The Bishop Behind the Vatican’s Transgender-Welcoming Document on Sacraments

When the Vatican affirmed transgender people could be baptized in 2023, officials were responding to one bishop’s questions about LGBTQ+ people and the sacraments. Since then, Brazilian newspaper El País profiled that bishop, the details about how the Vatican’s instructions came about, and what the whole story might mean.

As reported last November, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released a responsum ad dubia, or document answering questions, about whether transgender people, including those who have undergone a medical transition, can be baptized as Catholics, as well as serve as godparents and witnesses to marriage. The responsum, which also addressed queer couples, was largely forgotten as just weeks later, that same dicastery would release a declaration on blessings, Fiducia Supplicans, that would ignite a debate over blessing LGBTQ+ couples that continues today.

The dicastery’s November responsum is, however, a positive step that must be remembered—and how it came about began far outside Rome. According to El País:

“[T]he process began in Brazil, in the office of a bishop in São Paulo. Specifically, it started with a letter with six questions addressed to the [then-]Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and signed by Bishop José Negri, of the diocese of Santo Amaro, in the southern part of Latin America’s most populous city. . .

“[The bishop] raised the six questions clearly and directly. The first question: ‘Can a trans person be baptized?’ The fourth inquiry: ‘Can a same-sex couple appear as the progenitors of a child to be baptized if he or she was adopted or conceived through other methods, such as surrogacy?’ The response from the body that deals with the Church’s doctrinal and theological questions — the former Inquisition — was also concise in its three-page answer, which included multiple footnotes.

Four months after Negri submitted his questions, the dicastery’s response was made public after obtaining papal approval. According to El País, the bishop himself has declined to comment or be interviewed about either the questioning process or its outcome.

Initially, some observers believed the questions about LGBTQ+ people and the sacraments posed to the doctrinal office came from more-affirming bishops seeking to expand inclusive pastoral care. But the El País report muddles that idea, reflecting the complex reality of bishops in the church of Pope Francis:

“[Like] Argentina’s Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Negri is in favor of the Catholic hierarchy ‘listening to the peripheries,’ be they urban, social or economic. Previously, he was bishop in Blumenau, in the whitest part of Brazil, a land colonized by German immigrants who preserve the language and even celebrate Oktoberfest. A few years ago, he chaired the Brazilian Episcopal Conference’s child protection committee; at the time, he pledged that the Church would firmly confront the sexual abuse in its midst.

“The bishop of Santo Amaro ‘is on the most conservative spectrum’ of the Church in Brazil and ‘is prudent as a bishop,’ explains Paulo Ricardo, of the Institute of Religious Studies (ISER). The diocese over which he presides includes some two million Catholics and owes its fame to Father Marcelo Rossi, of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement, which was a true mass phenomenon in the 1990s thanks to his records, a Latin Grammy, show masses and modern methods of evangelization.”

El País notes that the question of LGBTQ+ people is arising across the Brazilian church, where legal rights are highly advanced, but anti-transgender violence is at record levels. Even if Bishop Negri is more conservatively inclined, his fellow Catholics are grateful for his questions and the Vatican’s response:

“Luis Rabello, 35, the executive secretary of the Brazilian network of LGBTQ+ Catholic groups, welcomes the changes introduced by Pope Francis because ‘they serve to give visibility’ to a group that ‘has always existed in the Church, both among the faithful and as catechists.’ He is happy that the Vatican has finally adopted norms to resolve issues that until now have been handled on a case-by-case basis. . .

“[Rabello] maintains that Bishop Negri’s questions for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith responds to a social demand. ‘LGBTQ+ people are demanding more space in the Church; they are demanding respect.’ He explains that it is a trend that has grown in recent years with social changes and the LGBTQ+ community’s inspired by the current Pontiff’s gestures. Rabello notes that Pope Francis has received trans people in the Holy See. A civil servant by profession, he believes the recent Vatican rulings are ‘very important for educating priests, bishops…'”

From Brazil, Bishop Negri’s questions prompted clarity about accepting trans people fully in the church’s sacramental life. From Brazil, Pope Francis made his famous “Who am I to judge?” remarks in 2013. And from Brazil, with its more than 120 million Catholics, it seems LGBTQ+ ministry will only continue to grow and even come to lead Latin America and the world in doing so.

—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, March 23, 2024