Vatican’s Doctrine Chief on Criminalization Laws: “When I Read Them I Wanted to Die”

At a press conference to release the Vatican’s new declaration on human dignity, which made headlines for condemning gender theory and gender-affirming healthcare, the cardinal who heads the doctrin office also made positive comments about homosexuality. Yet, he doubled down on the declaration’s anti-transgender aspects, too.

Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, made his remarks on Monday while presenting Dignitas Infinita, a wide-ranging declaration about the inherent and inalienable dignity of each person. Catholic LGBTQ+ advocates have strongly criticized the declaration for its negative appraisals of “gender tTheory” and “sex change,” which reveal the Vatican’s flawed understanding of gender identity and a failure to engage transgender and nonbinary people in its development.

However, during the press conference, which was his first as prefect, Fernandez highlighted another section in the declaration, which reiterated the church’s condemnation of discrimination and criminalization based on sexual orientation. He also spoke positively about the dicastery’s previous declaration, Fiducia Supplicans, on blessing couples in “irregular” situations, and questioned the language church teaching uses about homosexuality. According to Vatican News:

“‘We are in favor of decriminalization! There is no doubt,’ exclaimed Cardinal Fernández. [This] viewpoint [was] already expressed by many bishops and which the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has now reiterated, denouncing the violence contemplated at a legal level in some countries, or allowed, ‘as if nothing were happening.’

“‘We are facing a big problem’ and ‘an attack on human rights,’ he said, expressing his ‘astonishment’ at having read comments from Catholics blessing the laws against gays issued by the military government of a certain country: ‘When I read them I wanted to die.’

“To those who pointed out that perhaps the Catechism of the Catholic Church should be changed, which considers homosexual acts ‘intrinsically disordered’ (something that, in the opinion of many, would fuel violence against homosexuals), the head of the Dicastery replied that [the term] ‘intrinsically disordered’ is indeed ‘a strong expression… It needs to be explained a lot, perhaps we could find a clearer expression.’

“However, he suggested that at the root of this is the intention to reaffirm that ‘the beauty of the encounter between man and woman who can be together and have an intimate relationship from which new life is born, is something that cannot be compared with another. Homosexual acts have a characteristic that cannot even remotely reflect that beauty.'”

Asked why he included Fiducia Supplicans in his remarks at the press conference, Fernandez explained:

“[Blessings], he suggested, is an issue ‘certainly less central, less important’ but still ‘at the heart’ of Jorge Mario Bergoglio who ‘wanted to broaden the understanding of blessings outside the liturgical context to develop its pastoral richness.’

“‘He has the right to do so,” emphasized Cardinal Fernández, as he chose to reflect on the dwelling on the DDF’s latest declaration Fiducia Supplicans at the beginning of his intervention to clarify some issues related to the Vatican text. . .

“When a journalist suggested the Cardinal seemed defensive about Fiducia Supplicans, the Cardinal instead clarified: ‘The reality is that until yesterday I didn’t think of saying anything… but these days from the Vatican and from outside they told me: we cannot act as if nothing happened, as if we were escaping from reality with all the chaos that has happened. That’s why I expanded my speech.'”

At the same time, Fernandez doubled down on Dignitas Infinita’s condemnation of gender theory and gender transitions, which he claimed “impoverishes a humanistic vision” and therefore, “the idea of same sex marriage or the elimination of differences does not seem acceptable.” Of gender transitions, the cardinal commented:

“‘[It is a tendency] to want to create reality’ that leads the human being to feel ‘omnipotent’ and think ‘that with his intelligence and will he is capable of building everything as if there was nothing before him.’ The ‘seriousness’ of the issue ‘becomes special’ when it comes to children undergoing surgical or hormonal treatments: their freedom must first be ‘enlightened.’ He suggested that the discussing this issue and in the context of children, is so serious that it could require its own document altogether.”

Also speaking at the press conference were Monsignor Armando Matteo, secretary of the doctrinal dicastery, and Professor Paola Scarcella, a lecturer at Rome’s Universities Tor Vergata and Lumsa and who is also a disability rights advocate.

Previous Posts about Dignitas Infinita

“What Transgender Catholics and Their Allies Are Saying About Dignitas Infinita” (Bondings 2.0)

““A Painful Lack of Understanding”: Theologians Respond to Vatican’s Latest Declaration” (Bondings 2.0)

“The Strawman of “Gender Theory” in the Vatican’s New Document” (Fr. Daniel P. Horan)

“Vatican Document on Human Dignity Fails LGBTQ+ People” (New Ways Ministry)

“New Vatican Document Condemns Gender Transitions and Undefined ‘Gender Theory’” (Bondings 2.0)

—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, April 12, 2024

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