Fernández: the Catholic Church defends dignity, but rejects gender ideology

Carol Glatz's article published on the website of America Media The Jesuit Review (USA) on March 6, 2025, freely translated by Luigi and Valeria De La Tenda di Gionata

The infinite and inalienable dignity inherent in every human being has practical consequences that include the protection of everyone's right to life from conception in the natural end and the opposition to the "technocratic" ideology of the genre, said the head of the Vatican doctrinal office.

"We do not want to be cruel and say that we do not understand the conditioning of people and the profound suffering that exists in some cases of" dysphoria "that manifests itself since childhood," said Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the doctrine of the faith.

Those who experience a profound dysphoria, or a state of intense emotional unease or deep anguish, represent "exceptional situations (which) must be evaluated with great attention", said in a speech held during a conference organized in mid -February by the University of Catholic Theology of Cologne in Germany.

What the Church opposes is "the ideology that usually accompanies many decisions of change of sex", which the Cardinal said to be an ideology that claims "omnipotence" and refuses to recognize the reality of his body as a gift, said in his speech, published on the website of the Dicastery in Italian and German.

The cardinal took part in video connection to the conference, dedicated to Catholic doctrine on human dignity, presenting a document that offers "some clarifications" on the meaning of the "infinite dignity" and the "ontological dignity" of the person as it was presented in Infinite Dignitas, a document published in April 2024 by the Dicastery and approved by Pope Francis.

The document had aroused some questions about the nature or source of infinite dignity and how it could apply to finished beings, while others had criticized the condemnation of the so -called "genre theory" and the sex change procedures contained in the document.

The Cardinal tried to face these points by clarifying that the Catholic Church proclaims and defends the "ontological dignity" of the human person, a dignity that cannot be given or removed and is immutable, regardless of the state, the skills or circumstances in which the person is found.

It should not be confused with moral, social or existential dignity, which can be imperfect, lost or compromised, he said. For example, a human being does not lose his ontological dignity even when he lives a "non -dignified" life in a moral or social sense, as in a state of sin or in extreme poverty. Some conditions "are not dignified", as they do not correspond to the nature of the human person loved by God and called to love others, said the cardinal.

The "ontological reality" of a dignity, inherent in human nature and donated by God, who "has not decreased or influenced" by any circumstance, said, is the basis to support and protect the dignity of all human beings, even if they are unconscious, not yet born, differently skilled, infirm or in the arms of death.

This interpretation of dignity is contrary to "the interpretation of most of the current society and of the whole history", he said, that he prefers to ignore, remove or invent human rights to his liking or according to the decisions of the powerful.

Certainly the Infinite Dignitas He denounced the discrimination against LGBTQ+ people and the situations in which people are "imprisoned, tortured and even deprived of the good of life only because of their sexual orientation", but also condemned the "theory of genre" as "extremely dangerous, since it cancels the differences in its claim to make everyone the same". The document stressed that it keeps in mind that the sex change interventions risk "threatening the unique dignity that the person has received since conception".

In his speech of February 17, the Cardinal said that the document invites the faithful to be aware of the consequences of believing that "the human body shares the dignity of the" image of God "", as the catechism of the Catholic Church teaches.

In this vision, "the change of sex is not simply an external modification or a procedure comparable to normal cosmetic surgery or surgery to treat a disease," he said. "It concerns the claim of a change of identity, of wanting to be another person."

The document, he said, "does not exclude that there are cases outside the norm, such as situations of severe dysphoria that can lead to unbearable existence or even suicide", which require to be evaluated "with great attention".

"What we are saying is that the ideology that usually accompanies so many decisions of change of sex implies the denial of one's own reality experienced as a gift, with the idea that body-sexual identity can be the subject of radical change, always subject to one's desires and claims of freedom", he said.

*Carol Glatz is among the main correspondents of Catholic News Service (Washington DC-Baltimora), a leading agency for religious news. Its mission is to report in a complete, fair and free way on the involvement of the Church in today's world.

Original text: VATICAN DOCTRINE CHIM: DIRECTY LOWS AT HEART OF CHRCH'S SLACE ON GENDER