The Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has indicated that transgender people can be baptized and can also be godparents and wedding witnesses. A key office of the Roman Curia explained that homosexuals living with another person can also be godparents and witnesses at a wedding.
A transgender person can be baptized and can also be a godparent and a witness at a wedding, said the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, responding to the bishop’s questions. Brazil Jose Negri.
The document with the answers, dated October 31, was published on Wednesday on the website of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the signatures of its prefect, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, and Pope Francis.
Transgender people can be baptized
The Vatican stressed that a transgender person who has undergone hormonal treatment or gender reassignment surgery “can receive baptism on the same terms as other faithful, provided there is no situation in which there is a risk of causing public scandal or confusion of the faithful.”
Moreover, it is mentioned that “under certain conditions” a homosexual person can be entrusted with the role of father or godmother after hormonal treatment or surgery.
It was also noted that “pastoral prudence requires that no danger of causing a scandal be allowed.”
When asked whether two homosexual people can act as parents of a child who is to be baptized and was adopted or was born by a surrogate mother, the Vatican dicastery replied: “For a child to be baptized, there must be a reasonable hope that he will be educated in the Catholic religion.”