Transgender people can be godparents at Roman Catholic baptisms, witnesses at religious weddings and receive baptism themselves, the Vatican's doctrinal office said on Wednesday.
There's also a few denominations of Christianity (albeit protestant ones) who only baptise teens and adults, as they believe baptism has to be a conscious choice rather than something done to an infant in order for it to be valid.
Yeah I have to say that I generally don't know jack from shit when it comes to the Catholic church, living in an overwhelmingly Protestant country, and that's if people can even be bothered with religion, so all I really had were negative stereotypes. Don't often see the Catholic church in the news unless it's about something bad.
So this move definitely felt surprising to me, although eg. the part about baptizing transgender folks being OK as long as there's "no risk of causing a public scandal or disorientation among the faithful" was a bit, well… I guess funny is the wrong word. How does one assess the risk of a transgender person's baptism disorienting the faithful? What does thst even mean?
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The department, known as the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, was vague however, in response to a question of whether a same-sex couple could have a Church baptism for an adopted child or one obtained through a surrogate mother.
Bishop Jose Negri of Santo Amaro in Brazil sent the doctrinal office six questions in July regarding LGBT people and their participation in the sacraments of baptism and matrimony.
The three pages of questions and answers were signed by the department's head, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, and approved by Pope Francis on Oct. 31.
In response to a question of whether transgender people can be baptized, the doctrinal office said they could with some conditions and as long as there is "no risk of causing a public scandal or disorientation among the faithful".
The document said a person in a same-sex relationship could also be a witness at a Catholic wedding, the office said, citing current Church canonical legislation which contained no prohibition against it.
The response was less clear regarding persons in same-sex relationships and their role in baptism, which is the initiation into the Church for infants, children or adults.