Pope Provides Sr. Jeannine a Clarification of “Dignitas Infinita”
Pope Francis and Sister Jeannine Gramick at their meeting in the Vatican on October 17, 2023.
The following reflection is from Sister Jeannine Gramick, SL, co-founder of New Ways Ministry.
I have been very sad since April 8, 2024 when the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith promulgated Dignitas Infinita, the Declaration on Human Dignity. I have felt the immense grief among LGBTQ people and their families and friends. This document states many beautiful and essential truths, but the section on Gender Theory, which condemns “gender ideology,” is harming the transgender people I love.
I wrote a note to Pope Francis to tell him about my sadness and my disappointment with the use of the concept, “gender ideology.” He responded by sharing his understanding of this idea—an understanding that I had not heard before.
Pope Francis wrote:
“Gender ideology is something other than homosexual or transsexual people. Gender ideology makes everyone equal without respect for personal history. I understand the concern about that paragraph in Dignitas Infinita, but it refers not to transgender people but to gender ideology, which nullifies differences. Transgender people must be accepted and integrated into society.”
He then suggested that I read a novel by Robert Hugh Benson, entitled The Lord of the World which, he said, depicts “this movement of canceling differences.” Pope Francis had talked publicly about this 1903 British novel on a flight back from the Philippines in 2015. He told reporters about this futuristic tale which depicts a world where godless secularism is foisted upon those who believe in traditional morality.
Pope Francis calls this suppression of differences “ideological colonization” and believes that “gender ideology” is an example of it because differences among people are not respected. Repeating Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, Dignitas Infinita asserts that gender ideology “envisages a society without sexual differences” (par. 59).
I wrote to our beloved pope again, telling him that, unfortunately in the U.S. (and elsewhere in the world), “gender ideology” has a different meaning. It does not mean nullifying or not respecting differences. Quite the opposite is true: those who use that term do not consider or respect a person’s history and experience of gender. I believe that people who use the term “gender ideology” have most likely never accompanied transgender persons.
I told Pope Francis that, many years ago, I could not understand why some transgender people seek “sex-change interventions,” a term used by Dignitas Infinita to describe what health care professionals call “gender affirming medical interventions.” But I have not lived their lives, nor have I had their experiences. However, I have listened to their stories. And I ask myself, “How must it feel to live in a body with an identity contrary to how you believe God created you in your soul?”
Transgender people do not wantonly decide that their gender identity differs from their bodily appearances. They make this decision after much soul-searching, reflection, distress, and pain. The Church should aid in removing the pain so the person can become one in mind and body as God intends. If “it is in the body that each person recognizes himself or herself,” as Dignitas Infinita (par. 60) asserts, what a serious burden the Church is placing on the person who does not recognize themselves in the body of their birth!
Transgender persons do not erase or deny sexual or gender differences. It is precisely because a transgender person knows that there are gender differences that the person realizes that their body does not match their soul. If “the body serves as the living context in which the interiority of the soul unfolds and manifests itself,” (par. 60) as Dignitas Infinita states, then the Church needs to help people become one in mind and body to reflect their soul. The Church should support these interventions when they help the person to become one in mind, body, spirit, and soul.
In summary, Pope Francis is rightly concerned that society not make “everyone equal without respect for personal history.” But in our culture, those who use the term, “gender ideology,” do just that by not accepting differences in how persons perceive their gender identity. People who use this term thus make everyone equal by not respecting people’s individual, personal histories.
Oh, what a major problem we have when the same words mean different things to different people!
I continue to hope. I hope that thousands—no, millions—of Catholics who love their transgender relatives and friends will tell their loved ones, their parish priests, their bishop, and all who will listen that Pope Francis wants transgender people to be “accepted and integrated into society,” as he wrote to me. Let’s say it as loudly as we can: Pope Francis does not want us to “nullify differences.” He wants us to “respect personal history.”
Since the term “gender ideology” is being used in the opposite way from how Pope Francis understands it, let’s just purge those words from our vocabulary and, instead, start honoring differences. In fact, while we’re at it, let’s work to eradicate those words and what they imply from all our church documents.
—Sister Jeannine Gramick, SL, New Ways Ministry, May 1, 2024
Additional Information and Resources
For more perspectives on Dignitas Infinita and LGBTQ+ issues, see the following resources from New Ways Ministry:
“What Dignitas Infinita Ignored: Perspectives on LGBTQ+ Dignity” — This panel conversation about the document, its impact, and how LGBTQ+ Catholics and allies proceed from here, especially in light of the Synod on Synodality, was hosted by New Ways Ministry in April. The conversation featured theologians M. Therese Lysaught and Craig A. Ford, and transgender Catholic writer Maxwell Kuzma. A recording is available here.
Commentaries on Bondings 2.0 — In the weeks after the declaration’s release, this blog published the reactions of a number of LGBTQ+ Catholics, theologians, pastoral workers, and allies. Some of those posts are listed below. The blog’s full coverage of Dignitas Infinita is available here.
Fr. Daniel P. Horan, OFM, “The Strawman of “Gender Theory” in the Vatican’s New Document”
“What Transgender Catholics and Their Allies Are Saying About Dignitas Infinita”
“’A Painful Lack of Understanding’: Theologians Respond to Vatican’s Latest Declaration”
New Ways Ministry, “Vatican Document on Human Dignity Fails LGBTQ+ People”
Subscribe to Bondings 2.0 — To receive daily updates on the latest Catholic LGBTQ+ news, opinion, and spirituality directly to your email, subscribe by clicking here.
Thank you very much, Jeannine, for helping to clarify Pope Francis’ stance. Very different from what I thought he was saying.
He might have a different understanding of “equal,” too. I believe we are all equal, but we are definitely different in many ways.
I recognize more and more how difficult it is to keep meaning when crossing different languages. We already have plenty of different meanings when using the same languages!
Thank you so much, Jeannine, for conducting this dialogue with Pope Francis. I pray that he will take your words into his heart and be willing to look at this issue with new eyes. Your explanation of how not recognizing oneself in one’s body of birth is clear and shows the path for Catholic teaching to be reconciled with compassion.
Thanks, Jeannine.
How wonderful that you and Francis began this dialogue years ago. You obviously respect and listen to each other. And that has made it possible for you to express the concerns of so many of us, and for him to clarify what he meant. And for you to continue the dialogue by informing him just what “gender ideology” means to those – inside and outside of the church – who use the term to attack our transgender sisters and brothers.
What a thoughtful piece. I have been composing a letter to Cardinal Gregory and Pope Francis in my head for several weeks after seeing that Cardinal Gregory “amplified” those sections on “gender ideology” in an interview with Crux. Your letter and reflections are spurring me to get those thoughts onto paper and in the mail. As I mother of a transgender person, it seems to me that our Cardinal, our church have much to learn from transgender and others in the LBGTQA+ community if they would allow themselves to come closer.
Yes I think we need to make a difference between Transgender people and Gender ideology. It is important to understand the Pope Francis lives in very secularised Western Europe where the situation is different as in most of the USA. People who say critical things around gender or insist that there are biologically speaking two gender can loose their jobs. We now have the phenomena of pronoun requirements where the same can happen. There are clear tendency to eliminate men and especially women from language. There conflicts around that e.g. in the Health Service of England. In Norway Lesbian activist Tonje Gjevjon got publicly renounced because she said men cannot be lesbians! In Switzerland where I originally come from, changing your sex legally is from age 16 as simple as changing the address on your driving licence. No psychological assessment is necessary. No throughout assessment needed as it is a Trans right we hear and children and teenagers are little adults it seems. The intense inner process that Sr Jeannine describes does not necessarily happen. So yes we have battles in Europe around this all. Not surprisingly there is now a growing number of De-Transitioners. That all is not helpful for Trans people and Trans Human right! I am aware there is a thin line to walk between asking critical questions and being supportive of adult Trans people which is important indeed.
I don’t think you understand the difference between transgender and non-binary people and so-called “gender ideology”. All the things you mention as bad things are good things.
Most cultures in the world have a history of recognizing more than two genders and honoring people that fit in them.
Implying that non-binary people do not exist or that trans-women are anything other than women is exactly part of the hurtful rhetoric that Jesus did not champion. And it is part of the hurtful rhetoric that drive many away from religion.
It is also good for there to not be additional barriers to medical care and name changes. It may not affect you, but it means a lot to the people it does affect.
I know many who are puzzled that permanent decisions like tattoos don’t require time and psych checks. We trust people to know what’s best for themselves and do not intrude legally on this. It should not be any different for transgender and non-binary people.
You mis-state about detransitioners. Not sure where you get your data from, but if it isn’t flat out made up, it is isn’t from legitimate sources. There are lots of legit data sources and studies out there. And there is talking to actual transgender and non-binary people and listening to to what they say. Something we’ve already determined Pope Francis needs to do more of.
This is comforting, and it clears up something that’s always puzzled me about Pope Francis saying “gender ideology” eliminates differences. It always seemed to me, as an American with an American understanding of this phrase, that the real people trying to eliminate differences were the ones urging gender conformity and trying to eliminate transgender identity. So it’s helpful to know Pope Francis means something completely different.
Dear Sr. Jeannine,
What a great and needed clarification for us to help us navigate this discussion.
You make clear the difference between the phrase “gender ideology” (which has been translated “nullify differences”) to what the Pope believes, i.e. that we “respect personal differences.” I so needed this. Thank you for your “voice in the wilderness.”
If this is true, it needs to be reissued with revised wording. Harm will be done as long as this document exists in this form.
He should take the opportunity to remove “intrinsically disordered” from our Church lexicon while he is at it.
“I’d love to hear him talk positive about gender minorities too. He still sounds stuck on the phrase “gender ideology”.”
I made that comment on one of Father Martin’s posts back in January 2022. Someone clicked like on it today so it popped up for me. I’m sorry but it all sounds so neatly tied in a bow. This kind of language has been an issue for a long time and there has been plenty of time to address it. I am no longer in a position to give a pass on things like this. It needs a remedy. It is long past the time where Pope Francis put in the work and starts sounding like he is actually listening when he talks with transgender and non-binary people.
An interesting development. It underscores the problem with talking about (and over) each other, instead of talking to (and with) each other. Thanks to Sister Jeannine for pursuing genuine dialogue with Pope Francis. The Vatican needs to start talking directly with transgender people about their lives before issuing any further statements … Period, full stop.
Jeannine,
Thank you for sharing this clarification, your correspondence with Pope Francis & your further insights based upon listening to our Trans siblings.
Kieran ofm
So, it sounds like Pope Francis and Sr. Gramick uphold the paradigm of a gender binary?
Would love to know with that in view, how the section about Gender Theory would be re-translated in plain English.
Sr. Gramick,
Thank you for taking the time to write a note to Pope Francis, and making his response known.
New Ways Ministry,
Thank you for publishing this piece.
As a dad of an adult transgender daughter, I’m grateful, but there’s still much more work that needs to be done – by Pope Francis and the Vatican.
In short, if Sr. Gramick can take the time to write a letter; if New Ways Ministry can take the time to publish such an important response; to provide clarity on this subject, then why can’t the Pope do likewise?
What would possibly keep him from carving out the time to write a statement? What would keep the Vatican from issuing press releases, making the clarifying statement know to the universal church?
I’m tired of excuses. In this case, there aren’t any.
This underscores why respectful dialogue is so critical. As human beings we are all and always in a state of learning regardless of our physical ages and the only way that can happen is if we are humble enough to acknowledge that and engage in dialogue with intellectual curiosity and an open mind.
With the recent webinar on Dignitas Infinita, would it be helpful to have a webinar discussing this clarification?