A step forward is a step forward at least, still a long way to go sadly
Am I missing something? I was baptized way before I had a gender identity, were they going to retroactively un-baptize me?
It's unfortunate they won't, because I was too little to consent, but I definitely wouldn't have.
Many people choose get baptized later in life, usually after conversion.
There's also a few denominations of Christianity (albeit protestant ones) who only baptise teens and adults, as they believe baptism has to be a conscious choice rather than something done to an infant in order for it to be valid.
Yeah, almost mentioned them but they wouldn't be covered by the Pope's decisions, but you're right - and I assume in some catholic communities they might have similar practices even though that's a minority case.
Of course they wouldn't be covered by the Pope's decision. He isn't the leader of christianity, he's the leader of Catholicism.
Honestly one thing I'm tired of is people blaming the Vatican for the insane shit that evangelicals and fundamentalists do.
It's like getting mad at Taco Bell because Hardee's got your order wrong.
Yes, that's what I'm saying :)
There's a separate ceremony called Confirmation to let the person choose to believe when they're older, in both Catholicism and Protestantism. Usually at the age of eight to twelve, so it's not exactly a choice then either, but they could theoretically choose not to.
The being baptized part is relevant to converts, and the being a godparent part would have relevance for all transgender catholics.
Seriously, there are a lot of negative stereotypes about the Catholic church that I think Pope Francis is basically dunking pretty hard
Yeah I have to say that I generally don't know jack from shit when it comes to the Catholic church, living in an overwhelmingly Protestant country, and that's if people can even be bothered with religion, so all I really had were negative stereotypes. Don't often see the Catholic church in the news unless it's about something bad.
So this move definitely felt surprising to me, although eg. the part about baptizing transgender folks being OK as long as there's "no risk of causing a public scandal or disorientation among the faithful" was a bit, well… I guess funny is the wrong word. How does one assess the risk of a transgender person's baptism disorienting the faithful? What does thst even mean?
Nty plz not the holy water
This doesn't mean shit.
I was raised catholic. It's basically church doctrine that anyone is a child of God, and pretty much almost anyone can be baptized.
It doesn't mean you're not a sinner who's going to burn forever in hell. It's just the famous anti-lgbt talking point "hate the sin, not the sinner".
This will lead LGBT people to a false sense of security before they go straight up to conversion therapy.
🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
Click here to see the summary
The department, known as the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, was vague however, in response to a question of whether a same-sex couple could have a Church baptism for an adopted child or one obtained through a surrogate mother.
Bishop Jose Negri of Santo Amaro in Brazil sent the doctrinal office six questions in July regarding LGBT people and their participation in the sacraments of baptism and matrimony.
The three pages of questions and answers were signed by the department's head, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, and approved by Pope Francis on Oct. 31.
In response to a question of whether transgender people can be baptized, the doctrinal office said they could with some conditions and as long as there is "no risk of causing a public scandal or disorientation among the faithful".
The document said a person in a same-sex relationship could also be a witness at a Catholic wedding, the office said, citing current Church canonical legislation which contained no prohibition against it.
The response was less clear regarding persons in same-sex relationships and their role in baptism, which is the initiation into the Church for infants, children or adults.
Saved 61% of original text.
LGBTQ+
All forms of queer news and culture. Nonsectarian and non-exclusionary.
See also this community's sister subs Feminism, Neurodivergence, Disability, and POC
Beehaw currently maintains an LGBTQ+ resource wiki, which is up to date as of July 10, 2023.
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.