Vatican says transgender people can be baptized, but offers caveats
Jeremiah Poff
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The Vatican‘s top office for the teachings of the Catholic Church issued new guidance this week clarifying that transgender people are able to receive the sacrament of baptism, but that gay people likely cannot act as godparents.
The document from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith was issued as a “responsa ad dubia,” or a formal answer to questions. Brazilian bishop José Negri had posed a series of questions to the Vatican regarding the administration of the sacrament of baptism to transgender people and to children raised by gay couples. The document also addressed whether or not gay and transgender people could serve as godparents or witnesses to weddings.
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“A transgender person, even if they have undergone hormone therapy and sex-reassignment surgery, can receive baptism under the same conditions as other faithful, if there are no situations in which there is a risk of generating a public scandal or disorientation among the faithful,” the document said.
Baptism in the Catholic Church marks the beginning of an individual’s journey as a Christian and is considered the most important of the seven Catholic sacraments.
The document said that children raised by gay people could be baptized in the Catholic Church but noted that “In order for the child to be baptized, there must be a well-founded hope that he or she will be brought up in the Catholic religion.”
When it came to whether a gay person can serve as a godparent, the document was less committal. Godparents, the Vatican said, must live “a life in conformity with the faith and the task he or she assumes.”
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The Catholic Church teaches that homosexual acts are sinful and “intrinsically disordered,” but that people with same-sex attraction should be treated with dignity and respect.
However, the document said that homosexual people can serve as a witness to a Catholic wedding.