CNA Newsroom, Feb 18, 2025 / 09:50 am (CNA).
The Vatican’s doctrine chief delivered a pointed critique of gender ideology at a theological conference in Germany on Monday.
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, addressed scholars at the Cologne School of Catholic Theology (KHKT) about gender ideology’s “claim to omnipotence.”
Speaking via video link in German, the cardinal rejected the notion that gender and bodily identity could be subject to radical change based on individual wishes and claims to freedom.
Transgender surgery, he argued, goes beyond mere external changes like cosmetic surgery, as it involves “the claim to a change of identity, to the desire to be a different person.”
Fernández criticized using technical means to “create an alternative reality at will.” While acknowledging the existence of severe cases of dysphoria that could lead to “an unbearable life,” he emphasized that such exceptional situations require careful evaluation.
“No anthropology regarding the human person equals that of the Church,” Fernández stated during the KHKT conference.
The Argentine cardinal referenced the dicastery’s recent document Dignitas Infinita on human dignity, explaining the concept inspired by Pope John Paul II’s words in 1980 in Osnabrück, Germany.
“God has shown us in an insurmountable way in Jesus Christ how much he loves each man and how immense is the dignity that he has conferred on him through him. Precisely those who must suffer from some physical or spiritual impediment must recognize themselves as friends of Jesus, as loved especially by him,” Fernández said, quoting St. John Paul II.
The conference, titled “The Catholic Foundation of Human Dignity,” aims to engage Catholic theology with other sciences and worldviews, KHKT Rector Christoph Ohly told Vatican News.
“With the topic of human dignity and human rights, we have a theme that concerns not just Christians but every human being,” Ohly said.
The multi-day gathering examines the nature of human dignity, its relationship to human rights, and current discussions about their expansion.
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1 “Speaking via video link in German, the cardinal rejected the notion that gender and bodily identity could be subject to radical change based on individual wishes and claims to freedom”. 2 “While acknowledging the existence of severe cases of dysphoria that could lead to ‘an unbearable life,’ he emphasized that such exceptional situations require careful evaluation”.
Now paragraph 1 is definitive, and rightly so. Although paragraph 2 leaves an entree to modification of paragraph 1. That allowance for modification has a vast spectrum of interpretation; whereas 1 appears to close the matter 2 opens it to change. We’ve dealt with exceptions to the rule in Amoris Laetitia. Exceptions based on personal conscience in concrete situations [existential] that mitigate culpability to the point of default for adultery, an intrinsic evil.
The result can be seen in Malta where bishops realized it’s not feasible for a priest or priests to make individual discernments with communities deciding a pass for one prohibition to the Eucharist for another. So Malta’s bishops have thrown up their hands and have for years since advised parishioners to simply follow their conscience. What then of walking together and careful discernment?The same outcome as the communion issue for divorced and remarried outside the Church. Just give it time.
This addendum clarifies the last paragraph:
The result can be seen in Malta where bishops realized it’s not feasible for a priest or priests to make individual discernments within parish communities deciding a pass for one prohibition to the Eucharist for another. So Malta’s bishops have thrown up their hands and have for years since advised parishioners to simply follow their conscience – as is virtually the case elsewhere. What then of walking together and careful discernment? As regards transgender question expect the same outcome as the communion issue for divorced and remarried outside the Church. Just give it time.