Question Corner: What is church’s teaching on transgender issues?

Q: These days we hear so much about “trans people.” I expect our church is against the practice but I really have never heard anything “official” about the church’s position. What does our church say about it? Thank you.

A: It is true that, with transgender issues being a relatively new phenomenon in modern society, the church does not yet have an extensive teaching on this specific topic. But all of the church’s teachings on morality and on the nature of the human person are interconnected and build on each other, so we can still discern the mind of the church with respect to transgender issues. And it is worth noting that “gender theory” and “sex change” were briefly addressed in the March 2024 document “Dignitas Infinita” on the subject of human dignity in general.

It would not be accurate to say that the church is against “trans people” as people, because the church believes that they have the same fundamental dignity as any and every human person. Consequently, the church strongly condemns any kind of hatred or violence towards people who identify as transgender.

Pope Francis in his 2016 apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” states that: “The Church makes her own the attitude of the Lord Jesus, who offers his boundless love to each person without exception. … We would like before all else to reaffirm that every person, regardless of sexual orientation” — and thus, by extension, gender identity — “ought to be respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration, while ‘every sign of unjust discrimination’ is to be carefully avoided, particularly any form of aggression and violence” (no. 250).

And we as Christians are called to be sensitive to all those who are suffering in any way, which would include those who are experiencing emotional pain due to discomfort with their body.

That being said, the church is against any “gender ideology” that would separate the concept of psychological gender from biological sex; or which would propose that one’s sex could be changed through medical or surgical means; or which would hold that one’s bodily sex could be somehow wrong or mistaken in light of one’s self-perception of one’s gender. And in practical terms, the church is also against any medical intervention that would damage healthy organs in the absence of any true medical need.

As we read in “Dignitas Infinita”: “Teaching about the need to respect the natural order of the human person, Pope Francis affirmed that ‘creation is prior to us and must be received as a gift. At the same time, we are called to protect our humanity, and this means, in the first place, accepting it and respecting it as it was created.’ It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.”

The church’s teaching on these issues is based in part on our theology. For instance, in Scripture we read that: “God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Gn 1:27). That is, we as Catholics believe an important part of God’s plan for humanity involved creating two equal, but distinct and complementary, sexes.

But another component of the church’s teaching is based in the natural, biological sciences. The physical differences between men and women were obvious even to ancient observers, and are even clearer to us now thanks to modern medical science. For example, we know now that our maleness or femaleness is part of our DNA, meaning that every cell in our body is identifiable as male or female.

Although the proper scope of the church’s teaching authority is specifically faith and morals, the church’s goal is always to embrace the truth, regardless of whether that truth is known by faith, by logical reasoning or by modern scientific evidence.

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