Gender-Affirming Surgery Threatens ‘Unique Dignity’ Of A Person – Vatican

In a new statement signed off and approved by Pope Francis, the Vatican issued a strong caution against “gender theory” and stated that any gender-affirming operation risked violating “the unique dignity” of a person.

The proclamation, titled “Dignitas Inifinita” (Infinite Dignity), addresses a variety of dangers to human dignity, such as poverty, the death penalty, war, assisted dying, abortion, sexual abuse, and women’s abuse.

The Vatican doctrinal office issued the article on Monday, saying that attempts to hide “the sexual difference between man and woman” should be resisted.

“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” it adds.

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On abortion, it strongly reiterates what the pontiff has said in the past, that the “defence of unborn life is closely linked to the defence of each and every other human right.”

Pope Francis has previously spoken out firmly against gender ideology, calling it “ugly” for erasing what he believes are distinctions between men and women.

Francis in this new document describes gender theory as a form of “ideological colonisation” that “intends to deny the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings: sexual difference” which it says is “the most beautiful and most powerful of them.”

Gender-affirming surgery, it adds, is to be avoided because “the body serves as the living context in which the interiority of the soul unfolds and manifests itself” but the document says medical intervention is permitted for those with “genital abnormalities.”

The text also discusses surrogacy, which it claims “violates” both the dignity of the child and the woman, who “becomes a mere means subservient to the arbitrary gain or desire of others.” Pope Francis recently asked for the practice of surrogacy to be outlawed.

“On assisted dying, the document reiterated the church’s opposition to euthanasia.”

There is a widespread notion that euthanasia or assisted suicide is somehow consistent with respect for the dignity of the human person,” the document states. “However… it must be strongly reiterated that suffering does not cause the sick to lose their dignity, which is intrinsically and inalienably their own.”

A Gentle Reminder: Every obstacle is a stepping stone, every morning; a chance to go again, and those little steps take you closer to your dream.

Nnamdi Okoli