0:01

The Roman Catholic Church

0:03

has declared its opposition

0:05

to sex change operations

0:08

and surrogacy. The

0:11

Vatican said those

0:13

activities violate human

0:16

dignity. It

0:18

compared them to abortion

0:21

and euthanasia, saying

0:23

they reject God's plan

0:25

for human life. The

0:30

Vatican issued a

0:32

20-page declaration called

0:34

Infinite Dignity. The

0:38

document took five years

0:40

to produce. It

0:42

came four months after conservatives

0:45

reacted to Pope Francis'

0:48

support for same-sex

0:50

partners. Supporters

0:53

of gender theory say

0:56

that gender is more complex

0:59

than male and female. They

1:02

say a person's sex depends

1:05

on more than sexual

1:07

qualities that can be

1:09

seen. In

1:12

the document, the Vatican

1:14

repeats its rejection

1:16

of gender theory,

1:19

or the idea that a

1:21

person's gender can be

1:23

changed. It

1:26

says God created man

1:29

and woman as

1:31

biologically different, separate

1:33

beings, and

1:35

said people must not change

1:38

that plan or

1:40

try to make oneself

1:42

God. It

1:44

follows that any sex

1:46

change intervention, as a

1:48

rule, risks threatening the

1:51

unique dignity the person has

1:53

received from the moment of

1:56

conception. The document

1:58

says. It

2:01

notes the difference between

2:04

gender-changing surgeries, which

2:06

it rejects, and

2:09

medical operations to

2:11

correct genital abnormalities

2:14

that are present at birth or

2:16

that develop later. It

2:19

says such a medical

2:21

procedure would not constitute

2:24

a sex change. Researchers

2:28

for LGBTQ plus

2:31

Catholics criticized

2:33

the document as

2:35

outdated and harmful. They

2:38

warned it could lead

2:40

to violence and discrimination

2:43

against transgendered people.

2:47

In the United States, Republican-led

2:50

legislatures are

2:52

considering bills to

2:55

restrict sex change operations

2:57

on children. Francis

3:00

de Barnardo is

3:02

with the New Ways Ministry,

3:05

which supports LGBTQ

3:08

plus Catholics. He

3:11

said, as the document

3:14

talks about respect, honor,

3:16

and love for human life,

3:19

it does not apply this principle

3:21

to gender-diverse people.

3:26

The Vatican also declared

3:28

opposition to surrogacy, the

3:31

practice of implanting a fertilized

3:33

egg in a woman to

3:35

carry a fetus for someone

3:38

else, usually for

3:40

money. The

3:43

document calls the practice deplorable,

3:47

saying it violates the

3:49

dignity of the woman and the

3:51

child based on

3:54

the exploitation of

3:56

situations of the

3:58

mother's material needs. It

4:02

quotes Pope Francis as saying, A

4:05

child is always a gift

4:08

and never the basis of

4:10

a commercial contract. Consequently,

4:14

I express my

4:16

hope for an effort

4:18

by the international community to

4:21

prohibit this practice universally.

4:27

The document restates the

4:29

well-known Catholic position in

4:32

opposition to abortion, a

4:36

medical operation to end a

4:38

pregnancy, and

4:40

assisted suicide or

4:43

euthanasia. Cardinal

4:46

Victor Manuel Fernandez said

4:49

in a statement that

4:51

Pope Francis approved the

4:53

document after requesting

4:56

that it also include poverty,

4:59

the situation of migrants,

5:02

violence against women, human

5:05

trafficking, war, and

5:08

other themes. I'm

5:12

Mario Ritter, Jr.