Vatican clarifies its position on gender affirming surgery, calling for ‘greater care’ and a case-by-case approach

St. Peter's Basilica at The Vatican is seen at dusk in Rome, Italy on February 28. The Vatican appears to have modified its position against gender-affirming surgery and “gender theory” last year, raising the possibility of “exceptional situations.” (Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP via CNN Newsource)

The Vatican appears to have modified its position against gender-affirming surgery and “gender theory” last year, raising the possibility of “exceptional situations.”

This week the Vatican published a speech by doctrine chief Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández where he said, “there are cases outside the norm, such as strong dysphorias that can lead to an unbearable existence or even suicide. These exceptional situations must be evaluated with great care.”

The Argentinian prelate, speaking to a theology conference in Cologne, Germany, explained: “We don’t want to be cruel and say that we don’t understand people’s conditioning and the deep suffering that exists in some cases of ‘dysphoria’ that manifests itself even from childhood.”

In April last year, the Vatican issued a strong warning against “gender theory” and said that any “sex-change intervention” risks threatening “the unique dignity” of a person.

The document, signed by Pope Francis, focused on what it describes as a range of threats to human dignity, including poverty, the death penalty, war, assisted dying, abortion, sexual abuse, and the abuse of women.

Last year’s text stated that attempts to obscure “the sexual difference between man and woman,” including gender-affirming surgery, should be rejected. “It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” it added at the time.

While this week’s publication on the Vatican site acknowledges the possibility of gender dysphoria, it still makes clear that the church opposes the idea “that bodily-sexual identity can be the object of radical change, always subject to one’s own desires…”

Pope Francis has in the past welcomed a community of transgender women to his weekly general audiences while he signed off on a Vatican document permitting trans people to be godparents.

This comes as the ailing 88-year-old pope battles double pneumonia at Rome’s Gemelli hospital where he has been since mid-February, often working during the day.

From the hospital, the pontiff has still been making decisions such as calling a meeting of pope and cardinals to decide sainthood causes at an unspecified date.