has been given from the moment of conception,” it reads. The document distinguishes between transition surgeries, which it rejects, and “genital anomalies” that are present at birth or develop later. These abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of medical professionals, the document states.
At the same time, the Church recalls the right to respect for LGBTQ people and denounces “the fact that, in certain places, many people are imprisoned, tortured and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation” . A long paragraph is devoted to violence against women. “The phenomenon of femicide will never be condemned enough,” says the Vatican.
This declaration “thus contributes to overcoming the dichotomy existing between those who focus exclusively on the defense of nascent or dying life, forgetting many other attacks on human dignity, and vice versa”, summarized Andrea Tornielli, editorialist of the official Vatican News media. Since his election in 2013, Pope Francis has insisted on the importance of a Church open to all, including LGBTQ faithful, but his efforts have encountered strong resistance.