The Vatican has announced that transgender persons can be baptised in the Catholic Church as long as it does not cause scandal or “confusion.”
Trans individuals can also be godparents at baptisms and witnesses at weddings, according to the Church’s doctrinal office.
The action follows Pope Francis’ efforts to make the Church more friendly to LGBT persons.
In July, the Pope informed a transgender person that “even if we are sinners, he (God) draws near to help us.”
The Vatican’s revised position comes after Brazilian Bishop José Negri sent a letter to the Church’s Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith with six questions about LGBT individuals and their participation in baptism and marriage.
On Wednesday the department posted on its website three pages in response, which was signed by the dicastery’s head – Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández – and with the approval of Pope Francis.
It states that a transgender person – including those who have undergone hormonal treatment and gender reassignment surgery – can receive baptism under the same conditions as other believers “if there are no situations in which there is a risk of generating public scandal or disorientation among the faithful”.
The document also explores Bishop Negri’s other questions, including whether trans people can be a godparent. It says that where an adult has undergone hormone treatment and gender reassignment surgery they may be a godfather or godmother.
But it goes on to state that priests have the discretion to refuse such a request if “there is a danger of scandal, undue legitimisation or disorientation in the educational sphere of the church community”.
The latest instruction for Catholic clergy comes after the Pope suggested last month that same-sex couples could receive a priest’s blessing, saying such a request could be considered with “pastoral charity.”
However, Francis maintained that same-sex relationships were remained “objectively sinful” and that the Church would not accept same-sex marriage.